TODAY’S LETTERS
STEPHEN PATE
P.E.I. Disability Alert
The Festival of Lights on July 1 continued to be a difficult event for people living with disabilities.
The people who attended the festival were wonderful. They showed kindness and extended courtesies whenever need arose. But the disability shelter had been taken over by non-disabled people, who seemed quite happy to be sitting there. I could only see two wheelchairs among 50 people. We left and sat outside. At one point the crowd made it impossible to see so I went inside by myself. There were the same 50 people, most of them not visibly disabled. There was now only one wheelchair.
I moved towards the front corner near my family. A kind woman moved a chair out of the way. Suddenly a woman in a yellow volunteer/security shirt started asking me where I was going. I told her I was going over by my family. She started talking loud and simple to me like I was stupid and hard of hearing.
She called me “rigid” for thinking people in wheelchairs should be sitting in the area and “judgmental” for noting that most of the people were not disabled. She called me “rude” for stating the fact that most of the people were not disabled.
This person obviously received little training on disability issues. This is the first time I’ve felt abused by staff or volunteers at the festival.
There appears to be only slight planning for people with disabilities by the Atlantic Superstore Festival of Lights. There are no disability or disabled references on the ‘Walk and Sea’ website. The 12-page ‘Festival of Lights’ brochure contains no help for people living with disabilities. There is no disability parking anymore, washrooms for those in wheelchairs are non-existent and there is no special first aid or emergency help.
Final exit is unsafe, especially in a wheelchair. Ten thousand people are pressing though two small exits, while some people try to enter.
Why isn’t the fence constructed with sections removed so that people can exit? If there was ever an emergency, people would get trampled.
The Festival of Lights and other festivals put on by the city cannot exist in a cocoon. Fourteen per cent of Islanders live with disabilities. Accommodating them is not only the law in Canada, it’s good business.
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