UPEI says PEI building codes don’t apply

UPEI Access-Ability Committee misguided attempt to force disabled into power wheelchairs

At Future Shop today I ran into a member of the UPEI accessibility committee who proceeded to berate me for attacking UPEI’s disability policies. A quad himself, he has a power wheel chair and parking distances greater than 50 meters are not an issue for him.

I asked him if he had verified the distances from the blue and non-accessible parking we published and he hadn’t. Asked why, he told me the National Building Code and the City of Charlottetown By-Laws did not apply to UPEI.

I questioned the reasoning behind that statement and he replied that if people couldn’t walk 200 meters, they should get a wheelchair.

That’s a pretty callous remark to make about another person’s adaptation to disability but it does explain the stubborn attitude of the Access-Ability Committee at UPEI and President Wade MacLauchlan.

However, it doesn’t help blind students at all since they would be in worse shape in a power wheelchair. If you can’t see you don’t want to go faster.

UPEI removed the last accessible parking from campus. From that date forward, approximately 70% of the disabled parking would be outside the legal limit of 50 meters from the building.

So there we have it. People with disabilities should adapt to UPEI and UPEI can stubbornly refuse to follow National Building Code standards, city by-laws, Human Rights and Charter of Rights and Freedom laws and precedents.

That’s what it is to be rich and powerful: you are above the law. President MacLauchlan feels rich and powerful. Does he have the support of the Board of Governors in breaking laws, building codes, accommodation precedents and standards? There are reasonable people on the Board of Governors. Are they speaking out or has MacLauchlan mesmerized everyone?

Is the University of PEI willing to provide students and employees with that financial assistance in lieu of meeting building code standards of 50 meters to the parking spot?

As I left the store, I could see my friend wheeling his chair across the Future Store parking lot, his wife in tow, to the Canadian Tire Store parking lot. He told me he likes to park as far from the entrance as possible, sort of an Olympic athlete of quadriplegics. Amazing.