Culture of Access event - Dec. 3, 2021
Paul Menton Centre, Carleton University
TRANSCRIPT: Closing Remarks

[Instrumental music]

[Bruce Hamm] Thank you very much, Amanda and thank you very much, Kathy. I want to extend a little bit of gratitude to Kathy because uh together uh with some other members of the, of the PMC and READ teams, we worked on Carleton's response to the AODA recommendations for a recommended standard setup fo,r for post-secondary. And what was interesting, um I know for me and for a lot of people that I witnessed sort of seeing the document for the first time … there's 179 recommendations and uh it was pretty … pretty gut-wrenching at first, um overwhelming um, and uh so we started the process of sort of breaking up these recommendations into themes that are associated with stakeholders on campus. We sent them out to the stakeholders and we were very surprised at what we got back. And that was, that was a lot of people saying, “You know what … um okay, we're … if we're not already doing this, or if we're not close to doing it, um it's not going to take that much together.” Yes, there were some that were a little bit more uh problematic um that will take a little bit more effort, um but, um but for the most part, uh you know, people's reactions really, really, really impressed me, you know … and and a lot of that, I think, is in in part due um not just to the reputation of Carleton as a leader in accessibility, but also through actions and initiatives uh like the Coordinated Accessibility Strategy … just getting that mindset around accessibility in general and, and, and people taking steps to get to this place. My, my grandmother uh used to have a saying, you know, “If you make someone feel welcome, they'll enter your your house, but if you, um if you make them feel at home, they'll stay for dinner.” I think it sounded a little bit more, um more impressive in German, um but really, you know, that— that's, that's what we're talking about here. When we, when we think about the people that we've heard from today, um what we're talking about is making people feel at home at Carleton. I think given, given the dedication of the people who are working on the accessibility portfolio here at Carleton, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that, um that the 60th anniversary of PMC um will be every bit as, uh as compelling, um as, as the, as the video that we watched today. In terms of what's in store next for the PMC, um those chapters haven't been written yet, but I have— uh I've no doubt that um PMC will continue to be a gold standard when it comes to offering services to students with disabilities, and we will continue working with partners on campus to ensure that accessibility is, is pushed forward here at Carleton. I want to send a heartfelt thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make today a reality uh … Jocelyn, Michael, Amanda, Jason, Hunter and Synclair from the PMC, Mikaela and Kathy from the READ Initiative, John, Colin, Angelique and Mike from CUES, all of our panelists, our friends from AI Media for providing the closed captions, and most importantly all of you for joining us on this sunny, cold Friday afternoon in December in which my telephone won't stop ringing. Thank you very much all of you and have yourselves a great weekend!

[Instrumental music]