Accessibility Committee

Committee members

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  Tasia Alexis (she/her)

  Term: 1 year

  Tasia lives with a hidden disability, celiac disease and anemia. At many times Tasia doesn’t look like she has a disability but her condition has affected her and limited her in numerous ways. 

  Being a black woman with a disability has led to many intersectional identities: race, Black minority in Canada; physical characteristics, and social economic status. She has experienced the risk of homelessness as a youth and young woman. She raised her son as a single mother.  As a profession, she has been working on supporting people with developmental disabilities for over 40 years, and has been an employee of the Developmental Disabilities Association for over 30 years. She is currently the assistant director in Residential Services.

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  Dale Lutes (he/him)

  Term: 1 year

  Dale is a retiree and a member of the Seniors Advisory Committee who was born in New Brunswick, graduated with a BA from UNB and worked in management and senior management in five provinces, retiring in British Columbia. During his career he has seen our country make positive progress on many societal issues but has also seen discrimination and exclusions based on different types of disabilities some invisible like arthritis. In his last position with The John Howard Society of the Lower Mainland Dale was responsible for accreditation, human resources, program and policy development and liaison with other agencies. Coming from a large family and working in the social service sectors Dale has seen many accessibility gaps/issues that result in many of Canada’s citizens being excluded from fully participating in society that must be addressed and has always advocated for inclusion and peoples’ human rights.   

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  Martha Kahnapace (she/her)

  Term: 1 year

  Martha is a 66 year old Indigenous woman of the Kwaguitl Nation off of Vancouver Island B.C. She is a Mother of 4 with 3 surviving children, grandmother of 11 and great grandmother of 8. She lives with osteoporosis, arthritis, and her eyesight is failing. She is a live in caregiver for my ex mate for the last 11 years. She would like to pass on her knowledge to society of her involvement of incarceration and the injustices of prisoners and have done many surveys and panels of sorts. She had finished with UBC and am now involved in a peer support for Indigenous women prisoners and we are at the entry level at this time. She look forward to being a part of creating a more accessible and friendly city in which we live.

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  Peyton Crawford (she/her)

  Term: 2 years

  Peyton has been living with chronic pain and nerve pain disorders for the past 4 years. She has also been struggling with depressive episodes for about 2 years and OCD for about 7 years. Peyton is concerned about the lack of representation of the lived experiences of teenagers battling physical and mental challenges. It has made her feel isolated and like a social anomaly. She has had to be very resilient with her schooling and education while at the same time dealing with her diagnosis. She hopes to make it so that youth do not have to deal with educational/schooling challenges while also dealing with health struggles.

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  Sidney Smallman (he/him)

  (Support:  Dina Smallman – mother)
  Term: 2 years

  Sidney offers creative ways to overcome daily challenges, and it has given him a particular type of resilience. Cerebral palsy may not be an extremely unique condition, but he believes that he has the lived experiences and the voice to advocate for those who do not have the ability to advocate for themselves. He thinks this could be a real opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of everyone in Vancouver, able bodied or not. Sidney’s mother Dina is prepared to support his participation on the committee. Dina is passionate about accessibility and inclusion, and has been for Sidney's entire life

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  Patricia Gooch (she/her)

  Term: 2 years

  Patricia lives with invisible disabilities of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Long COVID, Postural orthostatic tachycardia, and others. Patricia has faced discrimination based on disability, gender and family status including unequal access to spaces and services.  Patricia is tactful and respectful, appreciating diverse viewpoints. Additionally, she has experience sitting on the BC Society of Landscape Architects Board of Directors and Continuing Education Committee. She has a lived experience with many multi-faceted disabilities that affect many aspects of the public realm.

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  Ryan Ollis (he/him)

  Term: 2 years

  Representation for Wavefront Centre and Communication Accessibility (Vancouver-based) 

  Ryan is both Deaf and legally blind, and considers himself as culturally DeafBlind. He was born and raised in Vancouver B.C., and currently lives in North Vancouver. He is the DeafBlind program Coordinator for the Therapeutic Activation Program Services (TAPS) which provides service to DeafBlind individuals. Also, he is on the Canada Accessibility Wayfinding and Signal committee. He is passionate about educating and spreading awareness about the DeafBlind community.

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  Hannah Sullivan Facknitz

  Term: 2 years

  Hannah lives with multiple disabilities including chronic illness (advanced lupus), cognitive disabilities (ADHD, dyslexia), mental illness (CPTSD), and chronic pain conditions like chronic migraines and fibromyalgia. They are also a long COVID survivor. Hannah identifies as queer, an immigrant, and gender diverse with complex experiences of generational poverty.

  They are an established equity, diversity, and inclusion professional who has been doing EDI education for three years in British Columbia. They have done a great deal of institutional work, too, where they have had to navigate the limitations of institutional politics while trying to enact ideal change that moves us closer toward justice for marginalized folks. 

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  Daniel Wilson (he/him)

  Term: 2 years

  Daniel is a 72 year old male living with HIV for the past 20 years. Daniel sits on an advisory board with the Dr. Peter Center for Safe Injection sites. Daniel has worked for PAN on a displacement study. His older deceased brother lived and died with MS. Daniel identifies as disabled and lives in the West End. He also works and commutes a few days a week and sees the difficulties in trying to commute. He has many disabled friends and he helps them out doing their shopping or helping them get to medical appointments.

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  Abhinav Pandey (he/him)

  Term: 2 years

  Abhinav is 31 years old and suffered a spinal cord injury in 2008 resulting in him being a C5 complete quadriplegic. Since, then he has been in a wheelchair to navigate through all aspects of life. He uses a power wheelchair to get around the community, and professionally work as a software engineer. He moved to Vancouver in 2021, and had to go through the struggles of moving to a new city all alone. This has meant navigating through everything from scratch - housing search, renting process, Translink, ICBC, GF Strong, CSIL, iCORD, family doctors, caregivers, tourist attractions, work, etc. However, Abhinav believes that building your life in a new city gives you a fresh perspective on things, which may be overlooked by folks who've been living there for a while.

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  Tommy Chu (he/him)

  Term: 2 years

  Tommy is a visually impaired person who was designated as being legally blind a few years ago. His lived experience is challenging since he also has hearing loss in his left ear. Tommy is a single father of an 11 year old son. Tommy serves a group of visually impaired people, so he understands their needs.

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  City staff

  • Brenda Clark, planner, Current Planning, Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability
  • Jason Olinek, director of development, Planning GM Office - Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability  (alternate)
  • Megan Fitzgerald, manager of public engagement, Civic Engagement and Communications
  • Phoenix Lam, communications manager (alternate)
  • Simon Goldsmith, director of talent strategies, Human Resources 
  • Michelle Schouls, director of facilities planning and development, Real Estate, Environment and Facilities Management (REFM)
  • Paul Storer, director of transportation, Office of General Manager – Engineering

  Supporting staff

  • Jody Sydor Jones, managing director of Social Policy and Projects, Arts, Culture, and Community Services (ACCS)
  • Karen Lai, social planner (accessibility), Social Policy and Projects, Arts, Culture, and Community Services (ACCS)
  • Ellen Kim, equity consultant,  Equity Office