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ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT 

GETA’s approach to ensuring the physical accessibility of programs and services of individuals with disabilities as well as the accessibility of print and on-line materials. The GETA program is committed to creating both a social environment that is welcoming and embracing to people with disabilities and a physical environment that is welcoming and ensures accessibility to all of GETA’s programs, services, print and online materials. This includes GETA’s staff, students, family, community, and other audience members. We do this by being conscious about how we can reduce attitudinal barriers faced by people with disabilities in our program; these include: stereotyping, stigma, prejudice, and discrimination. Rather than seeing disabilities as shortcomings, we emphasize the need to recognize that we all face challenges and that we need to work together to create a community and society in which all people are supported to live independent and full lives. We do this by ensuring that our program reduces communication barriers experienced by people who have disabilities. This includes: barriers that affect hearing, speaking, reading, writing, and/or understanding, as well as those who use different ways to communicate than people who do not have these disabilities. Specifically, we are thoughtful about:

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·      the small print or large-print versions of our materials,

·      the need to use captions in our videos,

·      having bilingual or multilingual translations as needed in print and in person;

·      having a sign language interpreter for deaf or hard of hearing students,

·      carefully using technical language, long sentences, etc. that may be significant barriers to          understanding for people with cognitive impairments.

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People with disabilities may face structural obstacles that prevent or block their mobility or access to or in a building or physical space. GETA staff are consistently aware of the need to address any barriers stemming from steps and curbs that may block a student’s access to a building or sidewalk.

GETA staff are thoughtful about programmatic barriers that can limit the effective delivery of our program for people with disabilities. For this reason we are very intentional about:  

  • Program location,

  • Program scheduling,

  • The need to have accessible equipment such as microphones, stages, etc.,

  • Time set aside for additional meetings as needed,

  • GETA staff attitudes, knowledge, and understanding of people with disabilities,

  • Social barriers related to the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, learn, work and age.

  • Transportation barriers that can interfere with a students’ ability to be independent and to function in society.

  • In addition, our programs are provided free of charge to all participants. This supports people with disabilities because people with disabilities are more likely to have lower incomes than people without disabilities.

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