Live closed captioning and clickable agenda links are among the new accessibility features implemented for Penticton City Council meetings.
City officials say the new system will increase accessibility for residents in several ways, with most of the changes set to take effect when municipal politicians gather for their regular meeting on Nov. 5.
“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,” says city manager Anthony Haddad.
“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."
Other features of the new technology include:
• Residents with a screen reader will now be able to use the HTML versions of agendas and minutes to render the text and image content as speech
• Clickable agenda links that take a viewer directly to the report ahead of council meetings
• After a council meeting has concluded, there will be clickable links to take users directly to a video of the selected agenda item
Council's next meeting — which will also feature a public hearing — is scheduled to begin on Tuesday at 1 p.m.
"We’re committed to making the business of the city more accessible to everyone, and this is an important step forward," Haddad said.
