Two Peterborough-based organizations are receiving up to $74,495 in funding through the Ontario government’s EnAbling Change Program to promote accessibility and inclusivity.
The Council for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) is receiving up to $26,340 to expand its Time in My Shoes program to include a virtual reality program.
The experiential program promotes better accessibility for customers and employees in businesses and services by allowing participants to experience mobility challenges, vision loss, hearing loss and invisible disabilities.
The virtual reality component provides simulations that emulate what it is like to have a disability and do an everyday task like going to the grocery store. The Council for Persons with Disabilities has four simulations in production that focus on different disabilities.
Raymond Cho, Ontario’s minister for seniors and accessibility, attended a media event in Peterborough on Friday (February 25) where he spoke and later tried out the virtual reality demonstration.
“The Time in My Shoes program virtual reality experience is enabling people to have a first-person experience with a 21st-century technology,” Minister Cho said.
The media event, hosted by CPD director Lois Tuffin, was also attended by Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith, Peterborough councillor and former CPD board member Keith Riel, CPD chair Andrea Dodsworth, CPD executive director John McNutt, and CPD vice-chair Leslie Yee.
Yee announced a new CPD event called Capable Con, described as “a convention that opens the conversation about disability, teaches us about and creates community with those living with disabilities.”
It will take place on June 4, 2022 on the final day of AccessAbility Week.
Orchestras Canada is also receiving up to $48,155 to design and deliver six webinars called “EnAbling Change: Accessibility for the Performing Arts” to educate Ontario not-for-profit performing arts organizations about their legal obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
Two of the webinars have already taken place and the remaining four will be held from March to May. To view recordings of past webinars and to register for upcoming ones, visit the Orchestras Canada website at op.ca.
This story has been updated with photos from the media event.
