Austin seeks feedback to help improve quality of life for people with disabilities

Austin's Office of Civil Rights is seeking feedback from people with disabilities who work and live in the city to identify the community's top needs and develop a quality of life plan.

Carol Johnson, the city's Office of Civil Rights director, said the quality of life survey among people with disabilities, which is being performed through online and in-person canvassing, began in August.

The city is conducting the survey with the help of Public Consulting Group, a firm that works with the public sector to improve operations. 

The online survey is available in English and Spanish. In-person survey sessions, which are set for Oct. 25-26, will be accessible for those with disabilities and will be an opportunity for people with disabilities to share their stories. The office aims to share its findings with the community early next year, she said. 

"We're hoping to get a lot of feedback from people sharing their experiences, telling us what they need, what has worked, what hasn't worked, what can the city do better or what's the city doing right," Johnson said. "We want to make this process as accessible as possible so that we can hear from more people, and so that's why we did the online survey as well." 

More:With gas prices at 7-year high, Austin drivers feel the pinch

Travis County, including Austin, is home to more than 100,000 people with disabilities. In the past year, the city has launched initiatives to help improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. 

Last week, the city announced it partnered with Travis County tolaunch an emergency alert system for deaf, blind, and hard of hearing populations.  Austin is only the third city in Texas to launch an emergency program of this kind behind San Antonio and Fort Worth.

Earlier this year, the city also approved a resolution that would designate a permanent disability community liaison who is multilingual in English, American Sign Language, Spanish and Vietnamese to work with people with disabilities. 

"Oftentimes the disability community is left out of the conversation. They're left out of the planning and the discussion and what we get is something that is not accessible to many members of our community so we need to be more intentional about that engagement," Johnson said. "It's really, really important that we take every opportunity possible to understand the needs of the disability community. These are important conversations that are going to drive policy and the plans that we have as a city." 

The Austin Civil Rights Office — which was approved by the City Council in 2020 after social and racial unrest locally and across the country — investigates compliance with local, state and federal civil rights and nondiscrimination laws.  

More:Majority of Austin LGBTQ community reports high quality of life, but disparities persist

How to share feedback

In-person survey sessions are set for Oct. 25 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.; 2 to 3:30 p.m.; and 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the city of Austin's Permitting and Development Center in North Austin, 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Drive, in Rooms 1401 and 1402.

Another in-person session will be Oct. 26 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.; 2 to 3:30 p.m.; and 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the nonprofit offices of Arc of Texas in Northeast Austin, 8001 Centre Park Drive.

Virtual survey sessions are set for Oct. 28 from 4 to 5:30 p.m., and on Oct. 29 from noon to 1:30 p.m.

To register for the in-person and virtual sessions, go to https://bit.ly/3avT9Jv

In-person survey meetings will be limited to 10 people per session. To take the survey online, go to https://bit.ly/3s6zYOk

Austin American-Statesman reporter Natalia Contreras can be reached at 512-626-4036 or ncontreras@statesman.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook, @NataliaECG.