Kingston's Newest Barrier

I am so frustrated with another new barrier to equal access in Kingston. The No Frills grocery store that was just around the corner and is owned by Loblaws has moved to the north end of town. A non-accessible bus has been chartered by the store to provide free shuttle service to take people from the old store to the new one twice a week to assist seniors, the poor, and those who don't own a car to drive to the new location, but they are forgetting one group, the disabled who use wheelchairs.

I work full-time so I have not had the time to contact the store owner to ask if he will charter an accessible bus to provide equal accommodation. This frustrates me. There are not enough hours in the day to write letters or approach an individual to ask them for accommodation that is required by law, but has been overlooked and is allowed to happen. We need more oversight to ensure the laws are not overlooked leaving the person with Human Rights as the only alternative form of protection. I have no interest in using that venue to enforce issues that are currently law.

I wrote to the Downtown Renewal Project group and members of city council to express my concern. I also plan to speak to Grant, the owner of No Frills, but so far it hasn’t been done. It’s too bad the phone number for the store is unlisted.

One of the concerns raised by the lobbyists about the store closing was the added expense of taking a bus now that a grocery store is no longer within walking distance, but when I expressed the concern about the disabled, I was told that we don't need the accommodation as much as the others, because we qualify for door-to-door service on Kingston Access Bus.

Well, did anyone stop and think about how much those buses cost? Those buses are costly if you take them on a regular basis. Access Bus does not offer the choice of buying a bus pass or getting a discounts for buying books of tickets. I pay over $160.00 a month for the permanent bookings to things like work and 2 social outings. I then pay for6 to 8 additional buses to travel to things like medical appointments, shopping (in the accessible stores which are becoming few and far between), and a few other things. Believe me, it is not cheap. Contrast this to the cost of buying an adult bus pass on Kingston transit for $65, a corporate discounted pass for $58.50, a seniors bus pass for $45, or the cost of owning a car, and believe me, adding an average of $19.35 per month for bus to buy groceries, will not be easy.

The bus is the only option though because I work full-time during the day. This means I can't even use some of the services that exist such as a delivery service, meals-on-wheels, the free school buses that take people shopping in a few other grocery stores, etc. Instead, I get to pack as many things as possible into my one and only weekday off work. This day gets filled with medical appointments, trips to 3 or 4 ends of Kingston to go shopping, attendant care services, the nurse, phone calls to agencies, businesses, and services that work 9 - 5 and who, in some cases, rarely call back, etc.

Needless to say, it is a life-saver to be high energy, able to act spontaneously, and to have learned how to cope with very little social life, entertainment, and in some cases, healthy or affordable food. It is the only way I can survive.

And what is the point of this blog? To raise awareness and to ask that you look underneath the bluster of a person who is asking for barrier removal, or the funding for a service that can help us with everyday things that many people can take for granted.

So, who has the greatest need? You be the judge.

Please read my other blogs:
Transit: http://wheelchairdemon-transit.blogspot.com
Health Care: http://wheelchairdemon-health.blogspot.com

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