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Accessibility on a roll in Powell River

Almost ten years after a graduation night car accident cost him the use of his legs, Brent Bryksa is back on his feet - at least in a figurative sense - in his adopted community of Powell River, BC.

Not only does he lead an independent life in one of the province’s most picturesque regions, he is part of a dynamic committee aimed at making further improvements to a community long renowned across Canada as a welcoming place for people with disabilities.

"I came here because I heard that it was a great place for people in wheelchairs," says Bryksa. "Here I can live just like everyone else. I have a job. I drive a car. I shop for my own groceries. I don’t want attention or sympathy because I think there are lots of people who are worse off than me."

When in 2006 Powell River was selected by 2010 Legacies Now to undertake a pilot project for an important inclusion initiative called Measuring Up, the 26-year-old native of Windsor, Ontario volunteered to take part.

The process began with city council passing a resolution formalizing the community’s commitment to accessibility and inclusion. The next step was to assemble a group of concerned citizens representing a wide range of ages and interests, including civic government, business and the school district, as well as the various disability support groups already working in the community.

Shortly thereafter, representatives from a total of 24 different organizations came together as a Committee of Council. Using an expert-driven process and guidelines provided by 2010 Legacies Now, the committee undertook a comprehensive assessment of the degree to which people with disabilities were able to participate as active members of community life.

The person chosen to chair the committee was renowned local disability advocate Geraldine Braak. No stranger to inclusion initiatives, Braak is a visually impaired senior and an Order of Canada recipient for her tireless work, which included establishing the Powell River Model Community Project for People with Disabilities, and serving as its board chair and executive director for the past 20 years.

With Braak at the helm and a broad base of representation, the committee went to work, assessing four key elements: disability support services, access to information, economic participation and community contribution. Not surprisingly, they concluded that Powell River exhibited a high degree of awareness, accessibility and numerous support services, however, Braak admits that the assessment also revealed room for improvement.

"I think that getting a proper assessment done was an important step," she says. "On your own, you might think you’re doing perfectly well, but then you realize it’s not perfect everywhere. As a united group, we realized that we can achieve a lot more and that we need to."

The city hall building proved to be a strangely obvious case in point. Although the building’s lobby area is accessible to wheelchairs, many other areas of the building are not, including its second floor city council chamber. As a result of the glaring oversight, city staff immediately assigned Bryksa and one other committee member to serve on the planning committee for a new city hall building. According to Braak, the opportunity to influence decisions during the planning stages of new initiatives has been one of the committee’s most important early wins.

"The city is now committing larger amounts of money and seeking input from disability organizations when they undertake something new," she says, adding that both the city and the school district have also committed to something called the 10 by 10 Challenge, meaning they will seek to increase the number of people with disabilities employed in its various departments by 10 per cent by 2010.

Meanwhile, with the Measuring Up assessment completed and a baseline of accomplishments and shortcomings established, the committee then set targets for improvements. To help them get started on realizing their near-term goals, they successfully secured a $20,000 grant from 2010 Legacies Now. A portion of those funds will be used to build further awareness throughout all sectors of the community, particularly with respect to providing employment opportunities.

"We’ll use it to help get the message out to city department managers, unions and schools about who we are and what we are doing," says Braak. "We want them to participate in improving and maintaining Powell River’s accessibility. We need all members of the community to appreciate the abilities of people with disabilities and give them a fair chance for employment."

Another primary target for the funding is to encourage businesses to become more accessible by continuing to publish the Powell River Access and Business Guide, which was in danger of being eliminated due to costs at precisely the time when more and more people with disabilities are opting to visit and live in Powell River.

"People coming into the city use the guide to find which businesses are accessible to the disabled," says Braak. "We want to do a two-year version and have it on-line as well."

Measuring Up committee member Lilla Tipton agrees that Powell River businesses stand to benefit from being accessible, citing that one in seven Canadians is currently living with some form of disability, and that the ratio will grow further as baby boomers move into their senior years. At the same time, however, she thinks that the Measuring Up process proved that Powell River is considerably further ahead of other communities.

"I thought the assessment gave us reason to celebrate how much we already know and have already done," says Tipton, the long-time executive director of the Powell River Association for Community Living. "People here take great pride in wanting to take care of each other." 

In addition to further sharpening its focus through the Measuring Up process, the committee has also contributed to a number of other community initiatives aimed at improving accessibility, and creating an even more inclusive environment. Among those was hosting the 2007 BC Disability Games in Powell River, an undertaking the committee hopes will aid in its efforts to attract Paralympic teams and athletes to train prior to the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

In the longer term, Braak lists "housing, housing, housing" at the top of her wish list for Powell River’s growing disabled community. One of the items on Tipton’s list is to see the badly deteriorated 13-kilometre accessibility trail surrounding Inland Lake just north of town restored. Meanwhile, Bryksa is researching the construction of a beach wheelchair for public use at the city’s Mowat Bay Park, one with large inflated tires that can be used to cross sandy areas and float.

While the committee is realistic about the time and money required to achieve all of their objectives, they are clearly intent on taking full advantage of the opportunities that lay ahead by building on its caring past. For as their history proves, when it comes to welcoming those with disabilities, the people of Powell River have been measuring up for years.