Front Cover
Access Salisbury Action Plan
City of Salisbury
Community Update
1999 - 2003

Inside Front Cover
Language and Format Links
The City of Salisbury is aware of the needs of its multi-cultural community and community members with disabilities.  With this in mind, the Council offers an interpreting service of its corporate publications into a variety of languages / formats.
Languages include: Khmer, Polish. Vietnamese, Spanish, Greek and Italian.

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From the Mayor
Tony Zappia, Mayor; Chairperson, Salisbury Access Advisory Team.

The City of Salisbury is proud of its facilities and wants all members of the community to be able to enjoy every aspect of the City.

In October 1997, the City of Salisbury appointed a Disability Services Officer to coordinate the development of an "action plan" as provided for in the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) (the "DDA").

A community consultation took place in March 1999 and the "Access Salisbury Action Plan 1999/2003" was endorsed by Council and lodged with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

The City of Salisbury’s Access Action Plan is based on the belief that people with disabilities do not require "special measures" but that their requirements should be included in the design and implementation of all projects.

In the next two years, the City of Salisbury has a range of processes, which will ensure that it stays at the forefront of innovation in Australia.

Readers of this report can find out how to participate in those processes by contacting the Disability Services Officer at the City of Salisbury on 8406 8312.
May 2002

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City of Salisbury
Access Salisbury Action Plan

Introduction
The Access Salisbury Action Plan as provided for in Section 61 of the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act (1992) (DDA) was lodged with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in October 1999 and launched by the Governor His Excellency Sir Eric Neal AC CVO in November that year.

The Access Salisbury Action Plan 1999 – 2003 Volume 1, in a variety of formats, is available from the Community Services Department, City of Salisbury, phone 8406 8312.

Aim of the Access Salisbury Action Plan and Community Update
This update reports on what Council has done to improve access to its buildings, streets, services and within the wider community for people with disabilities, their families, carers and friends from November 1999 – December 2001.

The Action Plan aims to "provide equal access to the whole City of Salisbury for residents, ratepayers, visitors and employees" and to show how this will be done over time.

For more information, contact Council’s Disability Services Officer, Community Services Department on  8406 8312.

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Within this Report

This report contains information in four sections:

Section 1 – Page 4 - Key initiatives 

Section 2 – Page 10 - Top Priorities of the Action Plan

Section 3 – Page 16 - Equal access to Council employment and participation in the City’s future

Section 4 – Page 19 - Work in Progress – July – December 2001

Cartoon by Simon Kneebone

An elderly gentleman is talking with a younger woman.
He says,  I live in Salisbury … But I don’t get out much.
She replies,  Well, Lets start LIVING!!.

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Section 1 - Key Initiatives

There are many access upgrades required to make the City of Salisbury fully accessible. Where should these access upgrades begin?

For example, consider access upgrades to existing Council buildings estimated to cost more than $2 million. The Salisbury Access Advisory Team (SAAT) has recommended that "basic access" into key buildings should be the first priority. When this is complete, then each of the buildings can be further upgraded to allow full access to all parts.

The City of Salisbury’s Access Improvements can be summarised under the following headings:-

Identifying the Barriers

Many of the barriers to participation in community life are not made of concrete and steel. But local government’s responsibilities in fact concentrate largely on providing physical structures for residents, for example roads and footpaths, recreation and community facilities. 

Increasingly local government provides other sorts of services to the community, beyond bricks and mortar. For example some residents may be unable to gain access to information through libraries (books and the internet) because information design is not accessible to people of all abilities.  Residents may experience barriers to participation in community consultations and thus not be able to influence change to the shape of the whole city, a suburb or a street.

The formation of the "Association of Consultants in Access Australia" (ACAA) has assisted local government in its search for a reliable and credible

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way of identifying barriers within our City.  "Access Consultants" assess buildings, streetscapes, reserves and playgrounds for accessibility. These auditors are professionally accountable for the way in which they apply the DDA and a variety of Australian Standards in their assessment.

The City of Salisbury has used a variety of accredited access auditors to identify barriers in:
•  Town centre streetscape
•  Suburban streetscape
•  Council owned and managed buildings, including public toilets
•  Council playgrounds, play spaces and parks. 

Once an access audit has been completed then a series of "access upgrade" works can be costed, budgeted for and eventually completed. A list of the outcomes of such a process can be found in the next section "Top Priorities of the Action Plan".

Cartoon by Simon Kneebone

A woman and a man are talking.
She asks,  … What’s the opposite of disability?
He replies,  - ACCESSIBILITY come pretty close!.

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Research 

There are few guidelines to assist local governments when providing access for all other than access to buildings.  Even in this area the Australian Standards used in the Building Code of Australia are not sufficient to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. There are even fewer guidelines for ensuring equity of access to our street system, for example John Street in Salisbury Town Centre. Access consultants can assist local government in developing better access practices as well as identifying a wide range of barriers.

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Action to remove barriers – ASAP Access upgrade budget

In the last two years Council has created the "ASAP Access Upgrade Budget" which funds improvements to facilities, which are not fully accessible.  

Graph and Table Heading
Budgeted Expenditure on Disability Access Upgrades.

The graph / table structure is as follows:
Vertical axis is labelled as dollar values in grouping of $100,000.00 staring at zero and finishing at $800,000.00.  The horizontal axis is labelled Financial Year, and covers the five years of data from 1997 / 1998 to 2001 / 2002.  The graph / table represents three areas of expenditure for each of the five years, being: Disability Access; Kerb and Gutter Maintenance; and Footpath Maintenance.  For the year 2001 / 2002 have comments been provided for the three areas of expenditure.

Year 1997 / 1998
Disability Access  $50,000.00
Kerb and Gutter Maintenance  $189,000.00
Footpath Maintenance  $354,000.00

Year 1998 / 1999
Disability Access  $15,000.00
Kerb and Gutter Maintenance  $201,000.00
Footpath Maintenance  $402,000.00

Year 1999 / 2000
Disability Access  $56,000.00
Kerb and Gutter Maintenance  $276,000.00
Footpath Maintenance  $490,000.00

Year 2000 / 2001
Disability Access  $100,000.00
Kerb and Gutter Maintenance  $295,000.00
Footpath Maintenance  $628,000.00

Year 2001 / 2002
Disability Access  $150,000.00. Comments – The Disability Access budget relates specifically to disability access upgrades.
Kerb and Gutter Maintenance  $325,000.00. Comments – see Footpath Maintenance below.
Footpath Maintenance  $714,000.00. Comments – Kerb and Gutter Maintenance and Footpath Maintenance budgets do not specifically relate to disability access but include work that improves access for all.  Therefore, the increasing trend is more significant than the dollar amounts.

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This funding by Council is to be used only for:
•  Research into best practice access provision
•  Auditing of facilities to identify barriers
•  Access upgrade work on existing facilities to make them fully accessible. 

All new facilities developed by Council will have access for all designed into them from the start.

The ASAP Access Upgrade fund is spent on a range of high priority projects identified by Council staff in the first instance and then ranked in priority order by the Salisbury Access Advisory Team, based on the "Top Priorities" identified by the community consultation.    

Full-time Disability Services Officer Position
In the budget for 2000-2001 Council expanded funding for the Disability Services Officer position to make it full time. A number of extra initiatives have been possible with this extra time. The Disability Services Officer role has not only dealt with implementation of the Access Salisbury Action Plan, but has also provided a resource to increase awareness of local and national trends. These trends will shape the way in which access is enabled in the future. This will keep the City of Salisbury at the leading edge of access innovation.

During 2000/2001 the Disability Services Officer has:
•  Managed the G5 Local Governments’ DDA and Disability Awareness Training development Project;

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•  Provided early awareness of new trends in access issues by maintaining a network of contacts with disability services, advocacy agencies and national organisations focused on access. Two examples are participation in the national access working group and providing executive support for the Northern Disability Forum (over 100 agencies and individuals);

•  Developed systems in Council by encouraging a DDA based problem solving response by Managers to individual resident concerns about access and ensuring effective and timely consultation with the residents towards solutions; 

•  Co-ordinated Council’s responses to broader disability access issues for example by providing advice on the campaign for National Accessible Transport standards within the Disability Discrimination Act;

•  Promoted the City of Salisbury as innovative, increasingly accessible and inclusive of people of all abilities, for example, initiating Council’s co-sponsorship of a forum for 40 parents of children with intellectual disabilities about schooling (February 2001).

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Section 2 - Top Priorities of the Action Plan

The Access Salisbury Action Plan includes commitments from many of the business units within Council. This report only deals with issues identified to be of the highest priority during community consultation (March 1999).

Priority 1 
a. Improving Pedestrian Access
In the budget for 1999/2000 Council increased the footpath maintenance allocation by 23.4%, in budget 2000/2001 footpath maintenance resources were further increased from 489,000 to 571,900 which was spent on: 
•  Minimising trip hazards and other barriers to pedestrians with or without disabilities; 
•  Installing new kerb ramps which are accessible for people who use wheelchairs, walking frames and parents with baby strollers. 

b. Identifying barriers to equal access in the Town Centre
An access audit of John Street, Salisbury has been completed by nationally accredited audit consultants in consultation with the Guide Dogs Association.  The long list of access improvements will take several years to complete.

Priority 2
Designing Accessible Council Buildings
All new Council buildings and facilities will comply with the Disability Discrimination Act beyond the minimum requirements of the Building Code of Australia.

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Priority 3
Providing Transport Access
There has been no progress yet in having some local bus routes served by fully accessible buses. Until this occurs, there is no clear way of locating fully accessible bus stops except at high use locations. For some time to come there will be a growing number of accessible bus stops provided by Council but no guarantee that an accessible bus will service them. 

Priority 4 
a. Access Upgrades to Council Facilities and Buildings
This is the area of most progress assisted by:
•  Access audits of all Council owned and managed buildings including public toilets and also neighbourhood and community houses by nationally accredited access auditors;
•  Access related building works will be documented and tendered out to complete a program of access upgrades over the next several years.
•  Following the Salisbury Access Advisory Team’s recommendation to set priorities in access upgrade works (see page 4), these upgrades have commenced on ‘key buildings’ aiming to provide ‘basic access’ initially.

"Basic access" includes:
•  Access from any nearby bus stop to the building entrance
•  Disability Parking Zones near building entrances
•  Access through entrances (e.g. adequate door width and ease of opening) and ramping

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•  Accessible toilets
•  Emergency exits.

"Key buildings" are those with:
•  High public use
•  Greatest need for access upgrades.  

Parafield Gardens Recreation Centre 
•  pneumatic sliding access doors to main entrance
•  widening of the existing ramp to Court 1 for northern wheelchair sports basketball competition
•  fully accessible toilet
•  emergency exit ramps

Para Hills Soccer Club
•  access ramp to front and rear exit

Jack Young Centre
•  automatic sliding access door

Paddocks Neighbourhood House
•  access ramp to main entry

Salisbury North Community Centre
•  emergency exit ramp
•  wheelchair accessible toilet
•  widening of the doors to the administration building and a former crèche

Municipal Offices
•  upgrade of existing doors and exits
•  three accessible toilets

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St Jays Recreation Centre
•  fully accessible toilet
•  emergency exit ramps
•  disability parking zone line marking

Burton House
•  widening of existing entrance doors

b. Making Accessible Play Spaces
An access consultant is developing guidelines for fully accessible play space and playgrounds within the City of Salisbury

Priority 5 
Access to Library Information
•  consulted with Royal Society for the Blind in developing a priority order of measures to increase information access;
•  installed 21 inch screens with large print display on Internet connected computers in each library branch;
•  availability within each library branch of alternative to standard keyboard and mouse for people with physical disabilities. 

Priority 6
Providing Extra Disability Parking Zones
•  in areas with 31-50 car parking spaces, 1 DPZ required;
•  in areas with 51-100 car parking spaces 2 DPZ required;
•  Several more than the minimum number of DPZs are provided in Salisbury Town Centre.

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Priority 7
a. Providing Access Signage
Limited progress due to strategy of providing partial access to a large number of Council buildings rather than complete access to a few buildings. Council does not wish to mislead the public that a building is fully accessible so signage and information indicating partial access will be developed.

b. Access to Council Information
Design specification for Council’s new website follow the "W3C" guidelines which provide accessibility for people who are vision impaired or blind.

c. Disability Awareness Training
•  Staff training program in "access and equity" has commenced with a training session in 2000/2001 for senior and middle management conducted by a cultural diversity trainer.
•  One of the outcomes of the training is to identify further training needs for other levels within the workforce.  
•  The City of Salisbury has taken a leading role with the G5 local governments to develop a "Disability Discrimination Awareness Training" program for elected members, staff and volunteers.
•  This training is being developed by a consultant funded by a Local Government Association Research and Development Scheme grant and contributions from the G5 local governments; the training program will be available in mid 2002.

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d. Lobbying Government
Supporting community coalitions to advocate on particular access issues by:
•  Providing administration support for the Northern Disability Forum;
•  Increasing contact with parents of children with intellectual disabilities through hosting the "Let’s Talk About Schools" seminar (February 2001).

Through these networks, issues have been identified and action taken. The Disability Services Officer has:
•  Coordinated the participation by 24 residents in the evaluation of the prototype of the new front door ramp accessible bus commissioned for Adelaide Metropolitan Public Transport by the Passenger Transport Board;
•  Coordinated written representations to Local Government Association and Minister of Transport supporting effective accessible transport standards under the Disability Discrimination Act;
•  Coordinated the submission from the Northern Disability Forum to the Ministerial inquiry into Access Cabs.

Cartoon by Simon Kneebone

A woman and a young toddler are standing at the gate of a house.
She asks, - A VISION?
We see a sweeping, smooth path with hand rail leading to a “door way to access” with a speech bubble saying – A RIGHT!!.
The doorway is has a signed headed ACCESS.
Within the ACCESS doorway are the text;  transport, services, facilities, health, information, recreation and support.

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Section 3 - Equal access to Council employment and participation in the City’s future

As mentioned in the introduction, the Salisbury Access Advisory Team recommended to Council that certain priorities, although not among the highest priority strategies from the community consultation, were none the less of fundamental importance in meeting the requirements of the DDA.  These are:

a. Providing equal access in the future development of the City of Salisbury

Recreation Strategy
Salisbury Active Community Network (SACNET) provided the opportunity for club officials to participate in disability awareness training (eight clubs initially). Representatives were encouraged to consider ways in which their clubs could become more inclusive of people with disabilities, whether these are participants, family members of participants or other personnel within the club.

Development Services
While development approvals have a note attached concerning the responsibilities of developers under the DDA, the Development Services unit takes a more proactive role especially in large developments such as that of Martins Plaza Shopping Centre in Parafield Gardens. As part of the development process, officers negotiated the provision of additional "disability parking zones" to be provided in two separate areas rather than one. This increases access to both the Medical Centre and the shopping area.

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Cultural Development
•  Liaison with Arts in Action Inc (which promotes artists with disability and arts events which are inclusive of people of all abilities).
•  "What’s on in Salisbury" publication identified whether venues are accessible. Information was distributed widely within the City of Salisbury and is also on the Council’s website.

b. Promoting Equal Access to Council Employment 
The Human Resources Division has made a number of initiatives to expand the opportunities for suitably skilled people who also happen to have a disability.

•  A significant number of tasks are performed within Council by staff from the labour hire agency contracted by the G6 Councils.  Council’s Human Resources Division has liaised with the local disability recruitment coordination service and the G6 labour hire contractor to enable short term casual employment for a worker with a vision disability, possibly the first through that particular labour hire agency.

•  Through the initiative of the Salisbury Human Resources Division, the G6 Council representatives, who supervised the letting of the new contract for provision of temporary staff, invited a presentation by the disability recruitment coordination service about equal employment opportunity, issues for people with disabilities.

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•  Ongoing liaison between Disability Recruitment Coordination Service and the G6 labour hire provider to encourage and promote the provision of temporary staff with appropriate skills who may have a disability.

•  In 2001, Council awarded its roadside verge maintenance contract to a "supported employment" agency, which has workers with disabilities among its mobile work crews.

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Section 4 - Work in Progress - July - December 2001

At the halfway point of the implementation of the Access Salisbury Action Plan 1999 – 2003, this report shows where progress has been made particularly in high priority areas identified through our community consultation.  

In the first few months of the 2001/02 financial year, some new projects have commenced which will be described in more detail in a future update.  Here they are listed as "work in progress" which will be of interest to the community.

•  Access audit of some suburban streetscape features, such as footpath provision, kerb ramp and kerb design.

•  Coordination of Council’s planning processes and provision of accessible infrastructure, for example, when wheelchair accessible housing and aged care housing is planned for a particular suburb, prompt attention needs to be paid to the accessibility of footpaths, road crossings and Council facilities likely to be required by the residents.

•  The interaction between the DDA and local Government Development Plans is still not clearly understood by local government. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has made a number of suggestions about how local government, in its role of development assessment, can increase its compliance with the DDA.

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•  A campaign has begun to develop "adaptable housing" standards so that new housing will provide, for example, wider doors, easy to adapt bathroom and kitchen facilities. If this becomes standard in new house construction, it will enable people to grow older within their own home without costly modifications in later life.

The City of Salisbury will keep up-to-date on this emerging community campaign.

Cartoon by Simon Kneebone

A woman is standing, facing a man in a wheelchair.
She says,  … You’re a disabled person …
He replies,  … A fairly TOGETHER person actually …

Back Cover
City of Salisbury
12 James Street
Salisbury  SA  5108

Telephone  08  8406 8222

Facsimile  08  8281 5466

Email  city@salisbury.sa.gov.au

Web  www.salisbury.sa.gov.au

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