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Try Christmas shopping in a wheelchair
By Linda Crabtree
December 20,1999This article appeared previously in The Standard, St.Catharines, ON Dec. 4/99
Some day soon, I'm going to wake up and decide this is the day I should go over to the Pen Centre for my annual shot of Christmas spirit. I use an electric scooter to shop and it gets me everywhere I need to go if -- and it's a big if -- the retailer has seen fit to make the aisles in his store wide enough for a scooter or wheelchair. If not, I end up stranded half way in and half way out of an aisle, festooned with undershirts, shirts and nighties that caught on my handlebars and shoulders as I tried to back my way out. Or, I simply cannot go near the merchandise. Not fair? You bet. But then, the game has no rules in Canada.
A headline in the National Law Journal, November 8, 1999, Macy's ruling may affect all big retailers: Federal court judge orders Macy's to widen aisles for disabled. It turns out that Macy's, owners of the world's largest store in San Francisco's Union Square boasting one million feet of retail space, has committed the world's largest ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) violation. Disability rights Activists in the US took Macy's to court and won. On October 28 a district court judge found that shopping aisles at the Macy's store offered "barely enough room for even able-bodied customers to squeeze through," and that the store "rarely, if ever," gave the disabled decent customer service...flouting the access requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The suit was filed in 1996, so it has taken awhile, but this ruling will reverberate throughout the retail sector in America. During the trial, a defense lawyer stood and said, in essence, "Your honour, we stipulate that a 30- inch pathway was unusable for various class members." Class members? EGADS! You think that is hurtful and ignorant? When giving testimony, Macy's own lead witness, director of stores, Rebecca Canfield, admitted on cross examination that "she had no idea how wheelchair users actually get to the merchandise." And, she conceded that disabled shoppers would have trouble reaching 25% of the merchandise even during the off season.
Not just an American issue
Now this is in the United States, many years after they passed an Americans with Disabilities Act. In Canada we are just gearing up to take care of this type of callous disregard for people's rights. Five years ago, a group of people with disabilities got together at Queen's Park to vent their frustrations and put into motion a plan to change the barriers facing people with disabilities in Ontario. They became the Ontarians with Disabilities Act Committee.Those 20 are now 100 and we are in 18 regions of Ontario. We make it our goal to let people know what is happening in our fight to make Ontario a better place for those who cannot do simple things like get groceries, receive an education, find a job, be seen by a doctor or find accessible recreation. These tasks are often trying because there is no law that makes it difficult for people who do not make their place of business accessible. There are examples like Macy's all over the place. On November 23, the Ontario Legislature unanimously adopted a Liberal resolution calling for, and I quote, "An Ontarians with Disabilities Act which is strong and effective should be enacted no later than two years from today, November 23, 1999."
While a resolution is not binding, Culture Minister Helen Johns said that it's a solid commitment as far as she is concerned. I sure hope she means what she says. This comes after five years of haranguing MPPs, picketing, writing letters, talking to reporters and voting against anyone who took a stand against anything that worked against us or presented a bill without teeth. If what is happening in the United States is any indication of how things will go here, we who are disabled have a lifelong fight on our hands. But, at least it has begun. We know what we need to do, and Minister Johns has only to ask us what is needed and we'll tell her. Many of us are professionals. If she would ask for our input, we'd gladly work with her and those in her department to put together a bill with guts and gumption, and maybe someday, there will be no more being shut out of opportunities to shop, to get an education and to find good jobs in Ontario for people who are disabled.
Sure, it would be good if there wasn't such a thing as disability. I don't think anyone really, deep down, wants to be disabled but disability is a fact of life for 1.5 million people in Ontario. We've been ignored long enough.
My province made me a member of the Order of Ontario in 1992. As a person with a disability, I haven't had much occasion to pound my chest for Ontario. Here's hoping that the next few years see big changes in our laws, and people with disabilities will no longer have to sit in their wheelchairs on the outside with their noses pressed to the window glass.
Linda Crabtree has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), a progressively debilitating neuromuscular disorder and can be reached at cmtint@vaxxine.com, her Web site is at www.cmtint.org or through The Standard, St.Catharines, ON, L2R 5G5.
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