The Municipality of Cumberland has a rising star.
The municipality’s community engagement coordinator Stephanie Keilhack was recently named a recipient of the Rising Star in Accessibility Award at this year’s ACE Awards: Celebrating Inclusive Employers.
“She is leading Accessibility, equity, and poverty reduction initiatives in her community, with a strong passion for improving the health and longevity of rural residents,” the award’s citation said. “She's known for her keen foresight, creative thinking, and ability to build positive, collaborative relationships that move accessibility forward.”
Through the Accessibility Confident Employers (ACE) Project, Sea Change CoLab works with employers to build skills for recruiting, hiring, retaining, and advancing people with disabilities. Along the way, it has seen inspiring examples of people putting learning into practice, managers driving culture change and organizations embedding accessibility into their systems. 
Stephanie Keilhack, the Municipality of Cumberland, community engagement coordinator, was recently recognized as a Rising Star in Accessibility by the Accessibility Confident Employers (ACE) Project.
Within the municipality, some of the highlights and achievements in accessibility include (with support from Cumberland Recreation and Public Works in Springhill and Parrsboro):
Lunch n’ learn sessions for Cumberland businesses around accommodations at work, plain language and digital accessibility training for several key staff and volunteers, sidewalk assessments in Parrsboro and Springhill, sidewalk improvements in Parrsboro and lights at crosswalks in Springhill.
There has also been an employment equity statement that welcomes people with disabilities to apply for jobs and sharing that accommodations are available.
Other departments are also making excellent improvements in accessibility including the Recreation Department’s Equipment Loan Program that features adaptive bikes, hiking poles and more.
In development are initiatives such as learning how to better support autistic children in municipal summer camps, improved entrances to the Springhill administration building, accessibility assessments at the Dr. Carson & Marion Murray Community Centre and Springhill Miner’s Memorial Library as well as the use of plain language more often in public communications.
Conversations are also ongoing with Sunset Communities and Cumberland County Transportation Services (CCTS) about improving accessible transportation in the region.