welcome we are here with our next edition of city connections and we are talking about a very special anniversary today it is this celebration of the twenty fifth the year after the americans with disabilities act was passed and we're and i think three four out of the five titles of the act and so there are quite knowledgeable on the technical side of the law so when people think about this act you kind of wonder what was life like for somebody with disabilities twenty six years ago that has kind of kept gradually changing should you kind of sum that up somehow yeah i think if if we were to encapsulate the spirit of park those are examples of physical access but we also talk about programatic access as well filling out forms a lot of things have moved to an online nature so you have to give thought to how a person with any given impairment if you will would access the internet any submission form whether it be here at city hall my own inquiry through our website as well and so there's all kinds of different things that that represent access if i was to jump back twenty six years ago when i was seventeen so i probably wasn't as dialed into it as i am today although i did grow up with a couple friends that had  disabilities you know access was to some degree quite limited largely because of our built out environment and the different impediments that would keep people from participating in the community a few well whether that be beautiful concrete steps on an old building such as this or whether it's certain elements in a park that might prohibit one from enjoying it  to the fullest the way that somebody with a disability might not so basically this act forced people to think in terms of what life is like if they walked in another's lack of thing yeah and that's it's tough to do that you know and we do a fair amount of training in awareness with corporate bodies whether it be you know the city of holland as a as an entity or you know herman miller hayworth other companies locally we train all across the state and we don't do experience full training on purpose because quite frankly if i get the opportunity to step back out of the moccasins if you will at the end of the day it really doesn't do justice to what it might be like to be a wheelchair user twenty four seven and so we try not to do that but rather you know bring awareness in different ways which is easily achievable and a lot of times it's about dialogue and walking people through situational stuff rather than again substituting them into a wheelchair  you know the americans with disabilities act quite frankly on the technical side you know it's about employment it's about you know not having discrimination in that employment environment because we believe strongly that people with disabilities have quite frankly ability in skills to bring to the equation and regularly do you know on the governmental side there's there's different mandates on how government governmental unit would approach  it's the residents of its community and making things accessible to them as well public accommodations things of that nature all kind of get folded in there to make sure that one were addressing the discrimination side of things and making sure that there's an essence of inequality of opportunity for to for participation but also that that physical built up environment as well so some people may think oh it when this was passed that meant all this government red tape and a bunch of expensive programs to make sure every person can do everything and have access to everything that's out there now but really the the law is that it's readily accessible the change could be readily accessible so sometimes a building may not be redone until it's renovated right like the civic center doesn't have an elevator can hardly believe that a building nowadays would be that way but it is that way and it didn't have to have an elevator it won't have to until we world of say a civic center that probably has seen no major update in thirty years at least and so you know when we take to renovating that particular think what is cool is that part of that change that doesn't happen overnight as well as the attitudinal change oh absolutely and we're blessed here i think to have a design community that one knows the a da inside now and they don't view it as in essence the be all end all they view it as you know look let's get there and then look above and beyond what that is to make it the most accessible thing possible because i think we all know that you and i as people that sometimes sit behind this diocese and adopt ordinances nine times out of ten are not perfect they're a great starting point and we find ourselves amending and adapting those over time the idea is great it's not perfect and much in the same way that you know when we redo central avenue bryan white or st engineer knows exactly what the a t f says and that's not enough for brian brian wants to go further and continues to go further with streets to make sure that it's doesn't just meet the spec but he's engaging with users and people that it really means something to to have it right in terms of slopes and grades and not required to follow this act but out of their own sense of responsibility and their compassion for parishioners and visitors many of them have put in elevators and put in accommodations and professor david meyer from hope college worked on how to do a hearing loop it within buildings so that you could put that in your church and i know many churches have that  you can use your hearing aid on a special click or whatever and you can hear much better than you ever could before yeah there's colleagues countless examples in our community where we've led in space you know and again probably for decades you know dr myer one of the nation's leading advocates for hearing loop technology we have here in loop in this very room that we sit in  right now so it's the flip of a switch with the right technology on a on a hearing aid you know our constituents can hear our dialogue clutter free if you will in a way that even you and i won't get to hear it on any given night in in that quite frankly amazing in there's more and more facilities opting into putting in hearing loops hope college has significant hearing loop interestingly enough you mentioned churches and  just recently a fourth reformed here in town took on a major initiative to make a rather old building i think one of our or first church buildings of their i light projects to make sure that that's accessible you know holland is known for a couple key denominations in the faith world both the r c a and the c r c have some connection points here in this city both denominations actually have a dedicated disability office if you will that goes nationwide to help churches be more inclusive of people with disabilities all types of disabilities whether it's intellectual disability developmental disabilities physical welcoming by the very nature of what they might do on a sunday morning sure and so it again you're dealing with a lot of old buildings but also just the nature of a service and noise in where interruptions may or may expressions if you will from people with certain types of disabilities and so you know those two nominations need to be celebrated because they they are taking it upon themselves to work with their church congregations and leadership to begin embrace the spirit of the a day but again go even above and beyond that to make sure that people feel welcome in those environments yeah and so a lot of times of it commendations that we make for people with disabilities also are good for people without those particular physical disabilities i don't think any of us has every ability so we all have areas of disability they just don't always project to be able to run and that will accommodate a lot of people you know yeah well there's a phrase that that we often use in the world of disability and that is if it's good for a person with a disability it's good for everyone  complete streets are a great example of that city island has a complete streets policy that that we've adopted and it's not an ordinance it's not something that that mandates we do every street project this way but it is in essence the benchmark or the reference point that we want to work against so that we can take our street projects further and snow melt curb cuts  great examples of things that a lot of times are designed with people with disabilities in mind but yet everybody benefits from i'm sure i think you know the width of sidewalks is a everybody the the bike lanes or the multi modal lanes that we put in a complete street projects that are you know a minimum of four feet wide affords the opportunity for a chair user to to be  in that thoroughfare with a level of safety it allows for a person with a walker a cane to be in that thoroughfare and so those are the types of examples where you see everyone benefiting working locally with an organization because we live so close to one of the the world's greatest fresh freshwater lakes you know recreation is one of those things that's key in our home town and working with an entity on exploring the idea of in essence inaccessible lift to get people into boats and interestingly enough yes that will help a person with a physical disability that has limited mobility but it might also help the eighty five year old that wants to keep on boating share and more than likely it will and so it will extend someone's recreation life a little bit a will face some type of disability at some point in our lives and so it's important to have the whole culture think that way and anybody that's had a broken leg or foot or has foot surgery you know outcomes that little know suddenly it's different yeah going down the sidewalk well our our governor this year got his own little i was a little yeah had his own experience with temporary disability with an achilles tendon  injury which those are certain significant yanar significant recovery times and rehabilitation and so over the way even that perspective changing and to his credit he's shown a lot of leadership even before that but even or so sense  in being an advocate for seen some system change in the state of michigan as it relates to people with disabilities and you're absolutely right it's not of they or them or us for it it's the entire of of society the number one in essence source of disability is aging yeah exactly it's day to day aging i believe it's seventeen percent of disabilities are things that you're born with so eighty three percent are things that we acquire yeah of those a large percentage are ones that just come from aging and so you know i don't know that it's on a list of disability for me but i've had a pretty significant knee surgery and on any given day you know you might well get my bad if you have a depends on the weather yeah exactly so you know that when i think back into into my life in the things that were barriers to my day to day activities you know having spent a part of my career as a golf professional i remember the day that i broke my arm and four spots and up with four pieces think about it is intensely but when we all become more and more aware we realize all yeah i have lived that yes it does confront us and we will all if we think hard about it quite frankly we all probably have disability in the first person of our world or in the second person sure now animals can help with disabilities and that's probably part of what this whole genre thinks about and you can have pee animals and service animals i was told there are only two service animals that are legal right yes yeah i think it's a miniature horses and dogs i think i see more dogs and i see a miniature horses but a we chuckle about that but there is some sort of specific need and i'm not super knowledgeable on that yeah i believe somebody on my team is more knowledgeable on it about about it than i am in you're right there are service animals that bring great value within the a da yeah best i that i know it doesn't mean that they're less important you know mental health issues are are more and more part of disability seventeen percent of every person that we worked with last year across started in our caseload if you will dealt with a mental health issue and so and that's on the on the rise it's only more and more that america is dealing with mental health issues in the good news is the stigma associated with those  illnesses is coming down and we continue to do more and more to bring those down there are people that's are are one of those things that it's probably not is probably as regulated if you will i don't know that the law is necessarily settled on that in terms of what's good what's bad what you got right i think there's some gray area there and you know it's one of those things we need to be mindful of it  truth be told you know people with disabilities have responsibilities as well as they have rights and so you know i don't know that there's anybody out there gaming the system with their therapy pat but we need to be sensitive to those around us your therapy cat could be somebodies cat allergy right so again it's it's in all of us not of a separation and so you know it's just been sensitive and being mindful know so i do think what you said that it it is a mindset that we passed with that law but as soon as a law is passed that doesn't mean everybody's mind changes you know and many times they may react the other way and they have to be convinced over time of the value to society the value to those with disabilities and actually the value to each of us and sometimes we learn the hard way because we had a car accident and now we are and we are and are all of what we thought would never happen to us and so it is a it is a good thing when we realize all that we are blessed with every day we wake up and realize also those that need our help and even if it a building doesn't accommodate people to be able to be sensitive to what could be hard about this you know how can i help this person next to me and to really care for people well in that you bring up a really good point it's important to note that you know by and large people with disabilities don't want our baby right what they want is is in essence an equal opportunity they want equal access and they they want they want to be  part of every day life respect right and so that that level of care needs to match up with the level of care we would give any human being right and so are most creative people are ones that have something blocking a part of their physical mobility and if we can get them over that little hump and lack a whole treasure yeah for whatever the business is or our organization it are absolutely and there's  you know as much as the the the act was about physical access it was about in that sense removing barriers for people with disabilities to bring their talents and their skills into the workplace into the community how can they be contributing members  society in ways that they were unable to be previous because we didn't have in essence the the legal attitude or just our own general attitude in life to make sure that we were giving folks an opportunity to participate in society and you know america's a pretty cool place where we are participatory government and we're all about what everybody brings to the table in terms of self  governance and in being able to advance this great experiment that is the american dream and so it's super important to understand that that the ability side of the equation creating a free flow of ability for people that have physical impairments or other types of disabilities can flow freely and our communities so we are celebrating this having then twenty five years and we'll probably be gone here another twenty five years lord willing and so as you look on the horizon for what could we do yet in the world of helping people with disabilities on disabilities in our city and our world what would you dream  yeah you know begin because it's about access and ability i would identify two things i would say that you know for people with disabilities to live fully independent lives in our communities a lot of times it boils down to you know having a source of income a job if you will and more and more employers again we've come a long way but employers more and more of them are training their eyes to in essence the t alents that lie within persons with this abilities truth be told there's some one healthy fears for the longest time about employing people with disabilities whether it was about accommodations most accommodations cost less than five hundred dollars and people are coming to realize that that small adaptations in the office space or in the work environment they're easy to achieve and they really cut loose the talent of a person with a disability more employers are looking into that the governor of michigan is is challenging major employers in the state to be looking to people with disabilities that are ready right now and they have college educations they have college degrees they've got work experience and they've got talent skills and so you know twenty five years from now my hope is that we've come much much further than we are today there is in there is a disproportionate rate of unemployment amongst people with disabilities and i want to say it's one in four at least that are unemployed and so that's a number that we need to change and in there are some great employers that are helping lead the way walgreens myers herman miller hayworth the list could go on and on that will flow i mean large corporations to small corporations mom and pop shops are all making a dent in that and that's awesome and we can go miles further and then i would say you know if i was to bring up one thing in the world of access it's the concept of approach with multiple people groups in mind whether it's the aging population people with disabilities and their awesome designs we've got a great architecture community here that knows universal design insight now they're hoping lead that way you know quite frankly in a nationwide way in helping promote the concept of universal design interestingly enough we have a homeowner that moved into holland i think of yourself back from colorado that took one of our older homes ny i think you're twenty twenty six twenty seven central in redesign the whole thing in universal design zero step approach and so you know that it's those types of things that i think will  move us closer to the end i don't know that it's a destination but an ongoing journey and it's things like that that help with school so if an employer wanted to have a percentage of their group of employees that would reflect the percentage of people with disability in michigan what would that be well yours your your most recent most recent census data suggests that maybe upwards of one in five want to go for people around you live with a disability the vast majority of those disabilities are things you will see yeah and so it's not going to be that the obvious wheelchair user that may have a physical disability but by and large a lot of them are are disability that you won't see could be a mental health issue it could be that hearing impairment it could be a vision impairment that there's no real visual indicator that that person as that impairment yeah and so it's probably close to one in four these days and employers are not setting quota if you will but they are setting goals to acquire more and more people with disabilities knowing that there's talents and you know it's one of those things i have a friend that we often talk about accommodations quite frankly employ it to increase the number of people with disabilities in a workforce and in my opinion it boils down to being ready to make accommodations in having a culture of awareness built up in your place of employment when it comes to accommodations each and every one of us gets one every day if not more of them we just don't see in the same way that we would see him or we perceive them for a person with a disability yeah right so it might be a large monitor for a person with a visual impairment i may not need that accommodation right however i have a desk chair that is clearly an accommodation for me it makes me comfortable lets me stay at my job need work lights the way that you and i might need them and so each and every one of us has an accommodation every day at work now we just look past them and over them a lot of times and so prayerfully someday that will be the case for those with disabilities in the workplace that is just thought of as you know what this is what it takes to have everybody included in the workplace and get the talents that we need here to get the job done absolutely and i'll be with the journey and i hope we can lead the way yeah yeah well thank you so much tied thank you for leading that like show disability network and helping us understand what it is what is the america and americans with disabilities act how is it worked i was changing our world and really sounds like it's changing it for the better you know there's miles to go but why are well on our way the city of holland a number of other communities around here again a lot of leadership a lot of people pushing forward in spaces and taking that nationwide and it's a privilege  leave it i follow more days than i believe in that's ok got a great group of folks out there that bring awareness you know who barriers everything that's great well thank you thanks for coming in and thank you for tuning in for this our latest edition of city connections if you'd be interested in seeing other ones that we have recorded over time you can go to a video of that city of island and view whatever you'd like about different issues we've talked about in ways that island is a great place to live thank you