IDC Webinar: Accessible Commercial Facilities — Eliminating Risk and Embedding Long Term Value (1 IDCEC Hour: HSW)

Accessibility for people with disabilities is a hot topic for property designers, builders, real estate owners and managers across Canada. If you are responsible for commercial or public use facilities and spaces, attending this packed one-and-a-half hour webinar will help you prepare to capitalize on an important new industry trend, while avoiding risk of discrimination law suits.

This introductory level webinar will:

• Help you understand your legal obligations
• Review existing human rights case law examples
• Provide the foundation for understanding what's driving industry changes
• Review how new legislation will affect certain buyer/lessee decisions
• Cover new standards and proposed Building Code changes
• Introduce awareness of needs and abilities from a cross-disability perspective
• Provide foundation concepts of universal design theory and application
• Explain accessibility criteria applicable to commercial building elements
• Share best practices, solutions and steps you can take to improve accessibility in a facility you are designing, building or managing
• Outline an action plan to translate change into opportunity

Resource materials:  Attendees will be able to download "take away" resource materials during the webinar.

NOTE: This webinar was previously offered on March 22, 2013.

Presenters:

Susan Ruptash - B.Arch., OAA, FRAIC, AIA, Principal Quadrangle Architects Limited
Susan is a principal of Quadrangle Architects Limited and a director of accessAbility advantage. Susan's passion for barrier-free and universal design has informed Quadrangle’s project work and led her to a number of specialized consulting roles in this field, including championing a better understanding of universal design. Susan sat on the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario Accessible Built Environment Standards Development Committee.

Eric VanZiffle, M.Arch., LEED® AP, Quadrangle Architects Limited
Eric has a master of architecture and is a LEED accredited professional with considerable project design and construction experience. Eric is an expert in accessibility guidelines and standards, accessibility audits, assessments and renovations and has several years of experience with large scale post-secondary building projects.

Jesse Klimitz, B.A., M.Arch., MRAIC, LEED® Green Associate, Quadrangle Architects Limited
Jesse is an accessibility expert, currently overseeing the creation of accessibility output specifications, design and construction review for the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games sports venues. Jesse imparts his passion and expertise in universal design while negotiating sustainability, cost and heritage objectives.