Checking the rounds
Officials test downtown, public buildings to help identify barriers
The Municipality of the County of Pictou Warden Robert Parker, seated, and Trecia Schell of Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library check out the accessibility of government offices during a Community Links project Wednesday.
Robert Parker he had to sit down Wednesday to get the job done.
The county warden was one of many municipal leaders who took part in the Pictou County Aging Well Together coalition’s walk where seniors walk every day to access services, products and programs they need.
Parker, with the assistance of Trecia Schell of the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library and Cindy Fraser, recreation director for the Municipality of the County of Pictou, chose to see how accessible government buildings were for people who require the use of a wheelchair.
He said using a wheelchair showed him that improvements needed to be made. In particular, he said, he tried to enter the Justice Centre in Pictou through the front door, but soon noticed a sign stating that the accessible entrance was at the rear of the building.
“If I want justice and I am in a wheelchair, I am just as entitled to justice as anybody else and I shouldn’t have to go in the back door to get justice,” he said. “It looks like that (front) door could be made accessible quite easily.”
He said there are no automatic door openers on the front door, but there are some on the doors at the rear of the building. Parker said he never realized the grade of the sidewalk until he pushed himself to the rear of the building.
“Until you are actually sitting in the wheelchair, it doesn’t look like any grade coming up there,” he said. “There might be snow or slush here in another few weeks. You can imagine trying to get through that too.”
Fraser said the county’s eightyear-old municipal building located on West River Road can also be improved from an accessibility point of view.
“You can get in the front doors, but to get into the tax office to pay there is not a (power-assist) button,” she said, adding the doors are heavy. Parker said he also noticed the counter of the tax office was too high for a person who has to use a wheelchair.
The goal of the walk is to help them think about potential hazards and trouble spots that may cause falls. Other barriers as well may prevent residents from being included and engaged in their communities and from securing what they need to ensure a good quality of life on a daily basis, said Brenda MacKinnon, Community Links regional co-ordinator. Each municipal official used an assistive device such as a cane, a walker or a wheelchair.
Once the community walkabouts are completed, participants will be invited back to the New Glasgow Police Department’s Danny MacLeod Community Room for refreshments and reflections on what they observed during their walks.
In Stellarton, Mayor Danny MacGillivray and Coun. Bryan Knight walked with 93-year-old George Rae around some areas downtown looking for what worked well and what didn’t for people with disabilities.
MacGillivray, who works as the executive director of CHAD Transit, is well acquainted with accessibility issues.
For Knight, it’s an important issue as well because he has a granddaughter who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.
They said the town is accessible in many areas including having ramps to the library and the town hall as well as sidewalks that are tapered at intersections to be more accessible.
But there are some areas they’d like to see improved. For instance Knight said his granddaughter couldn’t attend his swearing in as a councillor because council chambers are on the second floor of the town hall building and there is currently no elevator.
MacGillivray said they’d like to look at ways to make town hall more accessible and will be applying for provincial money to conduct an accessibility audit.
November is Falls Prevention month across Canada. Each year, one out of every three seniors will fall. Ninety-five per cent of all hip fractures are caused by falls.
In Canada, the direct health care costs for seniors who had fallen totalled $2 billion annually. Those in hospital for a fall remain there nine days longer than for any other cause.
In Nova Scotia in 2010, falls among seniors cost the health care system $244 million in both direct and indirect costs.