March is Disability Awareness Month. In Fishers, we’ve recognized it as such with a proclamation, but we wanted to do more to engage our community as we work to optimize accessibility throughout the City.
On Monday, March 23, we’ll host our first Twitter Town Hall on the topic of ADA accessibility in Fishers. Staff from our community development, engineering, public works, public safety and human resources departments will be on hand to listen to resident’s feedback and answer questions.
In 2011, the City created an ADA Transition Plan after completing extensive research on the accessibility of the public right of way, including sidewalks, curb ramps and street crossings. To help prioritize the areas that needed to be addressed, the City also established an ADA Task Force made up of Fishers residents. Over time, the Task Force has expanded its role, reviewing the accessibility of parks, programs, events and publicly owned buildings.
With the help of the Task Force and other disability rights advocates, we’ve made several updates to city services, programs and events, including:
- Movies in the Park presented by Xfinity now has closed captioning available for every movie.
- ASL interpreters are available for any public meeting upon 48 hours request for services.
- The Special Event Permit Application requires event organizers to confirm that their event complies with ADA standards.
- Our public safety departments use video relay interpreting (VRI) programs on iPads to FaceTime ASL or foreign language interpreters to communicate with victims in emergency situations.
- Currently, Brooks School and Holland Park playgrounds are ADA accessible and once complete, Flat Fork Creek Park will be ADA accessible.
- Changes were made to the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater and surrounding trails to make it accessible.
- Fishers Police Department added howlers to some of its vehicles so that deaf and/or hard of hearing individuals can feel the low frequency vibrations of sirens.
As we look to the future and continue working to optimize accessibility in the city, we plan to:
- Evaluate all parks and develop a transition plan to make them accessible.
- Evaluate all public buildings and develop a transition plan.
- Evaluate all public services, communications, programs and events and develop a transition plan to make them more accessible.
- Train city staff on standard operating procedures for ADA requests.
- Continue to update and reevaluate priorities set by the Transition Plan for the public right of way.
- Develop an ADA guidebook for the City comprised of all of the ADA transition plans for different areas/departments.
While we’ve made great strides in the past few years, we know this is only just the beginning. In order to make the city more accessible for everyone, we need your help. Join us this Monday for the Twitter Town Hall from 6-7 p.m. to share feedback and ask questions. If you’re a twitter user, join the conversation by using the hashtag #FishersAccessibility. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can follow along online and submit questions at www.fishers.in.us/FishersAccessibility.
