More of my ranting in the local newspaper, the Telegraph Journal. They edited it down a bit, which was actually probably a good thing (for them anyways). I got a call after from a reporter from CBC Radio and she came to interview me today about wheelchair accessability in the city. She asked me to be a guest on a morning news/talk radio show soon, to discuss the issue. Maybe we can actually get some things fixed around this old city. It would be great to be able to take Mom out to different places, besides WalMart & Shoppers all the time.

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/145716


Wheelchair access still unavailable

My mother, who is in a wheelchair, wanted to do some shopping and I thought it would be nice to take her uptown. We found neither set of interior doors at the City Market are automatic. We took the little elevator from the Market down to Brunswick Square but when we came back, there was a sign blocking the entrance, which I moved but when I called the elevator, the light never came on and the door was locked (it has a regular entrance door, not an elevator door) so we could not get back up even though the market was still open. Instead, we went back to exit outside.

Here we found an exterior entrance to the market with a push button door but there was a big lip in the cement and we couldn't get the wheelchair over it. We had to get her out of the chair to carry it inside.

The Harbour Building was the same way. She called ahead she was told it was wheelchair accessible only to discover after getting dropped off, a set of stairs. We had to wheel down the steep hill from Prince William Street to Water Street, go through a door in the basement and wheel through the dark parking garage to the elevator, which meant getting out of the chair numerous times.

Who regulates these things? Someone is not doing their job and it's sad because it is people who are already at a disadvantage that pay the consequences.

JENNIFER MELVIN

Saint John