The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments: Shortcut to: http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_disabilitymatters/smith_20050624.htm l DISABILITY MATTERS: 'Come On-A My House' CBC News Viewpoint | June 24, 2005 | More from Disability Matters This column will feature three writers, each with a different disability. They all have something to say about living with a disability and how they view awareness and attitudes toward disabilities in Canada. The column will deal with the rights of people with disabilities, eliminating inequality and discrimination, and issues of self-help and consumer advocacy. Our plan is to rotate among our columnists to have a new column each month. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Ed Smith is a retired educator and full-time writer. His humour column runs in several papers and magazines and he has had eight books published. He has been quadriplegic since 1998. Ed lives in Springdale, Nfld. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- I was about five feet off the ground when the slightly less than 585 pounds of wheelchair and me suddenly and without warning dropped a foot. At the same time my heart rose approximately the same distance in my throat. Two things need to be made clear here. First, most of that weight was wheelchair. Second, only one side of the chair dropped. Anyone who lives in a chair knows this made it infinitely more scary. I was trying to get out of a friend's house using my 10-inch-wide aluminum ramps. There were six steps leading up to the deck from the ground. The only way to get up or down was to place one end of my 14-foot ramps some distance out from the bottom step (to make the incline more gradual) and the other at the top of the deck. I had managed to get in by cautiously inching up the ramps. The weight buckled and swayed them alarmingly, but with the help of two strong men pushing we made it to the top. I was trying to exit the same way, except now I had to control the chair down the steep incline. The ramps had to be just the right distance apart at the top and bottom, not to mention the middle, to keep my wheels from running off them. I wasn't doing this for the fun of it. During my 17-month hiatus in rehab facilities in Newfoundland and Toronto all I could think of, like most Newfoundlanders who have to be "away," was getting back to the Rock. I knew that being quadriplegic meant that our lives had changed forever but I was seeing that change in rather simplistic terms. I knew I wouldn't be hiking my hunting and fishing trails through the hills anymore. And my wife and I wouldn't be chasing whales and schools of fish in our boat and "boiling up" on isolated beaches anymore. I knew from now on I would have to hire other hands and feet to do the many things I had always done for myself, and that would range from dressing in the morning to pursuing my several hobbies and everything in between. But I wasn't prepared to live my life under virtual house arrest. We were and are blessed with many good friends. We were going home, against the advice of my doctors in Toronto, to a small town on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. But the quality of life we foresaw there was based in no small part on once more being among family and friends. Neither of us was prepared for the grim reality. I couldn't get into the houses of most of my friends. Like houses in many other parts of Canada, most Newfoundland homes are built on full basements, which lift the house several feet above ground level. The entrances are therefore almost always several steps up. My state-of-the-art wheelchair could not climb them. The episode with the ramps was thus my first attempt to get into a friend's house. On the basis of that successful entry I was flying high and had a most pleasant evening. As the song says, "leavin' wasn't even on my mind." Not until, that is, I actually started to leave and had to stare down the length of those flimsy aluminum ramps. That was when the chair took the frightening lurch. The bottom end of the left ramp had started sliding out along the grass causing the top end to slip off the top of the deck. Fortunately that top end just managed to catch on the first step, otherwise ramp, chair and I would have fallen in a rather undignified and painful heap. As it was I don't know why the chair didn't slip off the ramp or tumble over sideways. It was a scary moment for all concerned. Other friends made heroic efforts to get me into their homes but decided the risk of heart attack, theirs and mine, just wasn't worth it. There's only one couple whose house we can access on a regular basis and they live in Florida half the year! Pima County in Arizona has the first Inclusive Home Design Ordinance, or visitability law, in the U.S. and possibly Canada, as well. The ordinance requires that new single-family homes have at least one entrance with no step, and doors must be a minimum of 32 inches wide. It also states that ground-floor bathrooms should have reinforced walls for grab-bar installation, door handles of the lever type and wall switches no higher than 48 inches. It doesn't sound like much but it's a start. With all the talk about universal housing being only talk as far as specific regulations are concerned, it's good to see at least one jurisdiction prepared to fight the good fight for accessible homes. In 2003, the Arizona Court of Appeals in a unanimous judgment disallowed a bid by the Tucson Builders Association to have the visitability law declared null and void. It's a safe bet it won't be the last challenge. My own gut feeling is that I'll be older than Methuselah's cat before I can wheel up to any new home and simply make my way in. But the baby boomers are getting older and there's going to be more of us than ever who'll want to get into each other's homes, as well as hotels, restaurants and other public buildings. No, such homes won't cost a fortune, and no, it won't be the end of creative architecture. In fact, it will be the beginning of new challenges to builders and designers as they attempt to accommodate those amongst us who want to be as free to be as everyone else. I wish they'd hurry. Both my heart and my social life are showing the strain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- ^TOP Jobs | Contact Us | Help | RSS Terms of Use | Privacy | Copyright | Other Policies Copyright C CBC 2005 Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled. begin 666 smith_20050624.url M6TEN=&5R;F5T4VAO<G1C=71=#0I54DP]:'1T<#HO+W=W=RYC8F,N8V$O;F5W M<R]V:65W<&]I;G0O=G!?9&ES86)I;&ET>6UA='1E<G,O<VUI=&A?,C P-3 V F,C0N:'1M; T*36]D:69I960],C Y-S5".3=%,#="0S4P,4-!#0H` ` end