The Municipality of Kincardine is taking a cue from the city of London for its own accessibility standards.
Kincardine Council is moving to adopt the Facility Accessibility Design Standards from London’s own framework for municipally owned facilities to support accessibility and inclusion.
Mayor Kenneth Craig says that council would get recommendations from municipal staff to move forward on new and renovated projects that fit within guidelines.
“If there is a report from staff or from the accessibility committee that says ‘we acknowledge that this is not up to the FAD standards,’ then the logical question is, ‘why isn’t it?'”
The motion that was passed on Wednesday evening did however say that the Municipality may opt not to follow the Facility Accessibility Design Standard if it is not technically and economically feasible to do so.
Craig says that there should be discussions during the planning phase of a project.
“I would expect that there would be a solid recommendation from staff. One of the questions you should always ask in any project is ‘How does it fit within accessibility standards?'”
According to the London standards do not apply to places like service rooms, janitor rooms, or crawlspaces.
In 2005, Kincardine had passed a resolution to same standards as London as a guide.