Through barrier removal and diligent assessment of accessible features, businesses earn membership in BluePath and are promoted through an online directory. BluePath actively advertises its member businesses to people with disabilities and the organizations that work with them. BluePath helps businesses connect with an underutilized market of people with money to spend.

Through virtual feedback and response, BluePath facilitates a positive discussion about the needs of the customers and the abilities of the business to provide the best customer experience possible. BluePath aims to create understanding and build trust between businesses and people with disabilities. Through a variety of media, businesses can access technical assistance and information about accessibility guidelines, tax incentives, customer service and disability etiquette tips. BluePath seeks to calm the anxiety of businesses who don’t know where to begin when dealing with laws and codes

BluePath promotes businesses that have demonstrated minimum standards through a self-assessment process and seeks to advertise businesses that are user-friendly and have made a commitment to maintain as accessible an environment as possible.

Become a BluePath Member - FREE until June 2010!

BluePath promotes businesses that welcome people with disabilities as valuable customers.

Until restaurant reviews include comments on accessibility, potential customers with disabilities may only guess whether they can get into the restaurant and enjoy the food. The same is true for other retail establishments, hotels, and businesses, especially when one is traveling and in unfamiliar territory. At the same time, business owners may incorrectly assume their building is completely accessible, when relatively minor changes might vastly improve the ease with which customers with disabilities could use it. A new resource by Northwest ADA Center, called BluePath, should help both business owners and customers get together.

BluePath provides information for people with disabilities about where to shop, dine or go for fun. Through the directory of business profiles, customers with disabilities can find detailed descriptions of accessible features for locations in their community or travel destination, making it easier for them to travel through their world. Reviews and ratings from previous customers provide further information about their experience at the business. BluePath helps people with disabilities find businesses that are usable and committed to serving them.

Become a BluePath Member - FREE until June 2010!

BluePath promotes businesses that welcome people with disabilities as valuable customers.

Until restaurant reviews include comments on accessibility, potential customers with disabilities may only guess whether they can get into the restaurant and enjoy the food. The same is true for other retail establishments, hotels, and businesses, especially when one is traveling and in unfamiliar territory. At the same time, business owners may incorrectly assume their building is completely accessible, when relatively minor changes might vastly improve the ease with which customers with disabilities could use it. A new resource by Northwest ADA Center, called BluePath, should help both business owners and customers get together.

BluePath provides information for people with disabilities about where to shop, dine or go for fun. Through the directory of business profiles, customers with disabilities can find detailed descriptions of accessible features for locations in their community or travel destination, making it easier for them to travel through their world. Reviews and ratings from previous customers provide further information about their experience at the business. BluePath helps people with disabilities find businesses that are usable and committed to serving them.

Become a BluePath Member - FREE until June 2010!

More community settings cultivate encouragement where people help people see their abilities. They hold high, positive expectations that people will find ways to contribute, they support people to stretch a bit outside their comfort zone. People in a community are willing to make adjustments, to modify environments, procedures or routines to make it possible for everyone to participate more effectively. When people need personal assistance they have it in a way that doesn’t take away from their dignity or diminish their participation. They honor people’s preferences about who they want to assist them and what their preferences are.

When people with disabilities hold down a job, good employers expect as much from those employees as they do from the rest of their workforce. They understand that each person has their own way of completing their responsibilities and make adjustments or modify environments so that the person with a disability can be accountable for their work. They encourage and evaluate all of their employees, including those with disabilities and are willing to give them more challenging assignments that allow the person with a disability to grow in their job and within their chosen vocation. At all times they respect the person’s choices, knowing that their employee has the capacity and the capabilities needed to excel.

We invite you to welcome, encourage and assist others to join in and contribute.

King County Executive Dow Constantine has named 28 regional and community leaders to a new Regional Transit Task Force that will advise on the future of King County Metro Transit services. Jane Kuechle, Chief Development Officer for AtWork! and a member of Metro’s Transit Advisory Committee, was asked to serve representing Accessible Services. “I am please to be able to give voice to issues and concerns of people with disabilities and the elderly who make use of ACCESS transportation as well as METRO, Sound Transit and other forms of public transportation,” said Kuechle.

“I’ve asked this cross-section of regional leaders and transit users to engage in a discussion about how we can best deliver transit service for all parts of the county within the resources we have,” said Executive Constantine. “I deliberately sought a group of people who are willing to put aside political divisions and think creatively about how to plan a transit system that will serve us well in the future.”

Constantine said the conversation will include development of a comprehensive vision for what the regional transit system should look like in the future as well as criteria for systematically growing or reducing the transit system, depending on the revenues available. Kuechle said she welcomes input from the public regarding accessible transportation services. The geographically balanced 28-member task force includes a mix of elected officials and representatives of business, labor, education, and human service agencies, along with riders.

“Our goal was to pull together a task force that was diverse and represented the broad perspectives across our county—from students to elderly people, from business to labor, from Seattle to Maple Valley, and more,” said Metropolitan King County Councilmember Larry Phillips, sponsor of the motion creating the panel. “The Regional Transit Task Force is charged with developing a regional vision to shape our transit system for the future and address the revenue shortfalls Metro faces. I think these individuals, with input from the larger community, are up to that task.”

The task force is being asked to develop policy options for discussion by July and to adopt final policy recommendations by September 2010.

Community members give practical help in figuring out how to match the person’s capacities to work that needs doing and assuring that person can see how they make a difference to the whole effort. Information and knowledge are shared and they open clear ways that people can contribute ideas to the way things are done. Community members facilitate connections to networks and associations. They encourage people to recruit, support and build alliances. They offer opportunities for people to be well-informed ambassadors of the effort.

Good community networkers look around and discover ways that people with disabilities can contribute. They seize on opportunities and connect those who want to work with those who are looking for workers. They think outside the box and don’t just assume that if a person’s skills and talents match only part of a job that there is not a place for them. Sometimes workers with disabilities change a workplace for the better simply by their presence, even if their contribution appears small when measured against an employee who can do everything. Workers with disability bring a new diversity to the community....a presence that does not instill weariness....rather one that inspires us all to be courageous and find new ways to work together.

“I belong to this place and I act from responsibility for it.” In a good community more people can say, “My contribution is welcome and so am I.” There are more community settings that cultivate invitations to participate. Community members spend time listening to people in places where they are comfortable, discovering what they care about and what their capacities are. People reach out to ask clearly for active involvement. Community members are thoughtful about the ways people are welcomed and purposeful about greeting and involving newcomers. They also give thought to making their community accessible.

Community members can see how to contribute. They assist people to see a pathway that connects where they are now with a way of being involved. They think through the work to assure that there is something meaningful for each interested person to do. And they offer support so people understand how to be a part of things, both the tasks and the social dimension.

Good communities reach out and invite people with disabilities to participate, community members listen to discover what people with disabilities are good at and help them to find something to do that is meaningful for the person with a disability and for the community as a whole. They help the person with a disability be able to say, “My contribution is welcome and so am I.”