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February 12, 2010
We can make inclusion a priority
The first step is to recognize the barriers of disability and then find solutions.
ELLEN FRANK
When I talk about accessibility and inclusion, folks often comment that it is indeed an issue whose time has come. Well, no, this is not a new issue – people have been working on these issues for years. In 1976, the United Nations proclaimed 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons. The theme of IYDP was “full participation and equality.” That was 30 years ago. While we have fought and won many important rights struggles, a great deal still needs doing. Ah, but also during those years, the baby boomers have become seniors ... we never were a quiet generation!
Enter 2010: with the Olympics at our door, accessibility has become a hot issue. While Vancouver was already known as a fairly accessible city, for the last years during the Olympic build up, it has been on the public agenda. Now we stand at the precipice of the “big assessment,” where the world has arrived to test us out. Then we have the final exam – also know as the Paralympics.
In Measuring Up, a guide to support communities in becoming more accessible and inclusive, a program of Legacies Now 2010, the authors make very clear how active participation has two dimensions: accessibility and inclusion. Accessibility means recognizing, reducing and removing any physical or structural barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from actually being present in the community. Inclusion adds another critical dimension – the degree to which the contributions of all citizens are welcomed and enabled. As Rick Hansen has said, “It’s not enough to get in the theatre. You should be able to get on stage.”
Inclusion covers a lot of ground. There are physical barriers as well as many other barriers that affect inclusion – hearing, vision, limited energy, limited finances, and I know the list is much longer. I welcome all comments. But I think we have a basic agreement that part of our core values, our Jewish core values, are for our community to be as inclusive a possible. Yes?
In 2006, after I wrote the disability travel guide Sticks and Wheels (Ouzel Publishing), I was often asked what gave me the idea to write the book. The short answer was, as a retired travel agent, I tend to gravitate to tourist information centres, and information on accessibility just wasn’t there. In my daily travels, being that I am a friendly, chatty person and because I am visible as a person with a disability, people talk to me about accessibility, disability and aging in a way that they don’t talk to others.
When I would say I was working on the book many, many people said, “Yes! You should write it,” and then went on to tell me why. They told me about their bum knees, about their new hip replacements and about their arthritis. They told me about wanting to take their mothers out to dinner and not knowing where would be easy. They told me about their brothers from out of town visiting, but their house wasn’t accessible, and they didn’t know where they could stay. They told me to write the book. I did just that.
Five years ago, when I still lived on the Sunshine Coast, my daughter moved to Port Coquitlam and started going to shul, Sha’arei Mizrah (at Burquest). Being a Jewish mother/grandmother, I was thrilled that they quickly found themselves a Jewish home. The shul’s website indicated that the building was accessible and, in fact, it had a perfect elevator for wheelchair entry. Over the next years, my daughter and grandchildren became more involved and more at home – it delighted my heart to see them so much a part of the community. Alas, during those years while I was busy kvelling, I also lost mobility to multiple sclerosis, my scooter and cane became a wheelchair and, somehow, I was surprised when I realized that there was no wheelchair-accessible washroom facility available at shul. Since one of the stalls in the women’s room had a grab bar, that was fine – when I could walk from my scooter into the stall and negotiate there – it was not an immediate problem. So I just sort of assumed that somewhere there was a wheelchair-accessible facility. But then, from my wheelchair, I no longer could transfer to the small stall. I said to my daughter (who was on the board by then), “I can’t really come here if I can’t use the facilities and the shul is not truly accessible if there is no wheelchair-accessible bathroom.”
And so, she brought it to a board meeting. I know it’s difficult for a shul to come up with funds, but somehow they prioritized and renovated the bathroom – which is now wheelchair-accessible!
Last week, I asked my daughter how that decision got made. She gave me the “Duh Mother” look and said, “We wanted to be accessible and without the bathroom we weren’t.”
It was clear to me that they fixed it because being accessible was a priority. There were not 20 people lined up out the door, just one bubbe who wanted to be there, at shul. To me, this is just one of the inspiring stories of what happens when a community sees the problem and works together to have it fixed.
In my travels over the years, I have found over and over that people do want to fix things, but they so often don’t see the problems. And, we who do see it and are affected just get weary of needing to ask, to educate and, then, ask again. But Burquest put it on the agenda and prioritized it because it is part of their values, as it is part of our values. The Torah says, “Do not place a stumbling block [michshol] before a blind person.” (Vayikra 19:14)
Inclusion means we are participants and not just spectators. Stay tuned for Burquest bima creativity – my grandson’s bar mitzvah is in July.
Ellen Frank is a writer, activist, mother, grandmother and retired travel agent. She has lived with multiple sclerosis since 1988 and knows well how hard it is to get around with limited mobility. She is the author of Sticks and Wheels: A Guide to Accessible Travel on the Lower Sunshine Coast (Ouzel Publishing, 2006) and features information on accessibility services on her website, sticksandwheels.net.
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