City employees take accessibility training
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City employees underwent accessibility training as part of a consent decree the City of Williamsport has with Center for Independent Living Roads to Freedom.
Employees went to various stations to see what it was like to replicate what those with disabilities do each day.
"Enlightening," was how Tom Cillo, a streets and parks department employee described the training sessions.
Worker went to tables that would be for communication disorders, vision loss, physical disability and mobility, fine motor skills, and autism/dyslexia.
They also tried their hand at maneuvering a wheelchair up the slope behind City Hall. Some employees required a helping hand to make it up the hill.
Better known as Project ABLE (Acceptance By Learning Experience), the training encompassed four hours.
Jay Harner, who is a quadriplegic who suffered a spinal chord injury, said the training surprises some of the attendees.
One of the stations had various type of door locks. It replicated what it would be like to try to open a lock without use of fingers. Participants put on rubber gloves and balled their hands in a fist trying to tie leather straps without using their fingers, a virtually impossible task based on those who tried it.
A station offered replication of low vision and optical problems such as glaucoma.
Karen Koch, of CIL, said anyone at any moment could end up as a member of the disabled community. There are accidents, as what happened to Harner, and there are various diseases that can result in loss of vision, mobility and physical motor skills.
In the wheelchair exercise, Koch went through the instructions with each of the employees. Those who used the wheelchair were given instructions not to use the brake handles but to use their hands on the outer wheels to slow down. The brake handles are for getting safely into and out of the chair, Koch said.
As colleagues watched each other, some of the wheel chair operation brought out light-hearted banter, as employees realized how much physical effort it took to use their arm and body strength to get back up the paved hill behind City Hall.
Imagine trying to use a wheel chair alone on a dark night of a council meeting and with weather conditions that call for slippery road surfaces, Koch said to the Sun-Gazette editor and writer on hand for the exercise.
Other instructors on the various tables at Trade and Transit Centre II on the third floor at the Michael Ross meeting room included Meagan Murray, Jodie Baney, Koch, Amy Cline and Heather Engel from North Central Sight Services.
Mayor Derek Slaughter and Council President Randall J. Allison and members of council were among those taking part in the training.
The consent decree is a federal order by U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann that requires the city to meet accessibility law and mandatory training of city employees.