Where is the disabled parking asks Tara MacLean’s grandmother.

Blind grandmother finds it hard to attend UPEI benefit concert after UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan took away accessible parking

Tara MacLean featured at UPEI Benefit Concert

“Where did all the disabled parking go at UPEI?” asked an elderly woman last week at Brennan’s Pub about a concert headlined by Tara MacLean, her granddaughter.

The accessible parking was removed by UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan.

“I was there on Wednesday night to hear my granddaughter sing at the Steele Recital Hall. I had to walk a mile if I walked a foot,” she added.

She was attending Ricemusic a fund-raiser for the people of Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar.

There is irony here that the fundraiser was showing compassion and kindness to people 12,000 miles away but UPEI has little compassion for the disabled in its midst. It’s easier to love a stranger you can’t see than the neighbor next door.

Do you know my granddaughter?” she asked me.

“I’m almost blind and can’t see at night. I wanted to see her sing at the Ricemusic fundraiser. I went with a friend but we both had a devil of a time walking all that way from the parking lot. Are those people crazy?”

The grandmother of a headline singer at the Ricemusic Festival struggled to make it from the parking lot to the concert hall. In the dark, she found the long walk difficult along the paths at UPEI. She is almost blind and has a walking disability.

Both the grandmother and her friend that brought her felt at risk.

I hated to tell her that UPEI has decided to remove all inner-campus disabled parking in a move to beautify the campus.

Many people with a walking disability are still walking but they can’t walk far and are at risk of falling. The blind can walk but not long distances. Night vision is usually much worse than daytime vision.

(update with photo and grammar edits November 26, 2013)