Making SSP Interpretive Signs Accessible to the Blind - Toronto Forestry

A number of years back one current member of DASSP and many members of FOSS were able to convince City of Toronto Forestry (Janette Harvey), that the interpretive signs throughout Sam Smith Park had not been installed in an inclusive fashion.

The signs were much too high for children and Disabled, and they were installed perpendicular to the ground, making them very hard to read for both reasons.

City of Toronto Forestry was extremely proactive in responding to our requests for modification, and today the beautiful signage is much lower and slanted for easy viewing and learning.

With the founding of DASSP, we have come to realize that we overlooked the needs of the visually impaired users of our Park.

We have already submitted a request for clarification from Toronto Forestry as to the City's policy on Braille signage, to conform with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with a view to a much needed remediation in the near future.

We will be following up again next week, and hopefully will be able to report good news in the very near future!

Down the road, once budgets improve and after some DASSP fundraising

Our member Vesty Roze, found a fantastic idea from Naples Italy, of a handrail written in Braille, that tells the story of the Gulf view from atop the castle upon which it rests! 

https://www.italiani.it/en/ingenuity-of-naples-the-handrail-that-tells-the-magic-of-the-gulf-to-those-who-cannot-see-it/

DASPP believes this would be a useful learning tool for Blind children, if Sam Smith Park had a Braille handrail on the lower rail of Observation Deck ! It could tell any number of wonderful stories of the Park to the kids !  We may have to wait a while, but good things come to those who wait, and work hard for them.