Balconies at Paralympics Athletes Village not wheelchair accessible

From Vancouver Courier in Canada:

As athletes gather in Vancouver this week for the 2010 Paralympic Games, none of the apartment balconies at the Athletes Village were designed to allow access for wheelchairs.

And the ambassador for the Paralympic Games isn't too happy about it.

Sam Sullivan, the city's former mayor, said while he understands the concerns the design team had with water leaking from a balcony into a suite, more effort should have been made to make the balconies accessible. All suites have a curb between the living area and the balcony. "That's a scandal," said Sullivan, who was recently appointed ambassador to the Paralympics. "I just talked to the guy building the Georgia hotel and he told me he had to fight for it but he has now achieved an agreement that he can build flush balconies. So if a private sector guy in a very expensive building like that can do it, why couldn't the Athletes' Village do it?"

This week, Paralympians and officials from Canada and around the world arrive in Vancouver and Whistler for the Paralympic Games, which kick off Friday. According to the Vancouver organizing committee's website, 350 people will reside at the city's Athletes Village and 1,200 at the Whistler Athletes Village.

Last week, the Courier reported that Vancouver was one of the most accessible cities in the world for people with disabilities, according to Sullivan, who is a quadriplegic and requires the use of a wheelchair.

But the fact that buildings which will be home to disabled athletes are not fully accessible is disappointing to Sullivan, who noted the Southeast False Creek development was recently certified as the greenest, most energy efficient and sustainable neighbourhood in the world.

"It's very upsetting for me to think about that now," Sullivan said.

Structural engineer Roger Bayley, who was the design manager for Merrick Architecture on the Southeast False Creek project, said adding curbs between living area and balconies is typical in highrises.

"If the building envelope fails, then we've got serious problems on our hands," said Bayley, noting a curb is typically seven inches tall. "I can tell you we went through an awful lot of discussion on this issue and everyone concluded that at the end of the day, [building] envelope performance had to trump the access to the balconies."

He agreed with Sullivan that a suite could be built so a balcony would be flush with the living area. But, he said, it would be expensive because of the added cost of making specially designed concrete slab forms.

Bayley believed the current city council, led by Vision Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal, passed a motion that required all new highrises be built with flush balconies. Deal did not return a call to the Courier before deadline.

"I don't know whether the construction industry and the design industry ever got around to reading this motion because it would have very significant impacts on the construction process," he said.

Jane Dyson, executive director of the B.C. Coalition of People with Disabilities, said she was disappointed to learn the balconies at the village were not accessible to people in wheelchairs. Dyson called the inaccessible balconies "shortsighted."

"I would have hoped they would have had some wheelchair users and people with other disabilities to go and test it out," she said. "We think that's really important and it's not done enough."

The Courier left several messages over the past two weeks for VANOC to determine if portable ramps would be installed so wheelchair athletes and officials could access balconies at the village.

A VANOC representative contacted the Courier March 5 and said she would call back with an answer. The Courier had not received a call before deadline. Anna Parisi of the Canadian Paralympic Committee declined to comment on the issue.