Disabilities committee looking for project ideas
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on April 1, 2009 1:46 PM
The Mayor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities is looking for ideas for a project to undertake this year.
The committee, formed in the mid-1970s, helps provide people with disabilities the kinds of opportunities that non-handicapped people take for granted -- like being able to shop for clothes without the wheelchair knocking clothes off the racks, said committee member Scottie Weathers.
Last year's project to update handicapped signs in the city was the most ambitious one the committee has ever taken on, she said. Each committee member went to 100 businesses to survey the signs to see which ones were in compliance with state law.
"It took a long time. We had to get out and measure the signs and make sure they were the right height off the ground," she said.
In previous years, the committee has done things like working with the city to get Braille signs in public buildings and offices and to help set up curb-side voting.
But the ideas to do these things came from people contacting the committee and talking about problems and issues, Ms. Weathers said.
"The reason we did the handicapped parking signs project was because so many people had come to us and told us," she said.
To share ideas for future projects, contact the committee chairman, Naomi Colie, at 735-5152 extension 260 or send her an email at [email protected]. Information about the committee is also available at the city's Web site, www.ci.goldsboro.nc.us.
Or anybody from the public can attend a committee meeting held at noon on every third Thursday at the Texas Steakhouse restaurant. The pubic is welcome, Ms. Weathers said, and the committee is looking for new members, too.
"Occasionally we have people from the public come if there's something they want us to know about -- a problem or an issue to work on," she said. "We like to have a real good issue somebody needs help with."