June 1, 2007
By Ron Ryder
Guardian
Disability Alert is calling for stricter enforcement of accessibility laws after word that some polling stations didn’t seem to be complying with the requirements of the law on access for the physically disabled.
Stephen Pate, founder of the group said he was told by the Green Party that it had complained about a lack of wheelchair parking at one polling station.
“I know that they want to get these polling stations into every community, but people don’t seem to understand that if they deny access to even one person the facility isn’t accessible,” he said. “It’s a question of equal treatment.’
Chief Electoral Officer Lowell Croken said disability access is one of the criteria that a building has to meet before it is used as a polling station. But he said he recognizes that some places have facilities that probably don’t meet recommendations.
“We did have one person contact us with a concern that in one station there weren’t properly marked spaces for parking of handicapped vehicles” he said. “We asked the deputy returning officer to just keep an eye on it and make sure they were kept free. We haven’t had a complaint from anyone who said they weren’t able to get into a polling station.
“I recognize that some of these community halls may have a ramp that’s too steep or not properly outfitted in some way but they are all buildings that can be accessed. The difficulty for owners of these buildings is that we rent from them once every four years on Election Day and we pay them $150. I can’t expect that’s going to get someone to pay $3,000 on a ramp.”
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Barry Schmidl, executive director of the Council of the Disabled, said his group hasn’t gotten any complaints from the last round of elections, but he said accessibility has been a challenge.
“This last election seems to have gone well,” he said. “In the last federal election, there was one station that had a ramp that didn’t go to the main doors, it went to a side door that didn’t even have a doorknob on the out side. In spring or summer that door probably would have been propped open and there’d be no problem, but this was January or February. We have one man who got to the top of the ramp and had to shout to some one passing by to get them to ask workers to open the door.”
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