f f Access 2 Entertainment

In this issue:

What’s New with Access 2 P. 1-3New Venues in 2011 P. 4-5

City of London P. 6Access 2 Ambassador P. 7

New Card Design P. 7

The Survey Results are in. See what cardholders had to say...

A c c e s s 2 E n t e r t a i n m e n t n e w s l e t t e r

I S S U E

01J a n u a r y

2 0 1 2

2011 Cardholder Survey We got overwhelming feedback from our cardholders through a national survey. See some of the results on P1-P3

New Venues of 2011!We’re expanding beyond movie theatres to offer you more entertainment choices with your Access 2 card. See a map and list of all the new 2011 venues on P4-5. See how you can help get your favourite venues on board on P7

City of LondonFirst municipality to accept the Access 2 Entertainment card city-wide. See the story on P6

New Card DesignCheck it out on P7

In 2011 Easter Seals Canada partnered with Queen’s University to conduct an online survey of Access 2 Entertainment carholders to learn more about the clients we serve and what they think about the program. The survey was emailed to 14,000 Access 2 Entertainment cardholders across Canada and 22% of those emailed provided us with great insight about the program. The high response rate reflected our cardholders’ desire to give feedback and be involved in the program’s evolution.

Access 2 Entertainment Cardholder Survey

We discovered a lot about the Access 2 Entertainment cardholders we serve with many respondents providing detailed answers to open-ended questions. The results we collected from the survey respondents have provided us with crucial information which we can use to better service our members.

The Results

Here is a sample of some of our key findings from the Access 2 Entertainment Survey:

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Here’s what some of our cardholders had to say about the Access 2 Entertainment Card:

“Life is about living. [The A2E card] provides more opportunities to get out and enjoy life”

“It’s a wonderful service that encourages individuals to socialize, be happy and have fun more often with others and go places that they wouldn’t necessarily go on their own. A great emotional booster!”

• Organizations that serve people with disabilities recognize the benefits of the program: The majority of cardholders first learned about the program from a disability service organization such as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the Canadian Paraplegic Association, Autism Ontario, Community Living and Easter Seals provincial and national offices. The strong promotion of the Access 2 Entertainment program from community partners reveals how receptive and helpful the program can be for people with disabilities.

• The card increased opportunities towards an active lifestyle, which is the foundation of good health and wellbeing: Over 70% of respondents noted that they use the card at least once every 2 months. Of that group, half reported to use the card 1-3 times a month. The card has facilitated an increase in leisurely activities to movie theatres and cultural attractions and encouraged cardholders to go out more often. Sixty-two percent of respondents reported that the card had increased their visits to theatres and attractions. Half of that group (31.7% of the total) reported the card had increased their outings to the movies by a lot.

• Movies are very popular, and theatres are getting it right: According to the survey, the Access 2 Entertainment card is primarily used for outings at movie theatres. Films are a popular pastime for everyone and many of the cardholders were very satisfied with the customer service they received at movie theatres.

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“The card is great and has really helped me. My budget is very limited so this has really helped me go to movies that I otherwise could not afford”

“I think it gives people with disabilities the financial ability to have their friends or attendant be able to go out with them. This allows much more social interaction which I think is key to self-esteem

“Having the Access 2 Entertainment Card allows me to be more independent from my family. I can go out with a group of friends or a worker instead of my parents.”

“It increases awareness that those with a disability often require an attendant.”

Valuable feedback

We received many detailed suggestions and questions about the program, all of which we took to heart. One of the most common suggestions concerned the addition of new venues. In 2011 we began working hard to expand the number and variety of entertainment venues available to our members. (See page 4-5 for more info).

Many of our loyal cardholders have helped us spread the news about the program to new venues and attractions across Canada. These conversations have evolved into our new Access 2 Entertainment Ambassador program. You can learn more about how to be an Access 2 Entertainment Ambassador on (see page 7 of this newsletter).

Moving forward, our improved services will come from diversifying the range of attractions accepting the Access 2 Entertainment card. We will have a collection of common suggestions, questions and concerns and our responses on our website. Please visit www.access2.ca for this and more detailed survey information.

We reach our goals together

The Access 2 Entertainment program’s success has a great deal to do with the efforts from disability service providers across Canada and for that we truly would like to express our gratitude. We wish we had the opportunity to personally thank all of our community partners who help get the word out on the program. With your help, we are confident that we can achieve fair, equitable customer service at entertainment venues across the country.

We would like to take this final opportunity to thank our survey respondents as well as the families, friends, and community partners that use and promote the Access 2 Entertainment Card. We invite you to continue giving us feedback in any of the following ways:

a2e@easterseals.ca 1-877-376-6362

coming soon...

www.twitter.com/a2ecard

New Venues of 2011

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*

* Représente le nombre d’attractions dans la même ville

We would like to welcome the 73 new venues that have signed onto the Access 2 Entertainment Program in 2011.

New Venues of 2011

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First municipality to fully accept the Access 2 Entertainment Card!

Easter Seals Canada and Michael Dawthorne from the Canadian Hearing Society approached the City of London’s Accessibility Advisory Committee with the goal of having all municipal venues accept the Access 2 Entertainment card at their admissions desks. To our delight, after a few constructive meetings, the City of London became the first municipality to accept the Access 2 Entertainment card at all of their city-owned venues.

Effective July 1, 2011, 34 new venues became open to Access 2 Entertainment members including indoor and outdoor pools, arenas, parks, city-owned golf courses, and community centre programs.

The City of London’s acceptance of the Access 2 Entertainment card across the board at all of its venues echoed the city’s direction towards achieving better accessibility for people

City of London

with disabilities. We hope that London represents the first of many municipalities to adopt the program across Canada.

We will continue to look to new cities to expand the program’s reach for recreation. The diverse set of activities offered by many cities can contribute to a healthy and active lifestyle and will help add great value to our program. Diversity in what the Access 2 Entertainment program can offer to its members is essential for moving the program forward toward achieving fully accessible customer service in entertainment and recreation. Check out our website for a full list of all the venues in the City of London that now accept the Access 2 Entertainment card: www.access2.ca.

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London Venues Accepting the Acess 2 Card:

Indoor Pools:

Canada Games Aquatic Centre,Carling Heights Optimist Centre,South London Community Pool

Outdoor Pools:

Byron Rec Centre,East Lion, Gibbons Park,Glen Cairn Arena,Northeast,Northridge,Oakridge Arena/Park,Silverwood Arena,Southcrest, Stonach Rec Centre,Thames,Westminster

City Owned Golf Courses:

Fanshawe Golf Club,River Road,E.V.Buchanan Thames Valley

The Access 2 Entertainment Card’s got a new look!

Be an ambassador. Get venues to join the Access 2 Entertainment Program! Imagine a world where you could use your Access 2 Entertainment (A2E) card at all of your favourite venues! In order to serve our 44,000 cardholders better, A2E has been reaching out to entertainment venues all over Canada. So far, we’ve gained the participation of over 60 new venues in 2011 alone, with many more to come in 2012—and you can help!

Thanks to our cardholders speaking to their local venues (museums, art galleries, independent movie theatres, zoos, community centres and more), we have been able to connect with places our cardholders truly love visiting.

To facilitate these efforts, we’ve developed an outreach letter, which is sent in the welcome package to all new and

renewing cardholders. We encourage you to present this to venues that may not know about or accept the A2E Card. If you don’t have a sheet, don’t worry. You can request that we send you one, or you can simply direct venues to our website where they can find all of the information they need to get involved! You can also suggest that they give us a call to find out what the A2E program is all about at: 1-877-376-6362

We’ve redesigned the Access 2 Entertainment Card. The card design began rolling out in November 2011 and will replace the old design in the coming years.

That doesn’t mean that your old card is obsolete! Both the old and new card designs will be accepted at participating venues until each card’s expiry date.

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Recreation Skating Arenas:

Argyle Arena,Carling Rec Centre, Earl Nichols Centre/Arena,Farquharson Arena,Glen Cairn Arena,Kinsmen Arena,Lambeth Arena,Medway Arena,Oakridge Arena/Park,Silverwood Arena,Stonach Rec Centre

Drop-In Community Centre Programs:

Carling Heights Optmist Community Centre,Stronach Rec Centre,Kiwanis Senior Centre,Hamilton Rd Senior Centre

Storybook Gardens:

1958 Storybook Lane

Access 2 Entertainment | Issue 01 | January 2012

Access 2 EntertainmentC/O Easter Seals Canada40 Holly Street, suite 401

Toronto, OnM4S 3C3

www.access2.caa2e@easterseals.ca