THE PEOPLE ACCESS TEAM
Sarah White – Director of Accessibility Education and Consulting
Sarah’s areas of expertise include adult education and the interpretation of legislation. She has worked in the field of accessibility legislation for the past 10 years. In previous roles, Sarah developed a wide variety of accessibility-related training sessions and provided innovative organizational solutions. As a subject matter expert, Sarah provides information and insight on accessibility for various media, associations, and business groups. The Human Rights Legal Support Centre has acknowledged Sarah White as an expert witness to testify on matters concerning accessibility before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Sarah is both an author and a speaker on accessibility. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science, and a Diploma in Adult Education, is an ISO Lead Auditor, and a Certified Municipal Manager.
Christine Karcza – Associate Consultant
Christine has over 30 years of experience in disability management, coaching for change, and transforming organizations into banner destinations for people with disabilities. While managing the challenges of her own disability, she engages others to push their boundaries, to shift any negative stereotyped attitudes towards people with disabilities, and to find innovative and realistic solutions to overcoming barriers that prevent full and meaningful participation.
As both a consultant and a motivational speaker, her work has broken new ground in accessibility for private, government, and not-for-profit organizations. Acting as barrier-free advisor to the Royal Ontario Museum, she initiated access, program, and service breakthroughs resulting in the Ontario Public Service requesting permission to use the ROM as a model for implementing the AODA.
Christine is a member of an Advisory Team to the Honourable David C. Onley, The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. She is also an Honorary Member of the Board of Trustees for the ROM, and a member of the Quadrangle Society, Massey College, University of Toronto.
A world traveler, she was the subject of a CBC film, “Portrait of Christine”, was a delegate at the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Studies Conference, and was the recipient of the Adrienne Clarkson Public Service Laureateship Award for outstanding public service.
Linda Markowsky – Associate Consultant
Linda has worked throughout her career to promote change through community animation, public education and group problem solving. She worked for 20 years in the federal and Ontario governments in policy and management positions focussed on stakeholder engagement, community-based solutions and communicating legislative reform. In her most recent role she worked with the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario, inspiring organizations across Ontario to understand the opportunities and requirements of Ontario`s accessibility legislation and regulations.
Linda holds a B.A from Queen’s University and an M.A. from York University. Mid-career, she worked as a private consultant for 15 years, focussed on justice for victims of violence. In this period, she published four books and received a lifetime achievement award from the Justice Institute of B.C. for her work promoting awareness and prevention of violence. Linda hopes to continue her passion for encouraging awareness and change through creative, collaborative approaches at People Access.
Dorothy Macnaughton – Associate Consultant
As a person with low vision, Dorothy understands how living with a disability on a daily basis impacts one’s life and how important it is to have a positive attitude. She has been an accessibility advocate for over twenty years, working for greater accessibility for people with all types of disabilities. On several occasions Dorothy presented submissions, on behalf of people with disabilities, to provincial Ministers and Members of Provincial Parliament, as well as to Charles Beer.
Dorothy has extensive knowledge about accessible formats, accessible information, and adaptive technology. She has experience testing web sites and power point presentations for accessibility with screen reading and magnification software. She developed national accessible library service guidelines and resources for the Initiative for Equitable Library Access, Library and Archives Canada. Dorothy has intimate knowledge of the challenges involved in achieving equitable library access across Canada. Dorothy has been involved in policy development and accessible customer service training for a number of churches. She has designed specific materials to help make church facilities and services more accessible to everyone.
Dorothy has served on a number of Boards and Accessibility Advisory Committees, including the Sault/Algoma CNIB Advisory and District Boards, Sault Ste. Marie Accessibility Advisory Committee, the Municipal Accessibility Project Team for the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks, and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) and the Elections Ontario Accessibility Advisory Committee.
Barry Kaplan – Associate Consultant
Barry recently joined People Access after eight years as Accessibility Coordinator with the City of Kingston. His direct management of the planning and implementation of the ODA and planning for the five AODA regulations in the municipality, along with outreach programs to the business community, have made Barry a strong resource to assist organizations with their own compliance journeys. Previously, he was the Executive Director for the Frontenac Council on Aging, concerned with safety and security of seniors in rental housing. Before that, he spent six years as partner in a consulting firm, facilitating strategic planning sessions for large public sector organizations.
Barry has a Master of Public Administration degree from Queen’s University and an Honours Bachelor of Political Science degree from the University of Toronto. He lives in Kingston, Ontario with his two teenage children.
Marcia O’Connor – Manager, Building Accessibility Program
Marcia joined People Access to steer and manage the Accessibility Audit Program which combines her expertise in the built environment with the new Accessibility Standards.
Marcia is a senior business consultant with more than 25 years of experience working with public and private sector organizations, Her areas of specialty include facilities space planning, real estate management, strategic planning, implementation planning, and coordination of facility evaluations and building reviews. Marcia is also a seasoned project manager, having successfully and effectively led multi-disciplined teams to meet desired deliverables for a number of portfolio reviews.
Marcia is a member of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), and Canadian Management Consultants (CMC). Marcia currently provides program expertise and coordinates the Facility Management Certificate Program, offered for the last twelve years at the University of Toronto, and the Evidence-Based Facility Management program offered at the University of Toronto in partnership with the Centre for Maintenance Optimization and Reliability Engineering.
Penny Smith – Accessibility Trainer
Penny Smith’s working career started with the City of Oshawa within the Recreation and Senior Citizens Departments. While there she developed a variety of transferable training skills. Her years of working within the not-for-profit sector, and more specifically as Executive Director for twelve (12) years on a farm designed for individuals with special needs, has made her very passionate about ensuring a quality of life for all. To that end she has become very knowledgeable about the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
More recently as Interim Executive Director of an umbrella organization supporting several agencies that work with clients attempting to find meaningful employment, Penny has been able to bring her many years of hands-on training and consultation to this position.
Russ Gahan – Vice President, Operations
Russ joined Excellence Canada, when it was still the National Quality Institute, in March 2008. He is the lead on special projects and manages strategic alliances and partnerships. His entrepreneurial experience in small and medium business provides a knowledgeable approach for Excellence Canada in developing products and services for that sector.
Russ holds a BSc from the University of Toronto and has worked in corporate finance, business administration, and marketing for over 30 years, most recently as Vice-President and CFO of Tele-Find Technologies Corp. He led the development and financing of a proprietary medical data storage and retrieval system, permitting an individual to take control of their own medical history and retrieve it instantly when needed by an emergency care-giver in a crisis.
Russ is committed to helping Canada’s large and small workplaces become the healthiest and most productive in the world. He is the lead manager of the People Access division and is an active proponent of accessibility, not only for the benefit of people with disabilities, but for the future health of Canadian organizations and society.
David Segal – Executive Director
David is an enthusiastic team builder who provides leadership and strategic vision for the People Access Division. As an experienced entrepreneur, David has worked with major organizations such as Telus, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, and Reader’s Digest. David’s specialty is building strategic partnerships and he has demonstrated success in building one of Canada’s largest electronic point-of-sale networks featuring over 12,000 retail locations including 7-Eleven, Mac’s Milk and Shoppers Drug Mart. Known for his strong communication and diplomatic skills, David has the ability to influence key decision makers in order to build mutually beneficial strategic partnerships. One of David’s greatest strengths is his ability to bridge innovative accessibility solutions with the practical needs of the client.
David is extremely passionate about the AODA. His mother, Margaret, after a debilitating stroke at the age of 43 in 1962, spent the next 25 years in a wheelchair experiencing an indifferent and frequently inaccessible world. He feels that, in many ways, her courage and forbearance are now being rewarded through the AODA.
