Accessibility Training for Facilitators and Educators

Centre des Organismes Communautaires (COCo)

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<H2>Introduction</H2>
Accessibilize Montreal and the Centre for Community Organizations (COCo) are excited to announce a half-day of training on accessibility for facilitators, trainers, and popular education practitioners. 
Aimed at facilitators, trainers, and popular education practitioners, this event will provide an interactive and practical introduction to creating learning spaces that are meaningfully inclusive of individuals with diverse minds, bodies, and communication styles. We will are also proud to announce the launch of our new resource, “A Facilitator’s Guide to Accessibility”, which will be made available to all of the participants.
Often, access for people living with disabilities is an afterthought or treated as a “checklist”. Our facilitators will be guiding participants to move away from this approach, and to reflect on how to change both their pedagogy, and, where applicable, organizational culture. This event will broaden common understandings of accessibility and the role it plays in a variety of contexts. Throughout, we will guide participants in thinking about how to create true collaboration with disabled communities and individuals, both those who are currently working in your organizations and those who are not.
Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people who experience disabilities. Our understanding of accessibility includes, but is not limited to, addressing questions of mobility, neurodiversity, learning difficulties, literacy, poverty, visual and auditory accessibility, chronic pain, etc.
<H2>Schedule</H2>
12:30pm: Registration Starts
1:00-2:00 pm: Roundtable Discussion 
Members of Accessibilize Montreal will lead a nuanced roundtable discussion on the term 'accessibility,' informed by their lived experiences and their work as educators and trainers. The roundtable will present a historical perspective of the idea of accessibility and will offer an introductory technique for addressing individual and organizational accessibility needs while taking into consideration the impacts of differing membership, mandates, and budgets.
2:00-2:30: Break
2:30-4:30 pm: Training Circles 
Participants will split into small groups and dig into the results of their accessibility audits, the suggestions included in the Facilitator’s Guide to Accessibility. Participants will be able to explore specific challenges and questions they are facing in their work as trainers or in their organizations. The discussion will be guided along two central questions:
<OL>
<LI>
What accessibility practices do you do that you may not have thought of in those terms?
</LI>
<LI>
What practices do you want to start implementing or learning about?
</LI>
</OL>
4:30-5pm: Wrap Up and Evaluations
<H2>Registration</H2>
The event is being made available on a sliding scale, depending on your resources. Participating organizations are asked to pay our highest fee, at $50. Independent facilitators or trainers are asked to choose one of the other available ticket prices, based on your means. 
<H2>Accessibility</H2>
Breaks and snacks will be provided. Participants will be encouraged to come and go as needed. Please let us know any specific needs you have regarding food by responding to the question about that on this registration form. 
 Translation between English and French, as well as ASL interpretation, will be provided. LSQ interpretation is available upon request, within 5 working days of the event, by emailing kirap@coco-net.org. If you need translation into other languages, please indicate this on the registration form.
The building is wheelchair accessible and has automatic doors. There is construction that is blocking the sidewalk on the North West side of the building, as well as construction blocking the South West sidewalk on Jeanne Mance, south of Prince Arthur. In addition to being on the ground floor, the venue is spacious and will be set up to easily accommodate automated mobility devices. There will be seating and tables. 
The bathrooms are gender-neutral and wheelchair accessible. The bathroom doors are not automatic, but there will be volunteers designated to open doors. The width of the bathroom doors is [fill in this with measurement]. Please let us know if you have specific questions or concerns about bathrooms. 
We ask participants to minimize the scents they wear (deodorants, perfumes, scented soaps, etc) before coming. We cannot guarantee it will be a scent-free space. Please specify on the registration form if you have specific concerns.
There will be métro / bus tickets available for people who need them.
There will be non-fluorescent lighting at the event.
We ask participants to minimize the scents they wear (deodorants, perfumes, scented soaps, etc) before coming. For more specific accessibility information, please contact emilyyc@coco-net.org. 
The closest metro station is Place des Arts, which is 3.5 blocks from our building, up a hill. You can take the 80 or the 129 bus from Place des Arts to arrive at our building. 
Please let us know if you have specific questions or concerns about the space and we will do our best to provide the information. You can contact emilyyc@coco-net.org. 
<H2>Organizers</H2>
This event is a collaboration between Accessibilize Montreal and the Centre for Community Organizations (COCo).
Accessibilize Montreal aims to make Montreal a more accessible place in every way: from the mindsets and interactions between Montrealers to the infrastructure that surrounds us. This disabled-led organization produces independent media, holds educational workshops and develops tools for accessibility promotion and consultation with community organizations. We challenge mainstream perceptions of disability and advocate for more accessible community and public spaces.
The Centre for Community Organizations aims to create a more just world through supporting the organizational health of grassroots organizations and creating spaces for dialogue about inclusion and anti-oppression in the nonprofit sector in Quebec. Providing training, resources, facilitation, and supporting organizational change, COCo contributes to the vitality of the community sector in the province.

Accessibility Training for Facilitators and Educators

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Accessibility Training for Facilitators and Educators

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