Accessibility
Summary
We are located at 2482 Maynard Street in the north end of so-called Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is in Kjipuktuk and on unceded and unsurrendered Mi’kmaq territory. Eyelevel's staff and board acknowledge our organization's settler history and recognize our responsibilities as an uninvited guest operating in Mi'kma'ki. Eyelevel also maintains 6 artist studios at 2177 Gottingen Street. Eyelevel strives to accommodate the needs of our visitors as best as possible, mitigating the barriers to access. In order to send an inquiry of our facilities or feedback about your experience, please contact Eyelevel's Artistic Co-Directors Sally Wolchyn-Raab and Cinthia Arias Auz at sally@eyelevel.art and cinthia@eyelevel.art or by phone at (902)425-6412.
2482 Maynard Street is a wheelchair-accessible building. The building has visitor parking with reserved accessible parking spots. There are push-button door openers at the main entrances, and a button-operated lift to the second floor. The building has wide hallways and all doorways are a minimum of 36" wide. 2 non-gendered washrooms (one with a changing table) are located on the first floor, and 2 non-gendered washrooms without changing tables are located on the second floor. All washrooms have sharps containers and room for a wheelchair to turn - each floor has one large wheelchair-accessible washroom that has grab bars and room to accommodate an aid/personal support worker. A quiet room is also located on the first floor. 2482 Maynard Street is a low-scent, all-ages, low-stimuli building. The second floor is not open to the public except for special events and is normally locked with keypad entry.
Wonder'neath Art Society, our landlord, has published a comprehensive access guide for 2482 Maynard, which can be found here. Please note that this guide covers a lot of information about the space, but does speak specifically to Wonder'neath's programming and operations, not Eyelevel's.
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Eyelevel's Bookstore
Our bookstore is located on the first floor. Toddlers and young children are welcome to touch and explore it with supervision. The bookstore is wheelchair friendly with display tables at 36" and room to pull a chair underneath. The till is mobile and there is room to turn a wheelchair 360* in the bookstore. Eyelevel's office is located on the second floor. Visitors can access our office for meetings and events by contacting Eyelevel's staff when they arrive at the building. The office has room for a wheelchair to make a 360* turn, and a 36" wide unobstructed path to and from each workstation.
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Eyelevel's Studios
Eyelevel's Gottingen studios are in a formally residential space on a second floor. All visitors must climb a full flight of stairs (with a railing) to enter. Four of our studios are located on the top floor, which is up a spiral staircase that has a railing and wedge-shaped stairs. This space has one non-gendered washroom and a small kitchenette. Studios are not open to the public except for special events, and are located directly above Radstorm, which hosts all-ages music events on Friday and Saturday nights. Radstorm's programs such as Inkstorm, the People's Photocopier, the People's Fridge, the People's Kiln and Sadrad are available to studio residents.
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Programming Access/Culture at Eyelevel
Eyelevel's Major Projects occur in spaces throughout the province, the majority of our workshops and events take place in Wonder'neath's Project Room (more info here). Unless advertised otherwise, Eyelevel’s programming and events are in English only. Translations, braille, and live transcription are not part of our regular programming. ASL interpretation and/or automated closed captioning is generally offered at events. If you require language services in order to access our programming, please reach out, and Eyelevel will work to accommodate these needs.
Eyelevel wants to ensure our visitors and members feel safe, welcome, and comfortable in our spaces and at our events. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind including but not limited to racism, ableism, ageism, sizeism, white supremacy, heterocentrism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, etc. If you require immediate assistance, please call or text Eyelevel’s direct line at 902-425-6412. If you would like to contact Eyelevel’s Human Resource Committee with a confidential complaint, please email our HR committee at HR.committee@eyelevel.art. Please know that any concerns or feedback brought to Eyelevel's staff or volunteers will be taken seriously and addressed immediately.
All Eyelevel programming is fully masked - free respirator masks (KN95 and N95) are provided at all events
Eyelevel's detailed access notes for our general programming and the spaces that we typically operate out of are located below:
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DETAILED ACCESSIBILITY AT EYELEVEL
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COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS
2482 Maynard Street is a building accessed by a group of around 20 artists and the staff of Wonder'neath, Art Bikers, and Eyelevel regularly. These safety measures are specific to Eyelevel's programming and bookstore hours. At this time, all visitors to Eyelevel's bookstore and programming participants must:
- Wear masks as required by all visitors to 2482 Maynard (disposable masks are available at the front door)
- Use hand sanitizer upon entering 2482 Maynard
- Staff must wash hands upon entering the space and throughout the day
- Staff wear masks in the bookstore and all public areas
- Curbside pickup is available for online purchases, which can be booked here: https://eyelevel.appointlet.com
We will do our very best to accommodate the health and safety needs of our visitors. If you require measures beyond our regular COVID-19 protocols, please let us know before your visit to Eyelevel. There is a space in our appointment booking section where you can ask for special measures to be taken by Eyelevel's staff to help you safely visit our space and pick up your bookstore order.
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Visiting Eyelevel
Service animals are always welcome in our space and at our events. Please let a staff member know if your service animal requires water or you need directions to an area where they can relieve themselves. Unless otherwise specified, all events at Eyelevel are all-ages. Guardians and caregivers are invited to contact Eyelevel to get any further details on events that they need to assess its kid-friendliness beyond any content warnings that we provide. We do occasionally serve alcohol by donation, but will always accompany bar service with non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. Wonder'neath's Project Space, where we program most events, is clean, but not precious. Objects in our bookstore are meant to be explored and handled. Young children and toddlers are invited to explore Eyelevel's bookstore with supervision.
During events where the intensity of subject matter is expected, Eyelevel has begun to provide a “decompression space” where stimulus is reduced, and seating is available in the event that someone needs to take respite. In addition to this, Eyelevel aims to notify visitors of triggering subject matter through the use of “content warnings.” Wonder'neath has a low-stimuli quiet room located next to the bookstore (enter through the Project Space) that is available during all events hosted in that space, including Eyelevel events.
Eyelevel has begun to involve volunteers who are trained in bystander intervention to work events that are deemed to be high-risk, such as one where alcohol is present. These individuals identify, interrupt, de-escalate, and respond to potentially harmful situations.
Eyelevel carries these practices with us to all outside events and exhibitions that we present. Details on facility accessibility will be posted alongside event descriptions on our website, newsletters and social media.
2482 Maynard Street is a wheelchair-friendly building and designed with sensory accessibility in mind. Visitors to Eyelevel's office and bookstore should note the following:
- The bookstore is located on the first floor, through Wonder'neath's Project Space. The Project Space can sometimes be loud and as it is used as a creative teaching space, collaborative work space, meeting place and open studio.
- There are two entrances to the building. The door on the left leads up to the second floor and is generally reserved for office use. The door on the right is propped open for public access during Eyelevel's bookstore hours (Wednesdays to Fridays 12 PM-5 PM), and leads to a second door that generally remains closed. This second door is a pull door but can also be opened with a push-button door opener.
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Studio Facilities
Eyelevel operates 6 private artist studios at 2177 Gottingen Street. This space is not open to the public except for special events. All potential residents and visitors are advised that this is a former residential space and is a little rough around the edges. We have worked to eliminate safety concerns, and are implementing accessibility features over time. We welcome all feedback and ideas on how we can make this space easier to access!
No doors in Eyelevel’s studios are automatic; they all require a push or pull. Eyelevel's space is located on the second floor of 2177 Gottingen Street in a former character apartment. Eyelevel's studios are located through a non-automatic door that pulls out (opened with a handle) and requires a step up to enter the entrance hallway. Visitors to Eyelevel's studios must follow the hallway up a full flight of straight stairs, with a railing on the right-hand side, and a wall on the left. Eyelevel's space is broken up between upstairs and downstairs. The downstairs houses our 2 large studios, bathrooms, and kitchenette.
The remaining small studios are located on the second level - access to them is via a spiral staircase with a single railing. The staircase has "wedge-shaped" stairs of standard height and is a free-standing structure. The staircase is built from reinforced steel and aluminum. The railing will shift while visitors climb or descend stairs, creating the illusion that the stairs themselves are moving (they aren't!). Studios are broken up into 4 small spaces via movable/temporary walls. The upper floor has a peaked ceiling.
Eyelevel's space has warm, ambient light and natural lighting. There is a balcony that is opened to the residents for use with a picnic table.
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Bathrooms
2482 Maynard Street has 4 large, private non-gendered bathrooms (2 per floor) with sharps containers in each. Each floor is a large wheelchair-accessible bathroom with grab-bars and room to turn and for a support person. A bathroom with a changing table is located on the first floor, and first-floor bathrooms also have free tampons and pads.
Eyelevel's studios have a single non-gendered bathroom on site. The bathroom is located down a hallway adjacent to the stairs on the second floor. The bathroom has a sharps container but is not equipped with grab bars or changing facilities.
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Transportation
Gottingen Street is a main thoroughfare for bus routes. The #1, #7, #10, #41, #53, #61, #68 heading north-bound (leaving the Bridge Terminal) all stop less than 80 meters from our bookstore on the same side of the street that Eyelevel is on.
From the North End via Gottingen Street visitors can take the #7 towards downtown, which stops across the street from Eyelevel 100 meters away.
From Mumford Terminal the #2 and #29 will stop within a 600-meter uphill walk on Barrington St. and Cornwallis Street, the #1, which will go through downtown before heading to Gottingen Street, can also be taken from Mumford Terminal.
The sidewalks and crosswalks outside of Eyelevel and 2482 Maynard are pedestrian-friendly. 2482 Maynard has a large parking lot with reserved spots by the front entrance.
Bus routes #2 and #3 also stop on North Street, 3 blocks from 2482 Maynard.
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Language Barriers
Unless advertised otherwise, Eyelevel’s programming and events are in English only, and staff members are only required to speak and write fluently in English. Eyelevel aims to use plain language and clear communication in all correspondences and program support material.
Braille, audio interpretation and translation are not currently a regular part of Eyelevel’s programming, though most programs do offer ASL interpretation and/or automated closed-captioning. If you require language services in order to access our programming, please contact Sally Wolchyn-Raab at sally@eyelevel.art or Cinthia Arias Auz at cinthia@eyelevel.art or by phone at (902)425-6412, and Eyelevel will accommodate these needs.
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Online Accessibility
Eyelevel aims to improve online accessibility on our website and social media by taking comprehensive steps in the future with this document as a guideline to our goals. Through our social media presence, we strive to foster accessible platforms. This includes the use of clear language through our posts, newsletters, and website to convey our message in a way that is comprehensible. In order to ensure, moreover, the ability for anyone to engage with our content without difficulty, we will include image descriptions alongside photos that we post across all of our platforms. Eyelevel frequently uses google forms as an easy and accessible means of accepting submissions, all submissions are also accepted via email with questions/prompts and directions posted on our website to accommodate text-to-speech readers.
Looking forward, we are planning to redesign our website. What we envision for this redesign is a clearer website, consisting of a white background and the ability to change the size of the font.
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Allergies
As a public space, Eyelevel cannot guarantee our location is free of allergens. We discourage staff, board, volunteers, and guests from using scented products and bringing in food or animals that are known to be allergens. 2482 Maynard Street is a low-scent building. First Aid Kits and Emergency Eye Wash Stations are located on-site in the Wonder'neath project space.
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Financial Access
Eyelevel has no entrance fees during regular hours. The majority of our public programming is free to the public, with few exceptions for ticketed events. As often as possible, Eyelevel programs events and offers services on a PWYC (Pay What You Can) or by-donation basis. Eyelevel does not turn away folks due to a lack of funds. We want visitors from all backgrounds to feel welcome at Eyelevel, including those who are systematically, sporadically, or temporarily facing financial barriers. Many of our in-house publications are PWYC, whereas the consignment items in our bookstore are priced by the artists, and are non-negotiable.
As a member-led organization, membership drives much of our activity. Click here to learn more about membership benefits. We offer paid memberships at tiered levels, with the option to sign up for a free membership. No expectation of volunteering for Eyelevel is required in exchange for a free membership.
