Hi and welcome to the Radical Access Mapping Project. RAMP consists of one person (yours truly!) and three main focuses: accessibility auditing / consulting, video/film captioning, and personal reflections on ableism, accessibility, intersections.
Auditing/Consulting
RAMP’s accessibility auditing is about collectively creating useful, accurate, broad-based and up-to-date accessibility information about the physical environment that has meaning in our actual lives so we can make informed choices about what events and spaces we participate in and support. The Radical Access Mapping Project began in 2009 out of frustration over the lack of useful (or often any) accessibility information in our communities. Auditing spaces is just one piece among many.
The audit isn’t purely a checklist, and is not intended as a stand alone piece. Please check out this post on really getting what an audit is all about
Video/Film Captioning
Captioning and subtitling is a great way for more folks to access video & film. As someone who finds it difficult to process some audio communication, it certainly helps me understand things better. And it can make it possible for others to participate in an otherwise pretty alienating & sometimes completely inaccessible event. Captions have limitations in that they are -in my case as someone who captions things in english- simply my english representation, a literal copy, word for word, of what’s happening on screen. It cannot replace, for example, what a viewer would experience if the video was sign language interpreted. Captions cannot capture the nuances of an entire language, and are not a fill-in for sign language interpretations.
While captioning and subtitling is not the be-all end-all, but just one more piece of the puzzle, i think the bulk of us are looking towards greater inclusivity, wider community nets, empowerment, involvement, liberation, yes? Yes. And every bit helps.
Here you’ll find a growing list of many of the videos RAMP has captioned. I predominantly caption via Amara but have also begun adding those videos to the RAMP Youtube channel (this process will take some time as i don’t want to simply sync up the accounts).
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radical access mapping project 
Hey! I had a stroke about 5 years ago and was in a manual chair for a couple years. I am on disability and I have all my major deficits well in control. I really dig what RAMP is about and doing, and I would like to get involved!
So far I am loving what you are doing. I have only read one Audit ( Colbalt) and it did not seem to address high seating ( low seating yes). I have a pet peeve here in Vancouver with so many restaurants and bars have too much bar stool seating. I actually try to boycott places that or so inconsiderate with their seating like Portland Craft on Main street where 100% of the seating on the main level is not what I would consider accessible.
Tina Dam, i totally agree. It’s so important to acknowledge this. Seating is often unaccessible, whether too high or too low, arms, no arms, etc [many suck for me personally, but these days since i bring my own seat everywhere (my mobility scooter) i guess it’s less of an issue lol]. Vancouver does have a ton of bar stools that are basically deathtraps and low seating (lounge-y i guess?) that want to suck people into the floor. In the audits i purposefully ask for specific measurements, which for me makes it less possible to argue (“oh but it’s important for the ambience!” “oh but that’s just one person’s opinion”, etc) and easier (for me anyways) to figure out if it’ll actually work for folks. i think with your input here i’ll add something more to the audit asking if it’s all bar stools/etc. :)
Hi. Would you know if there Is there “community ramp program” in the Lower Mainland? Some of us like building stuff and want to do something meaningful with our spare time.
As far as i know, there isn’t one here yet. i keep thinking about trying to get something started, but health stuff continues to get in the way. Have you checked out the StopGap program? http://stopgap.ca/
It says that Vancouver has a preliminary community ramp program, with an email contact. Maybe check that out and let us know how it goes?