Lack of facts

Langara's food services says it
will provide nutritional info on

hot dishes next fall. P3

Supplement safety

Students risk getting kicked off
the team if the products they
take are tainted. P8

Busy bees

Staying warm over the cold
winter takes more than a fuzzy
jacket. langaravoice.ca

PRODUCED BY LANGARA JOURNALISM STUDENTS | WWW.LANGARAVOICE.CA

No bins
for butts

Cigarette litter
hurts local fauna

By JENNIFER BLAKE

? Che cigarette butts outside of
Langara College could have
serious consequences on

local urban wildlife, according to an

environment and pollution expert.

After Langara College initiated
a smoke-free campus policy last
May and removed all ashtrays, ciga-
rette butts are now piling up on the
ground around the school’s perim-
eter.

Raymond Yeung, facilities
manager at Langara, said there are
people patrolling the perimeter a
few times a week to clean up ciga-
rette butts.

“That’s something that we've
started since the smoking ban,”
Yeung said.

Despite their efforts, cigarette
butts are still being tossed on the
ground daily.

Kai Chan, a UBC professor of
biodiversity and ecosystems, said
there would absolutely be an impact
on local wildlife from cigarette butts
littered around the campus.

“They're not good for people, and
similarly not good for wildlife,”
Chan said. “They can't recognize
them as being something undesir-
able, so quite a few species will eat
them.”

Chan added cigarette butts are
virtually indigestible, leaching a
range of chemicals into the stomachs
of animals and permanently taking
up room that’s meant for food.

“It is quite common to find
cigarette butts in the stomachs of
animals,” Chan said.

Many smokers also toss their
cigarette butts near the pond next
to the parking lot by Building A,
where ducks are often seen swim-
ming. Ducks are a species that have
been known to eat cigarette butts,
Chan said.

Paula Velazquez, a commerce and
business student at Langara College,
said she smokes less since moving
from Mexico to Canada because she
sees less people smoking.

“I get used to what people do here
and I don’t see too many people
smoking so I reduce the amount I
do,” she said.

Velazquez said it would be nice
to have an ash tray on campus, but
she said she keeps her cigarette butts
until she can find a garbage can to
throw them out.

Langara facilities has no current
plans to install cigarette disposals on
or around the campus, Yeung said.

FEBRUARY 14, 2019 * VOL. 51 NO. 02 * VANCOUVER, B.C.

Soma Ali tries unsuccessfully to read a raised text sign in the Science & Technology Building at Langara College with her service dog Elsie. RoxANNEEGAN-

ELLIOTT PHOTO

College ignoring her pleas

Langara shuns braille, installs signs illegible to blind student

ByJOSHUA REY

espite the Canadian

government agreeing to

abide by standards set

in a 2010 UN conven-
tion that mandates braille signs in
indoor and outdoor facilities includ-
ing schools, Vancouver building
codes have not followed suit. As
such, neither have some schools —
like Langara College.

Langara College has been able to
mostly side-step blind general stud-
ies student Soma Ali’s requests to
install more braille signs on campus
to that identify rooms.

“Tt’s been difficult and it still is,”
said Ali, who has prosthetic eyes and
navigates campus with her guide dog
Elsie. “I was happy I found a braille
sign at the washroom near the Tim
Hortons but I wish the signs were
everywhere on campus.”

After Ali, in her third year at

Langara, made her case to the

college in 2016 and again last Octo-
ber, she was told the college would
install raised text instead of braille.
The college did, in fact, install a few
braille signs, but Ali said she was
never informed.

Ali, who cannot read raised text
because she has never learned the
traditional Latin alphabet, said this
doesn't help her and is not good
enough.

Joan Billesberger from Cana-
dian Braille Service said raised text
signs require more space to create
the lettering and therefore are not
as efficient. She said it's better to
use braille because other navigation
methods, such as smart phone apps,
run the risk of a dying battery.

Ali quickly appealed the college’s
decision to City Hall, and was told
last month in an email from city
project coordinator Allison Min that
Vancouver bylaws do not mandate
braille. But Min, who forwarded
the letter to The Voice, did write she

thought Ali’s request for more braille
was reasonable.

For now, Ali relies on what little
braille she can find, and Elsie to get
around campus.

“There needs to [be] braille on
things, such as the school directory
and in places like the bookstore,” Ali
said. “All elevators, washrooms and
classrooms need braille.”

According to the head of Lang-
ara Accessibility Services Suzanne
Munson, accessibility services and
facilities work together to make sure
to address accessibility related issues.

Billesberger, who makes braille
sign stickers that act as a temporary
solution, said she made a few sample
signs for Langara College Accessi-
bility Services. Billesberger was told
the college would be in touch if more
are needed.

The Voice attempted to follow up
with Langara’s Accessibility Services
about the stickers, but did not receive
a response by print deadline.

Braille started as a military code
in the 19th century. Louis Braille
developed the code to the version
of braille used today.

It is a tactile alphabet that can
be translated into almost any
language.

There is a special kind of braille
used for math called the Nemeth
Code.

SOURCE: PERKINS.ORG