By Paul Northcott
Most new buildings in Ottawa have to be barrier free, but for private owners of some of the city’s more historical structures it’s a concept they can choose to ignore.
Barrier-free buildings are designed to offer full access to people with physical and sensory disabilities. It is a requirement of the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s building code.
The rules and regulations of that code are enforced by people like Neil Dillon, manager of building inspections with the city of Ottawa. Dillon says the code affects all buildings built after 1986.
It is not retroactive and does not apply to single-family dwellings.
Dillon says problems with accessibility are more apparent in Ottawa’s downtown, like commercial areas along Bank Street, Elgin Street and the Byward Market, that are littered with buildings constructed long before 1986. On the other hand, areas away from the core have buildings that offer improved access.
“If you’re talking suburbs, you’ll probably find it very accessible. But if you are talking about the downtown or any of the older parts of the city it’s probably not that accessible,” Dillon says.
Efforts to improve access to some of those older buildings often fall into the lap of people like Danielle Vincent, a community development officer with Disabled Persons Community Resources.
“We provide a lot of information, and do anything that promotes access for people with physical disabilities,” she says.
Vincent says disability can include being confined to a wheelchair, using a cane temporarily, recovering from a heart attack or coping with arthritis.
Vincent says in a city like Ottawa, accessibility can be a significant problem.
“Accessibility wasn’t a feature many years ago,” she says, adding steps are one of the biggest barriers to accessibility.
After that challenge is overcome, she says the disabled often face many more obstacles once they’re inside a structure.
“You’ll go into a building and you might be able to get in the door, but you’d find out later that they don’t have accessibility to the bathrooms,” Vincent says.
Then there are the buildings that do have the amenities for the disabled. Ramps, for instance, can provide access to other levels of a building for people in wheelchairs and others who are not able to use the stairs.
But Vincent says they must be installed appropriately and be free of clutter to be functional.
“You’ll have places where a ramp is built but you’ve got to be a hot dog to get up it. If you don’t have the body strength, forget about it,” she says.
As for older buildings not covered by the code, Vincent says it’s important to educate their owners and managers about the importance of barrier free access.
Barriers are not only physical, they can also be in the minds of building owners.
“They’re never going to give a second thought to the concept of barrier free,” Vincent says.
“But one in five individuals in Ottawa will experience a disability at some point in their life.”
The aging of the population will only compound the issue.
The Bank of Nova Scotia at Bank and Gloucester recently spent over $1 million on a renovation project, which included improved access for the disabled.
“We do have a fair number of clients who couldn’t access the stairs in the old building,” says bank manager Gerry Greene. The work included the installation of an elevator, ramps and larger washrooms.
Gerry LePage, executive director at the Bank Street Promenade, says his membership is obviously concerned about accommodating clients who may have problems getting through the front door.
But for many small businesses, finding the cash to provide access for all can be an expensive proposition.
“The problem is a lot of the storefronts . . . it takes a massive retrofit to get access,” LePage says. “There are real cost implications here.”
Eliminating steps, installing ramps, elevators and large bathrooms could cost tens of thousands of dollars and important retail space.
Dillon conceded some businesses find it cumbersome to meet the barrier-free status.
Some older storefronts have steps or narrow doors that wouldn’t pass barrier free codes if they were constructed today.
But he says there’s now a market that can be captured of people with disabilities who don’t go where they want to because they simply can’t get around.