Advocating for change
Kentville man creates The Donna Lemmon Able Society to educate, raise awareness
The memory of a great friend and the challenges she faced has inspired a Kentville man to form a society to advocate for greater community accessibility and inclusion.
Brian Bruce of Kentville, founder of The Donna Lemmon Able Society (DLAS), said Lemmon suffered from multiple sclerosis. She died in 2017.
Although she didn’t use a wheelchair, Lemmon faced mobility challenges. She was determined to walk even though she had pins in her knees, and she was committed to stay strong for her family and friends.
“I wanted to get a group going for quite a while, but I didn’t know at that point what I wanted to call it or what I wanted to do with it until she passed away,” Bruce said. “Then it came to me that this is what I wanted this to look like.”
He said perhaps the biggest challenge to increasing accessibility is changing people’s mindsets, and this takes education and awareness.
Bruce said accessibility for all leads to a greater level of societal inclusion. He has noticed many times when going into stores, for example, that they aren’t organized well for people using wheelchairs or other mobility devices. Bruce said they can be hard enough to navigate for people who are walking.
“I just want to make it clear that this is not exclusive for disabled people,” Bruce said about the society’s purpose and goals. “This is for everybody.”
The society's vision is to create an inclusive organization that will work with towns, villages, communities, and organizations to promote real and affordable solutions to mobility issues that citizens in these areas face. Its volunteer board currently has four members.
Its purpose is to advocate, educate, and reduce stigma and stereotypes for people who live with mobility issues.
Bruce said school was hard for him, as he was often bullied because he was different.
Affected by spastic paralysis in his legs, he has faced mobility challenges his entire life and may eventually need a wheelchair.
Bruce is aware the provincial government has mandated municipalities across Nova Scotia develop accessibility plans, with recommendations being implemented by 2030.
He said it would be great if everything could be made accessible within the next seven years, but he questioned if the goal will be achieved. There’s a lot of expensive work left to do, but, he noted, the time to act is now.
Bruce said that although the DLAS would advocate for individuals, it would also advocate for a small business, for example, that needed to make significant renovations to promote accessibility but couldn’t afford it. The society is willing to work with
such businesses to help find government grants or other forms of financial support.
He said he has noticed that with many public buildings equipped with automatic doors, for example, that even if they’re working, the button is sometimes placed inconveniently for a person with mobility issues.
SUPPORTING BRUCE’S EFFORTS
Irene Nickerson, an Adult Learning Program (ALP) Level 1 instructor with the Valley Community Learning Association (VCLA), said she is very proud of Bruce for wanting to take this project on.
She said accessibility and being treated fairly are important issues to him. Bruce is willing to do what it takes to bring these issues to the forefront, including working with elected officials to ensure
positive changes are made for the betterment of society.
She said Bruce is part of their ALP class, and the program is highly individualized. Learners bring a variety of goals with them, and instructors try to tailor the program to these goals. Nickerson said Bruce is passionate about accessibility issues and wanted to honour the memory of a dear friend. She offered support to Bruce as he navigated the process of registering the DLAS, helping to interpret and create documents, for example.
“The goal here is not for us, me or VCLA, to do the work of setting up the society, but to help Brian acquire the skills so that he can do that work,” Nickerson said.
She said she feels the society has a good purpose as many people need a voice to help them in a given situation.
Nickerson said society pays
a lot of lip service to accessibility but doesn’t always follow through. Public buildings and washrooms continue to be inaccessible. She said society at large, and governments, must be held accountable for promises made regarding accessibility issues.
EYES OPENED TO ACCESSIBILITY
Nickerson said she was in a bad car accident seven years ago and broke her back. She had to use a wheelchair while she healed, and that really opened her eyes to accessibility challenges.
She said one simple change that would help a lot is if more stores and other public buildings had wheelchairs available for people who need them.
As with any service organization, Nickerson said, the association deals with accessibility issues on a continuing basis. For example, the VCLA took ownership of a former church in North Kentville in May 2021 and has transformed it into the VCLA Community Hub. They have been working to make it as accessible as possible.
Nickerson said they’ve repaired an elevator and brought it back into service. They’ve upgraded washrooms to meet accessibility codes and are in the process of installing automatic doors.
“We feel that this is the minimum we can do to make our space welcoming to the entire community,” she said.