City ‘way behind’ on disabled access

Still too many barriers: councillor

While praising progress on a push for more accessible playgrounds, a city councillor said Calgary has a long way to go to become a barrierfree city.

“We’re way behind other cities in Canada,” Ward 7 Coun. Druh Farrell said Wednesday.

“We’re going to be having a national accessibility framework that will come with regulations. We’ll be far behind other cities in meeting those targets and those goals.”

Farrell, who has long advocated for greater accessibility across Calgary, made the remarks after a city committee endorsed a plan to make the city’s existing and new playgrounds more inclusive.

The plan comes following a successful 2017 motion from Farrell asking city administration to investigate including equipment that’s friendly to a range of ages and abilities in local parks.

After months of investigation, city administration identified 16 potential locations for accessible playgrounds. Bureaucrats found that of Calgary’s 1,107 playgrounds, just 30 of them have at least one piece of accessible equipment.

With committee’s endorsement Wednesday, council will now have a final say on if administration should include inclusive play initiatives in the 2019-22 budget cycle.

While discussing accessible playgrounds at Wednesday’s community and protective services meeting, city councillors said their offices frequently get requests for inclusive playgrounds and age-friendly equipment at city play spaces.

“We get inundated with requests for benches … because the grandparents take the kids to the park and there’s nowhere for them to sit,” said Ward 10 Coun. Ray Jones.

Farrell expressed excitement if council backs the recommendations endorsed Wednesday.

“There’s so much potential with this,” she said. “It’s really just recognizing our responsibility to build a city for all ages and abilities. Historically, we’ve been building playgrounds for kids with full mobility and we’re recognizing that that’s not enough.”

It’s really just recognizing our responsibility to build a city for all ages and abilities.