The Municipality of the County of Inverness is creating a new Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Strategy to improve our services and amenities, ensuring they are accessible and equitable for all residents and visitors.
Sharing this information with us is important. It will help the Municipality of the County of Inverness better understand and support community needs in advancing accessibility and equity obligations under both the Accessibility Act and the Dismantling Hate and Racism Act.
Key Terms:
Accessibility:
When our environments, services, products, and policies are designed so that people with a disability can fully participate without experiencing barriers.
Barrier: An obstacle that prevents persons with disabilities from using or accessing resources or places.
Disability: Physical, mental, intellectual, learning or sensory impairment that hinders an individual’s full participation in society.
Diversity: is defined as the many ways we are different from one another and experience the world in unique ways. Can include social and ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender, and disability.
Equity: Equity means making sure everyone has what they need to succeed, even if it means giving some people more support than others. It's about fairness but recognizing that different people might need different resources or opportunities to have an equal chance.
Inclusion: Refers to the intentional, ongoing efforts and actions to ensure that people with different identities actively participate in all aspects of the work of an organization and/or society.
Underrepresented: An underrepresented community is a group of people who don’t have enough presence or are not shown fairly in areas like society, politics, the economy, education, or culture. These communities might face unfair treatment, exclusion, or discrimination because of things like their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or how much money they have.