More accessible city council

City council agendas and meetings in Penticton are becoming more accessible, with the introduction of assistive technology.

“The City’s Accessibility Plan lays out a pathway for us to create a more livable and accessible community for residents and this initiative helps us in accomplishing that goal,” said city manager Anthony Haddad, in a press release.

"One of the recommendations was to offer live closed captioning of council meetings and with the introduction of this new meeting management platform we will be able to offer closed captioning for both live and recorded Council meetings. We’re committed to making the business of the city more accessible to everyone and this is an important step forward."

Features of the new tech, in addition to the closed captioning, include:

• Screen reader-compatible html versions of agendas and minutes that can be read aloud
• Clickable agendas to specific reports
• Clickable links to specific recorded video relevant to line items in the agenda, after the meeting

The new system will be in effect next week at the Nov. 5 meeting and is implemented into the agenda for that meeting, already available online here.