LEBANON – The City will host a listening event for community members to share accessibility experiences at Lebanon City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The Special Needs Support Center, which provides programming and resources to support children with special needs and their families throughout the Upper Valley, is facilitating the event and encourages people with disabilities, families, caregivers, support people and other members of the SNSC community to participate, SNSC announced in a news release.
The listening session, “Access Lebanon: A Community Conversation on Disability and Accessibility,” will focus on four questions: What is working well? Where are people encountering disability-related barriers? What accessibility improvements should the city prioritize? What else should the city understand about disability and accessibility?
“The people who experience Lebanon’s spaces, programs, and services are the ones who can best tell us what is working and where barriers remain,” said Dr. Kendra LaRoche, executive director of SNSC, in the release.
Listening to those experiences, LaRoche added, is imperative to improving accessibility and “creating a community where people with disabilities can participate fully and know they belong.”
Beyond physical access to buildings, SNSC encourages participants to share experiences related to city programs and services, public meetings and communications, emergency responders, city policies and procedures, and other interactions with the city.
Remote participation is available. Residents outside Lebanon are welcome to participate.
Anyone who uses Lebanon’s parks, libraries, sidewalks, public spaces, programs or other public resources can help inform the conversation on accessibility, according to the news release.
The listening session will offer multiple ways to participate, including “live captions, accessible seating, questions provided in plain language and in advance, time to process before responding, and options for sharing feedback without speaking in front of the group,” SNSC stated.
An online survey is available through Oct. 15 for those who cannot attend on Oct. 13.
For additional accommodation to participate, contact LaRoche at kendra@snsc-uv.org or 603-448-6311.
