1.2 Our commitment

The organization is also committed to:
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- Complying with accessibility laws, whether for our customers, our business activities or our employees.

-Treating everyone with respect, preserving their dignity and independence.

-Respond quickly to the accessibility needs of people with disabilities, in line with the principles of inclusion and equality.


This plan therefore describes our objectives and actions to eliminate and prevent barriers encountered by people with disabilities.

1.3 Send us your comments

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions regarding accessibility, please contact the person in charge of receiving accessibility-related feedback, Samuel Harel. We welcome feedback on our Accessibility Plan to improve our services.

SAMUEL HAREL
samuel@montgolfieres.com
(450) 346-6000

1.4 REQUEST for accessible formats

You can request a copy of our accessibility plan and feedback process in the following formats: print, large print, audio. We will do our best to provide you with the requested format as soon as possible.

Audio formats can take up to 45 business days, while print, large print and electronic formats are generally available within 20 business days.
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To obtain this document in another format, or a description of our feedback process, please contact the following person:

SAMUEL HAREL
samuel@montgolfieres.com
(450) 346-6000

SOCIAL MEDIA
-Facebook
-Instagram
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1.5 ACCESSIBILITY PLAN

The International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is adopting an accessibility plan to facilitate access to its festival and services for people with disabilities. This plan will be in force from 2024 to 2027, and will be renewed after this period. We are committed to updating it annually through new consultations, in order to quickly identify new barriers and make adjustments to the actions undertaken.

1.6 GOALS
‍TheInternational Balloon Festival also sets goals to overcome barriers in each of its sectors, including production, operations, human resources and communications.

1. By the end of 2024, the International Balloon Festival will work with organizations to roll out accessibility training to its staff and volunteers

2. By the end of 2024, the International Balloon Festival will implement an analysis and monitoring process to identify barriers before and during its festival.

3. By the end of 2027, the International Balloon Festival plans to make the majority of its facilities accessible with ramps and adapted paths.

4. The organization also plans to improve all its communications by 2025, in order to prevent and better inform people about its accessibility initiatives.

2. Download our accessibility plan

3. Consultation

3.1 OVERVIEW
Consultations were held with people with disabilities to understand and identify existing barriers. These consultations took the form of surveys and questionnaires, overseen by accessibility advisors, including Pascal Constant, accessibility and community development advisor for the City of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, organizations such as LE RAPLIQ, and round tables representing several disability organizations in the Haut-Richelieu region.

3.2 PROCESSES

This questionnaire, available online as well as at our offices, was conducted from March to May 2024, offering respondents the opportunity to continue the conversation with phone calls to better understand the barriers faced by our services.

We also encouraged conversations with people with disabilities and companions who had participated in other major events and festivals to get a picture of accessibility in the industry.

The two questionnaires sent out during our survey:
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1. Online questionnaire to receive feedback on accessibility at our festival
2. Online questionnaire to receive feedback on accessibility in the events industry.

You can access these documents via the following hyperlink: Questionnaires

3.3 FEEDBACK

As a complement to the online questionnaire, we gathered observations and suggestions from people with disabilities after the 2023 edition of the International Balloon Festival.

Thanks to this feedback, we were able to improve several aspects of the festival. This includes furniture, such as picnic tables, the Food Trucks area, as well as communications from the organization.

For the next edition, we plan to provide a site map adapted for people with disabilities.

Meetings with all staff also helped to identify accessibility challenges at the festival and in the offices. Next, the International's accessibility committee created its action plan in collaboration with organizations and accessibility consultants.

3.4 ACCESSIBLE CONSULTATIONS

We have made our consultations accessible in the following ways:

1. Online questionnaire, with simple, clear questions.

2. The opportunity to contact the accessibility team by e-mail, telephone or in person on site to answer questions.

3.5 WE CONSULTED : 

We consulted: disabled people

Disabled people's organizations : RAPLIQ, Kéroul and tables de concertations du Haut-Richelieu

Accessibility advisors: Pascale Constant, accessibility and community development advisor for the City of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

Total number of participants: 13 participants

Total number of disabled participants: 6 disabled participants

Number of disabilities represented: Mobility, vision and hearing

4. CONCLUSION

As part of our ongoing commitment to promoting accessibility, our organization is firmly committed to monitoring and measuring our progress to ensure that we achieve our objectives and eliminate identified barriers.

This monitoring will be carried out rigorously, on an annual basis. We also value your feedback and recommendations to improve our Accessibility Plan.

We actively encourage feedback throughout our process. We will use your comments to guide the ongoing implementation of our Accessibility Plan.

In addition, we take all the feedback we receive very seriously. Every piece of feedback is carefully considered. Your voice is essential in shaping our commitment to accessibility.