UPEI stubbornly refuses to allow accessible parking

A combination on Facebook and Blogger social media networking and mainstream media attention from CTV, the Edmonton Journal and CBC turned around this case of disability abuse in Alberta.

Obviously Smitty’s restaurant doesn’t want the bad publicity from local and national media coverage of this story. They saw the light and the problem is all fixed.

On PEI, stories of disability abuse are not so easily solved. Ann Matheson, a UPEI employee, got her story in the Guardian last Friday. She has a walking or mobility disability and will be losing her accessible parking. This could affect her job.

While there were over 35 positive comments towards Ann in the Guardian on-line, UPEI is stonewalling on this problem. It prefers to let bread delivery trucks traverse the campus but not people with disabilities.

UPEI is not embarrassed by its treatment of the disabled and takes the 100% bureaucratic line that a good decision was made. Perhaps if we start a Facebook group it might convince them to act more appropriately.

The PEI Council of Persons with Disabilities has come onside with the UPEI. Acting as apologist for UPEI, the executive director says the UPEI committee made the right call. Accessibility committee made call

Perhaps if Marcia Carroll, the executive director, was a person with a disability she would realize the impossibility of making her way on the UPEI campus in the rain, snow or ice in a wheelchair or with a walker. The response from the Council is for the bureaucracy and not for the person with a disability.

When will this change?