Strategic Planning: accessibility is a priority

Hearing and Speech Nova Scotia’s Strategic Plan 2024 (SP2024) has three Strategic themes: Accessibility, Communication, and Engagement. SP2024 is updated annually and reviewed quarterly to confirm the specific annual targets, which will ensure the organization is on track to achieve its long-term strategic goals. Hearing and Speech Nova Scotia is tightly integrated in its approach to everything it does. It is impossible to work on one target exclusively without also affecting another target or goal. We like to think of the three strategic themes Accessibility, Communication, and Engagement, interacting like a braid – work is intertwined in all three areas. 

In addition to our improvements in reducing waitlists for children, optimizing use of virtual care, and integrating EDI principles into our clinical guidelines, we have been busy in other areas of accessibility as well.  

True accessibility calls for a change in attitude, where everyone can participate fully in all aspects of our society. While it helps to have the right equipment in place, there is a much bigger requirement than installation of ramps, barrier free doors, and smart equipment. Accessibility is about being proactive to ensure everyone is included. It means identifying, preventing, and removing barriers as we improve our spaces, services, policies, and processes, so that all people can fully participate. It also means listening to people with varying abilities and perspectives, when they tell us something isn’t accessible — and then working together to remove the barriers. 

Our Partners In Care Advisory Committee and EDI Task Force provide recommendations to ensure that accessibility is “top of mind” when we develop policies, procedures, or services. We are dedicated to ensuring that our work and clinic spaces are safe and accessible. Our Occupational Health and Safety Committee has begun a detailed inventory of our sites, surveying areas of improvement to support the provincial accessibility standards. Over the years to come, HSNS will work in collaboration with our partners at NSH and IWK to ensure our spaces and services meet the new provincial guidelines.  

Hearing and Speech Nova Scotia is committed to providing a website that is accessible to all Nova Scotians, regardless of technology or ability. This site is built to adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities. It is our hope to make navigation of the HSNS website more user friendly for all people. 

Nova Scotians with communication challenges such as hearing loss, or speech and language disorders, can encounter barriers in everyday activities that most of us take for granted. Going to the bank, learning in school, attending a medical appointment, listening to music, or even talking to a loved one or neighbour, can pose a challenge for some 100,000 Nova Scotians. 

Through our business planning process and with financial support from the Department of Health and Wellness, HSNS has developed a plan to have assistive listening technology available for clients accessing services at any of our 35 sites. The implementation plan will ensure the assistive listening devices become a regular part of everyone’s day at HSNS. This will require not only the purchase and installation of the equipment, but also support our staff in integrating the use of the equipment in all aspects of their workday.