AMERICA'S MOST ACCESSIBLE CITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES!Mayor Bill White today welcomed the National Organization on Disability’s (NOD) naming of Houston as the most accessible city in the country for people with disabilities. In announcing Houston as the winner in the seventh annual Accessible America Contest, the city was heralded as a national model for its focus on disability issues and successful design of programs, services and facilities that are accessible for citizens and visitors who have disabilities.
"Houston is a great city of opportunity and that means opportunity for everyone, including our disability community," said Mayor Bill White. "We work hard every day to make sure it stays that way and we are honored that the National Organization on Disability has recognized it. Thanks, too, to the many people who have made these programs work, including Michelle Colvard and the Mayor’s Office for People With Disabilities.”
$25,000 in award money will be presented at a forthcoming ceremony to Mayor White and is intended to fund local disability–related efforts.
Other 2007 contest finalists were: Alexandria, VA; Bloomington, IN; Columbus, GA; Hattiesburg, MS; Indianapolis, IN; Miami-Dade County, FL; New Haven, CT; and Sioux Falls, SD.
Governor Tom Ridge, Chairman of the National Organization on Disability and former Secretary of Homeland Security noted, “The work of the communities participating in the Accessible America Award competition serves as an important reminder that people with disabilities are not passive consumers of help, but can contribute meaningfully to America’s communities. The City of Houston exemplifies a communities that has enriched its civic life by the full participation of citizens with disabilities.”
Houston is being recognized for their exemplary efforts, which include: the Parks Advisory Review Committee, which works to ensure that people with disabilities have access to parks and recreational opportunities; the ADA Taxicab Committee, working to ensure the accessibility of taxis and for-hire transportation; an inclusive process to install pedestrian traffic signals; the Persons with Disabilities Business Enterprise Program, promoting entrepreneurship among people with disabilities; the Business Partnership Breakfast, to promote the business case for employing people with disabilities in city businesses; a comprehensive emergency management plan for citizens with disabilities, and a strong, coordinated effort to ensure access to parking for people with disabilities.
The five leading national disability advocates and experts who served as Accessible America Contest judges chose the winners based on comprehensive accessibility and opportunity for people with disabilities. Accessible America applicants demonstrate an exceptional commitment to offering their citizens with disabilities full and equal opportunities to participate in the life of their community, including access to jobs, education, religious worship, transportation, housing, emergency preparedness planning, and services. The Accessible America Contest promotes nationwide replication of these best practices. The Accessible America Contest, administered by NOD’s Community Partnership Program, is sponsored by generous grants from UPS, AARP and the Chrysler Foundation. For more information, visit www.nod.org.
It's a good thing city staffers abandoned the earlier threatened handicapped motorist crackdown.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the city would have won any awards for that bad idea.
Yeah plenty of handicap spaces for the fraudulent people who use them each and every day. It really makes me sick that there isnt a way to bust these people who abuse the handicap spaces.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there are absoluty too many of them in places where they don't need to be
didn't wayne d. do a story on hadicapped spot fraud a few years ago?
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