HALIFAX CHAPTER

Chapter President: Dar Wournell

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Halifax Online Chat: The Halifax Chapter hosts a monthly "Manic Monday" on the third Monday of every month at 2 PM Atlantic. The The Halifax Manic Mondays are open to anyone--both members and friends of AEBC.  If you are not a member, please email us at halifaxchapter@blindcanadians.ca so we can send you information about the Manic Mondays. Or you can also become a member!

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ABOUT US

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The Halifax Chapter has experimented with many online events in order to keep members actively participating. Throughout the past couple of years, we have held book club, fitness, and various chat sessions. We began inviting all members to our "Mid-Week Meltdown" socials and this has begun to gain popularity.

Chapter members have also participated in many consultations on topics including the Canada Disability Benefit Act, accessible healthcare, library accessibility and museum accessibility. In fact, Dar Wournell, our Chapter President, was a member of the Nova Scotia Museums Accessibility Advisory Committee for a while, representing our chapter in their efforts to find and remove barriers for blind, Deafblind, and partially sighted visitors. She is still available to advise them. She is now the Chair of the Halifax Public Libraries accessibility advisory committee, representing our chapter in their efforts to find and remove barriers and improve accessibility across services, spaces, technology, and programs for blind, Deafblind and partially sighted library users and visitors.

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We are proud of our many ongoing community partnerships. For example, we updated the brochure entitled "How to help blind, Deafblind and partially sighted” for the Nova Scotia Health Authority. In 2023, members of the AEBC Halifax Chapter attended an in-person meeting with Atlantic Accessibility in Bedford, Nova Scotia. They asked for our assistance on improving accessibility in air travel when travelling at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport as a blind person who uses either a white cane and/or a guide dog. Our feedback is helping to remove accessibility barriers and ensure that we can travel safely and independently. 

In the past, the Alderney Gate Public Library purchased the license to allow us to show movies with described video services free of charge. We considered setting up an accessible games afternoon for anyone interested. Both of these initiatives can be revisited if there is interest.

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AEBC Member Perspectives Featured in Health Canada's National Strategy for Eye Care

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The Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians is honoured to have participated in the consultation process that helped shape Health Canada's National Strategy for Eye Care.

Health Canada invited AEBC to submit short statements from individuals with lived experience describing the challenges of accessing eye care, employment, rehabilitation services, and navigating inaccessible environments. These personal perspectives helped ensure that the voices of Canadians living with vision loss were reflected throughout the Strategy.

We are proud to share that AEBC's President of the Halifax Chapter Dar Wournell was quoted three times in the final report. This recognition underscores the importance of including people with lived experience in the development of public policy and demonstrates the meaningful impact that community advocacy can have on improving services and accessibility across Canada.

AEBC thanks everyone who contributed their experiences and remains committed to advocating for a future where all Canadians who are blind, deafblind, or partially sighted have equal access to opportunities, services, and independence.

In more advocacy news, our chapter recently wrote a letter to the Halifax Municipal Taxi and Limousine Services regarding the inaccessibility of their Point-of-Sale devices. They have touchscreens and no tactile overlay, which means that a blind, Deafblind or partially sighted person would have to disclose their PIN to a stranger, in this case the driver, in order to pay their fare. In our opinion, this is a breach of privacy, confidentiality and security.

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In 2022, the Chapter was invited by the Curator of Visitor Experience at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, to assist them in piloting a program created by one of the Museum’s heritage interpreters, as part of her work towards a national certification. She has always wanted the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic to be able to offer more programs for blind, Deafblind and partially sighted visitors, and created a descriptive experience for one of their more historic galleries. Our Chapter came to mind because Dar had provided some resources about descriptive tours, and a speech on accessible museums given by John Rae, to the staff at the Museum of Natural History in the past. In fact, our Chapter was instrumental in helping get the province of Nova Scotia involved with making provincial museums AIRA Access Points.

As you can see, we are an active and busy group! If you are in the Halifax area, please consider becoming a member and joining in on the fun!