Speech by Mayor of the City of Kinston Thank you for inviting me to speak at this important event. Having just been elected, I'm particularly excited about the future of our community and in opportunities for increasing the level of inclusiveness of all Kingston residents and visitors to our city I was asked by the organizers of "Making Kingston Barrier Free Accessibility in our Public Sector to prov ide some background on the nificance of International day for people with Disa bilities,as procla imed by the United Nations. Heres what Ive learned The United Nations' General Assembly declared December 3 International Day of People with Disabilities"in 1992 The annual observance of the Day a ims to increase awareness and understanding of disa bility issues and trends, and to mobilize support for practical action at all levels This years theme focuses on"giving a voice to the human experience of people with disabilities When i thought about this years theme, i was drawn to the importance of the City of Kingston,s Accessibility Advisory Comm ittee in developing and implementing the City,'s accessibility plan. steve Rockel, the ontario Ministry of Citizenship regional representative, will be sharing som information about these citizen committees which we refer to as an aac Accessibility Advisory Committee. I wanted to share with you one of my tenets in making Kingston a vibrant and special place for all people. i am speaking of the importance that the City of Kingston will place on having an effective, well-supported AAC represent the views and experiences of people with various types of disabilities, in terms of our current accessibility plan, and in the development of our future accessibility plans We are just completing the recruiting process for the City's 2004 AAC. You may have seen ads calling for advisory committee applications on our Web site, or in the local newspapers. City Council recently approved an AAC recommendation to increase its size to 14 members plus a City Councillor representative This was done to permit more opportunities for people to participate in the policy and planning process, while enabling us to have enough motivated people to take responsibility for the varied accessibility recommendations contained in our 2003 plan While i can't yet announce who the 2004 AAC members are, given the number of qualified people who have applied, I am very hopeful that we will have a diversity of experience that will ensure that a broad range of issues are visited and discussed sensitively and know ledgeably. And there have been other people who have expressed an interest in the AAC, butSpeech by Mayor of the City of Kinston Thank you for inviting me to speak at this important event. Having just been elected, I'm particularly excited about the future of our community and in opportunities for increasing the level of inclusiveness of all Kingston residents and visitors to our city. I was asked by the organizers of "Making Kingston Barrier Free: Accessibility in our Public Sector," to provide some background on the significance of "International Day for People with Disabilities," as proclaimed by the United Nations. Here's what I've learned: • The United Nations' General Assembly declared December 3 "International Day of People with Disabilities" in 1992. • The annual observance of the Day aims to increase awareness and understanding of disability issues and trends, and to mobilize support for practical action at all levels. • This year's theme focuses on "giving a voice to the human experience of people with disabilities". When I thought about this year's theme, I was drawn to the importance of the City of Kingston's Accessibility Advisory Committee in developing and implementing the City's accessibility plan. Steve Rockel, the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship regional representative, will be sharing some information about these citizen committees, which we refer to as an AAC - Accessibility Advisory Committee. I wanted to share with you one of my tenets in making Kingston a vibrant and special place for all people. I am speaking of the importance that the City of Kingston will place on having an effective, well-supported AAC represent the views and experiences of people with various types of disabilities, in terms of our current accessibility plan, and in the development of our future accessibility plans. We are just completing the recruiting process for the City's 2004 AAC. You may have seen ads calling for advisory committee applications on our Web site, or in the local newspapers. City Council recently approved an AAC recommendation to increase its size to 14 members, plus a City Councillor representative. This was done to permit more opportunities for people to participate in the policy and planning process, while enabling us to have enough motivated people to take responsibility for the varied accessibility recommendations contained in our 2003 plan. While I can't yet announce who the 2004 AAC members are, given the number of qualified people who have applied, I am very hopeful that we will have a diversity of experience that will ensure that a broad range of issues are visited and discussed sensitively and knowledgeably. And there have been other people who have expressed an interest in the AAC, but