Even with the Paralympics effect, advocates say Vancouver, Canada, still has improvements to make to be more disability friendly

From The Vancouver Sun:

When the 2010 Paralympic Games swept through B.C., they did more than highlight Canada's top disabled athletes. They turned the spotlight on accessibility in Metro Vancouver.

By all accounts, the region has risen to the challenge.

Apostolos Rigas, of the International Paralympic Committee, said Vancouver -- and its neighbouring municipalities -- was the "most accessible host city I have ever seen."

This is likely partly because the recent Games spurred municipalities from White Rock to North Vancouver to widen sidewalks, add pedestrian ramps and curb cuts, install light buttons at intersections and put in automatic doors at city-owned facilities. Sports adapted for disabled athletes and accessible transit have also become the norm in most communities.

Vancouver is a popular place to live for people with disabilities because of all the services, said Rigas, IPC head of Paralympic Games strategic projects.

But, he notes, the 2010 Paralympic legacy won't be complete until the region goes a step further to ensure it is not only accessible but also more inclusive of the disabled.

For example, the Hillcrest curling venue and UBC Thunderbird Arena, which hosted the Paralympic sledge hockey games, were accessible to wheelchairs, yet spectators in them were limited to watching events from ice level, he said. This meant there wasn't a truly equal Games experience for everyone.

The IPC would like to see disability barriers disappear, so that there's no differentiation for anyone, he said.

It's an issue being addressed, with varying degrees of success, across Metro Vancouver.

"Just imagine a community where there were no barriers, where everyone would have the same options," said Emese Szucs, manager of accessibility programs for the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C. (SPARC). "We're on the right path to changing that but it will take a long time."

Although most municipalities have been working for years on becoming more accessible, there's still work to be done.

While there have been gains in the built-up environment -- with longer pedestrian lights and wider streets -- and more adaptive sports programs with sledge hockey teams and wheelchair lifts in swimming pools, many disabled people still struggle to get into older homes, reach the counter at a bank or library, or find disabled parking stalls close to shops and community centres.

With the new prepay regulations at gasoline stations, disabled drivers can't even get help from attendants to pump their gas. "Most often there are very basic things we don't think of," Szucs said. In most cases, she said, advancements in accessibility are made as the result of a local champion -- a city staffer, a politician or a vociferous advocate who are themselves disabled and pushing for change.

Vancouver's former mayor Sam Sullivan, who was made a paraplegic after a skiing accident, played a huge role in transforming Vancouver into what many believe is one of the world's most accessible cities. The image of him twirling the Olympic flag on a stage in Turin, Italy, at the 2006 Winter Olympics was broadcast around the world, while Sullivan was named ambassador to the 2010 Paralympics.

Each year, Vancouver installs more than 200 pedestrian ramps. It has also added 397 audible signals at intersections and put grooves on curb cuts for the visually impaired to know when the sidewalk ends and the intersection begins. The changes stretch from the streets to libraries, on-street parking stalls and taxis.

"Usually one or two people in city hall see the way it should be. It's certainly not bad to have curb cuts or automatic door openings; that's good for everyone," Szucs said but added: "It takes a lot of money to change a special infrastructure."

It's difficult to judge where each community stands on accessibility, she added, because there are so many variables -- and the change requires money and resources.

For instance, TransLink has fully accessible buses with wheelchair lifts and ramps, but some municipalities, particularly in the suburbs, haven't made their bus stops accessible to disabled transit users.

Many bus shelters have a bench running the length of the shelter or a garbage can in a corner "so guess who gets left out in the rain because they can't come in?" Szucs asked. "It just depends on how the community itself defines accessibility."

New Westminster appears to be moving faster than some of its neighbours when it comes to improving accessibility, she said. But it still has its share of problems.

A recent wheelability study raised worries about everything from curb ramps that direct people into traffic, curb lips than can hang up scooters and uneven brick sidewalks that could topple a wheelchair or trip a walker.

Spend an hour with a disabled person and it's easy to see the challenges they face.

On a jaunt down New Westminster's Sixth Street this week, Vivian Garcia (pictured) pointed out an old curb cut at the end of a narrow ramp, which would have taken her into the path of a bus. As she turned toward Moody Park, she passed a two-inch step between the sidewalk slates.

"That may not look like much, but if you were using a walker, that would be a hazard," said Garcia, who's been in a motorized wheelchair since 1988 after a tree fell on her and snapped her spinal cord. "And if you were using a manual wheelchair, with the small wheels in front, it would stop you dead. You'd have to lift your front wheels to get over it."

Thankfully these challenges appear to be vestiges of the old New Westminster, which is seeing more automatic doors and push buttons on its uptown businesses, smoother and wider sidewalks and more cuts in the curb to allow wheelchairs to get off or catch a bus.

The changes have made it easier for Garcia, who used to have to dodge pedestrians on narrow sidewalks and travel long distances to find a curb cut to get off the path. And she no longer gets stuck in the middle of a crosswalk because the pedestrian light timers are longer.

One day, she said, she'd like to be able to wheel her chair right up to a restaurant table so she doesn't have to put her plate on her lap. Nevertheless, she contends it's a lot different today than it was years ago.

"There were times when I would open the door to go somewhere, and as I went to go in, people would come to the door and say, 'We don't serve your kind here.' It was like I was an alien. It was bizarre," said Garcia, who participated in the wheelability study.

"For the most part, New West is fantastic now. We're coming along to where we should be but we still have a ways to go."

Still, Szucs said, it's still far ahead of most of its neighbours.

Langley has been working to overhaul its community for seven years and in 2007 hired SPARC to do an accessibility audit. The aim was to guide the city on becoming accessible ahead of the Paralympic Games in a bid to cash in on the untapped tourism market catering to disabled travellers.

The audit looked at accessible parking, entrances, corridor width, obstructions, flooring material, service counters, washrooms, signage, seating and elevators.

While Langley fared fairly well, it was lacking in some areas, especially in its historic downtown core, where many businesses can only be accessed by steps, and garbage cans and other "street furniture" block pedestrian pathways.

Langley is now chipping away at a plan to make the city more accessible. "It's not as simple as just saying 'fix it,' " said Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender. "We're actively working on it ... from our point of view I want to be seen as a community that has challenges we can't fix instantaneously but we do have a plan to move forward."

He said the city is encouraging redevelopment to bring about change. Even when a business has a ramp, it can still be inaccessible.

"I could never get in this door," said Marika van Dommelen, as she sat in her wheelchair at the bottom of a steep ramp that led to the door of a jewelry store on Fraser Highway.

She tried. Using short, forced motions, she urged her chair up the ramp and briefly reached for the door before giving up.

"It would take some brute strength [to get up the ramp], and then I'd have to balance while trying to open the door with one hand," she said. "There's also the chance of toppling."

It wasn't much easier getting into the washroom at a nearby coffee shop. Pulling up alongside the door, van Dommelen tried to push it open with her arm. "It's worse than most. I've complained before, and they said they would take care of it, but it hasn't been done yet."

But van Dommelen, who has spina bifida, knows the changes will happen. She successfully lobbied the city to install one of the region's first accessible playgrounds. Unlike modern playgrounds covered in pebbles, the multi-coloured playground in Langley has rubber floors -- a costly addition that is fully accessible and soft to cushion children if they fall. "This community has bent over backwards and really worked hard to make it accessible," van Dommelen said.

The IPC's Rigas said the next step for Metro Vancouver is to urge designers and developers to go beyond existing building codes to offer an "equitable experience" for everyone. Jill Weiss, a member of Vancouver's people with disabilities advisory committee, said while Vancouver has already enhanced accessibility building guidelines that are unique within the province, the city still has a shortage of adequate housing for people with mobility issues.

The committee is working to update Vancouver bylaws so new houses would have to meet basic accessibility and adaptability standards.

This would include requiring light switches to be no more than 42 inches off the ground, electrical outlets to be at least 18 inches off the ground and block lumber to be installed in bathroom walls so grab bars can be installed later on.

The committee's preliminary research estimates this would cost about one-half of one per cent of the project's total cost.

"Building a house that's planned to be adaptable, it doesn't really cost very much, but it makes a huge difference later on," Weiss said.

Retrofitting a home or business later would be more costly. Since buying their home 10 years ago, van Dommelen and her husband Jan have only retrofitted the bathroom-- moving the toilet and installing a grab bar -- and put ramps at the front and back doors.

The kitchen remains a challenge, due to the hefty cost of a renovation. "The counters and stove are still regulation height, so we do things in there together," said van Dommelen.

The Games are also bringing changes to recreation. Patty Clarke, who has a neural muscular disorder, was inspired that Olympic gold medal winner Alex Bilodeau's mom wouldn't let him play hockey because she wanted the family to ski with his brother Frederic, who has cerebral palsy. Clarke, Burnaby's access services coordinator, plans to introduce family programs, such as adaptive canoeing, martial arts, dance and swimming, for people with disabilities next fall.

But she adds that no matter how many programs she wants to introduce, it all comes down to resources and volunteers.

"We can run adaptive programs but if somebody wants to come and swim or go to the weight room that's where we fall short," she said.