Aging Services & Accessibility: Moving Beyond Ramps and Grab Bars

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When addressing accessibility, aging services traditionally focus on the physical or environmental barriers faced by persons served. True organizational change, however, challenges the field to look “beyond ramps and grab bars,” for all stakeholders including clients/residents, personnel, volunteers and others. Accessibility planning empowers organizations to take an increasingly holistic approach including: financial, attitudinal, communication, employment, and other barriers encountered by these diverse stakeholder groups. From its disproportionate impact upon older adults and their caregivers, to the need to wear masks and social distance; the COVID-19 pandemic has only further exacerbated many of these obstacles and created an increased sense of urgency across aging services providers to respond. Replicable examples and templates from providers implementing a comprehensive approach to accessibility planning will be shared along with illustrations of remediating and eliminating barriers.

Tish Rudnicki

Executive Director

North Shore Senior Center

Since January 2019 has served as Executive Director & President of North Shore Senior Center (NSSC) headquartered in Northfield, IL, NSSC serves and engages more than 24,000 older adults and their families each year. As a nationally accredited organization, NSSC offers a comprehensive suite of services to older adults from the most independent to those needing more support, including: social services, specialized care for people living with dementia, private care management, money management, counseling, education and wellness programs, and opportunities to socialize and volunteer.Prior to joining NSSC, Tish worked for 29 years at the Kenneth Young Center (KYC), a provider of behavioral health services to individuals of all ages and community-based social services to older adults, most recently as their Chief Program Officer, where she was responsible for overseeing all clinical and support services to 13,000 clients. Tish received her MSW from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois, Chicago She serves as Board President of Coordinated Care Alliance, a statewide network of community-based organizations serving older adults in Illinois and is a passionate advocate for older adults and people living with disabilities in support of a lifetime of equity and independence for all.

Jed Johnson

Managing Director - Aging Services

CARF International

Jed serves as CARF’s managing director of aging services overseeing accreditation programs that include assisted living, independent senior living, adult day services, case management and others. Prior to joining CARF, he was a member of Easterseals national office leadership team overseeing a $25M portfolio of federal, corporate and foundation funded initiatives that included the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center, the Senior Community Service Employment Program and the National Veteran Caregiver Training Program. He also spent 10 years in Pittsburgh, PA where as VP of Home and Community Services for a faith-based provider.Jed is past board chair of the National Adult Day Services Association and past Treasurer of the American Society on Aging. He currently serves on the ARCH National Respite advisory committee and on the Center for Excellence in Assisted Living’s advisory council. Areas of expertise include caregiving, transportation, DEI, and quality improvement. Jed is a proud long-distance caregiver for his 95 year old mother-in-law who attends a PACE program in western PA. His first job was working 11pm to 7am in a Milwaukee nursing home. His MSW is from the University of Pennsylvania and MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Kathleen Cameron (Moderator)

Senior Director, Center for Healthy Aging

National Council on Aging

Kathleen Cameron, BSPharm, MPH, has more than 25 years of experience in the health care field as a pharmacist, researcher, and program director focusing on falls prevention, geriatric pharmacotherapy, mental health, long-term services and supports, and caregiving. Cameron is Senior Director of the NCOA Center for Healthy Aging, where she provides subject matter expertise on health care programmatic and policy related issues and oversees the Modernizing Senior Center Resource Center.