Handicapped parking signs might soon be a thing of the past in Saskatchewan. Tracy Johnson, a Warman City Councilor, Hall of Fame athlete and the first person in Canada to play university basketball with an artificial, is working to replace the word handicapped with the word accessible on parking signs across the province, and she has already made progress in her own city.

She began by reaching out to Warman businesses and educating them on how the word handicapped is outdated, demeaning, and defining. She explained that there are people with invisible, intellectual, and physical disabilities, and to refer to them as handicapped is belittling. Johnson received such a positive response, that within the week, all Warman businesses had their signs changed from ‘handicapped parking’ to ‘accessible parking’. Warman is now the first municipality in the province to have replaced all of their signage, and also the first to make this change a requirement in their City Bylaws. Johnson plans to make the empowering change a province-wide movement and will continue to reach out to businesses and the government of Saskatchewan.