Free Workshops: Making Businesses Accessible

The City of Bloomington has received $1,276 in funding from ADA-Indiana and the Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities to provide two workshops aimed at educating inspectors, builders, contractors and architects on new federal and state regulations regarding people with disabilities.

Workshops will target those who approve plans and inspect construction, and those who design, build and renovate buildings. The City’s goal is to help businesses and organizations understand how to be fully accessible early on, even as they design and construct their buildings.

The City’s Council for Community Accessibility applied for the funding for its project entitled “Making Businesses Accessible: If We Build It Right, They Will Come!”

Workshops will be offered on Tue., July 28, for government building inspectors, and on Wed., Aug. 19, for architects, builders and contractors. Both workshops begin at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall, 401 N. Morton Street, Bloomington, and will include free lunch.

Presenting will be representatives from the Great Lakes ADA Center, a program of the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and from the U.S. Access Board. The Great Lakes ADA Center provides information, materials, technical assistance and training on the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The Great Lakes ADA Center's service area is designated as Region 5 and is one of 10 regional centers funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), a division of the U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Access Board is an independent Federal agency devoted to accessibility for people with disabilities. It provides technical assistance and training on accessible design criteria and enforces accessibility standards that cover federally funded facilities.

For further information about the workshops, contact Craig Brenner, Special Projects Coordinator, City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department, at 349-3471 or brennerc@bloomington.in.gov, or Barbara McKinney, Human Rights Director, City of Bloomington Legal Department, at 349-3429 or mckinneb@bloomington.in.gov.