Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods (CAN) was formed in 2005 based on the need to have an organization to advocate for a transit inaccessibility issue. Our founder, Heather McCain (they/them), was excited to finally have a power wheelchair which would allow them access to their friends, medical appointments, volunteering, and the broader community. At least half of the time, when they tried to take transit, drivers acted as gatekeepers and misinformed Heather that the ramps weren’t operating. Heather lived in Maple Ridge, where the buses only came once an hour, this severely impacted Heather’s ability to access their community.

Heather wrote letter after letter to TransLink with no response. They tried to find an organization who would help but was unable to. At the time, Heather ran a Chronic Pain Support Group. They were discussing this issue and the lack of organizations to take on issues like this. A member of the support group suggested that Heather could create an organization to fill the need – or at least address this 1 transit issue. Heather looked into it and it seemed fairly simple. They appointed members of the support group as board members and registered Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods (CAN) a non-profit society.

Following the incorporation of Citizens for Accessible Neighbourhoods, Heather wrote the same letter they’d already sent to TransLink but this time they wrote Executive Director under their name and 1 week later they received a response.

Locally, Heather began to deliver disability awareness seminars and create and perform accessibility audits. They recognized that many people did not have access to information about people with disabilities until they became disabled. It was vital, to Heather, that more people learn about life with a disability and how accessibility was important to all communities. During this time, they were fortunate to meet mentors that would increase their access to opportunities and teach them skills that they use to this day.

Heather realized that the public perception of “disability” was not a true reflection of the people they met who lived with disability on a daily basis. Heather, who had been a writer from a young age, walked in a local Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times newspaper office and suggested to the editor that they become a monthly contributor. Their popular monthly column “Abilities” ran for five years. Each month they interviewed a person with a disability or health issue, visible or invisible. The response to this column was overwhelming as health issues are often kept in the dark and not openly discussed. This column gave people permission to share their true selves and their true stories. It was a powerful example of how important storytelling is to understanding and initiating conversation.

As Heather and their team worked on a broader range of projects, they heard from many members who said that they could be disabled in disabled spaces but didn’t feel comfortable and/or safe in sharing their intersectional identities. These identities include: gender, age, culture, education, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, body size, income, and/or race. People with disabilities have many intersecting identities. Heather, for example, is disabled (they also use the terms crip and mad), neurodivergent, queer, trans, non-binary and aromantic and asexual (meaning that they don’t experience romantic or sexual attractions). Heather also noticed how geographical location really impacted a person’s experience with disability. Being disabled in Vancouver is very different to being disabled in other areas of the province where 1 has to drive a long distance to access medical help, where ERs close early, and where there might not be as active of a disability community.

Those at LET’S wanted to ensure that the entire disabled person is considered. When someone enters our space, we want them to know they can bring all aspects of their self.

In the mid 2010s, LET’S shifted how we operated. We took advantage of educational opportunities to learn how we could better apply a Disability Justice framework and intersectional lens. Disability Justice was created in 2005 from conversations between black, brown, queer, and trans people including Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, Stacy Milbern, Leroy Moore, Eli Clare, and Sebastian Margaret, in reaction to their exclusion in the mainstream disability movement and studies, and the focus on straight, white males with physical disabilities.

By using a Disability Justice framework, we recognize and acknowledge the intersecting legacies of ableism, audism, colonialism, capitalism, gendered oppression, white supremacy, and how those legacies have led to exclusion, isolation, and oppression of disabled people. LET’S works to challenge the way people think of disability and shift how we advocate and educate about social change.

In 2018, LET’S began to facilitate Chronically Queer (CQ), a peer-facilitated support group for 2SLGBTQIA+ people who are neurodivergent, mad, crip, chronically ill, and/or disabled. We aim to create a supportive and welcoming environment where participants can be themselves fully and openly without fear of judgment. We provide participants an opportunity to engage in an encouraging and caring environment, share personal stories/feelings, listen as others share their experiences, and learn coping strategies. Great conversations and relationships have developed thanks to this group.

In 2019, LET’S did a year-long board project where we were aiming to create a database of diverse qualified board candidates and match them with boards. We were tired of organizations saying they represented certain populations but not actually having anyone from those populations in positions of power. We started by interviewing people with decades of board experience, those new to boards, those contemplating joining boards, and those who didn’t consider themselves board material. By the end of the year, we realized that we didn’t want to participate in placing candidates from populations pushed to the margins because until the environment of boards changed, retention would not happen, tokenism would. Instead, we focused on switching our attention to education.

We had been teaching Disability Awareness since 2005. We did our first Disability Justice workshop when it was requested by Cicely Belle Blain for the 2019 Stratagem Conference. Following the board diversity project, we started developing and delivering more workshops, including: Breaking Barriers, Crip Kindness, Gender & Sexuality, and Imposter Syndrome.

1 thing we heard repeatedly in our board diversity project was people, who we felt were qualified candidates, that they would feel like an imposter in board settings. We wanted to address the fact that Imposter Syndrome is not just a personal issue, it is systemic and based on who gets to be in power and how they gatekeep positions of power. We also added 2 Queer + Trans History workshops, 1 about BC history and the other about Canadian history. Both workshops were developed by Harmony Bongat.

In March 2020, our lives were turned upside down by the first case of community transmission of COVID in Canada, here in British Columbia. Emergency measures were taken and we realized we needed to adapt our plans to deliver community and in person workshops. COVID increased understanding about accessibility. It was frustrating for many disabled people, who’d been fighting for access for years, to see accessibility become available when non-disabled people needed it. LET’S adapted to online workshops.

Since that time, we are proud to facilitate workshops across Turtle Island (colonially known as Canada) and have audience participants from around the world, including: England, Ireland, Japan, Cape Town and other places around the world. Since 2020, LET’S has continued our focus on education.

LET’S made another adaption to our services, when COVID restrictions were lifted. We had previously performed accessibility audits by using an accessibility checklist and measuring the venue. This provided clients with a lot of detailed information. Unfortunately, we found that this information often went into a drawer and didn’t see the light of day and wasn’t utilized. We changed how we did our audits. Instead of us taking detailed information, we took staff on a guided tour of their venue. This allowed for more back and forth, with staff asking more questions and actively seeing how different folks interact with their space. We had staff take their own notes so it would be in their industry’s/workplace’s language. We then work with them to create an accessibility protocol and develop plans for future improvements. We encourage clients to pair the accessibility assessment with disability awareness training for staff and management. This has been incredibly popular with clients. It has led to more post-assessment improvements and follow-through. The conversation that occurs during the audit also leads to future communication, as people feel more comfortable asking questions and clarifying questions.

LET’S is also involved with research. In June 2023, LET’S partnered with Realize, an Ontario non-profit for a research study about 2SLGBTQIA+ folks with episodic disabilities. LET’S prioritizes modeling how lived expertise can be used to better research projects, community engagement, and conversations.

LET’S hosted 1-on-1 interviews via Zoom with 46 participants from British Columbia and Ontario. Our team included several interviewers and researchers. Alfiya Battalova, Bastion Marshall, Heather McCain, and Kale Gösen.

Our study revealed the diverse and often challenging employment journeys faced by 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals with episodic disabilities.

These narratives, rich in their complexities, shed light on the myriad of obstacles and aspirations that shape the lives of our fellow community members.

In order to collect and report on the stories of our members, we wanted the process to be accessible, comfortable, safe, and encouraging for participants. We have learned, over the years, from personal and organizational experience, how community engagement often shows bias and prejudice in ways that people without lived expertise wouldn’t notice. It was important to us to get varied perspectives and experiences and demonstrate how different intersecting identities affect a person’s experience.

Our participants’ ages varied from teen to late 50s. The majority of our respondents in BC were not from Vancouver as too much in our province is Vancouver-centric. It was important to us that people be given the chance to self-identify instead of picking from pre-determined categories. The richness this provides helps to demonstrate the broad spectrum of identities.

The study revealed the stark realities of employment barriers faced by many in our community. These challenges are not abstract concepts; they are the lived experiences of individuals striving for opportunities and facing systemic obstacles.

In 2023, LET’S launched our low sensory space service during Pride season. Low/reduced sensory spaces are specially designed safe, calming environments created for neurodivergent folks, including people with ADHD, autism, sensory processing disorders, anxiety, depression, mental health issues, and more.

Low/reduced sensory spaces provide customized environments for people to decompress and have much needed breaks from overwhelming sensory input (noise, crowds, smells, lighting), strong emotions, and socializing. People who are not neurodivergent also benefit from access to low/reduced sensory spaces.

The low sensory spaces are particularly moving because we are creating the spaces we needed as children/teens and did not have. We watch visitors walk walk into our low sensory spaces and burst into tears because they know their children will have access to spaces that they didn’t. And, as adults, they get to meet their needs in a safe, supportive environment.

An example of the importance of low sensory spaces was experienced at Victoria Pride. The 1st 2 people to arrive were 2 friends. They walked into the tent and 1 of them burst into tears. Their friend said “see, people do care about you”. The 1 who was crying said that they often don’t feel worthy and the tent validated their identity.

This kind of experience makes all the work worth it!

The next 2 people to enter the space spent a lot of time looking at the meditation stickers, reading them and breathing with the prompts. 1 of them said they were having panic attacks the whole way over to Pride because it was the first event they’d been to after coming out. They needed a reminder to breathe. After a bit, they said they were ready to go out, knowing there was a safe space they could access if they needed to.

This representation, these spaces, matters! This type of representation makes a positive impact on people who are under-represented or who don’t see themselves represented.

In 2024, LET’S provided low sensory spaces at the following Pride celebrations: East Side Pride, Fraser Valley Pride, Kamloops Pride, Nanaimo Pride, Vancouver Pride, and Victoria Burnaby Pride. We also work with organizations doing events for International Overdose Awareness Day and Clean Air and at a Human Rights Conference for Canada Pride.