By Lindsey Coad
It’s 1:20 p.m. and Francoise Leclerc is 40 minutes early for her appointment at the Kidney Foundation in Ottawa’s west end.
She’s ready to roll up her sleeves, preparing campaign fundraising kits and entering data into the computer. But it’s not a done deal—yet. Leclerc is here to see how well she can access the office space and washroom with her wheelchair.
“You need a lot of patience,” says Leclerc. But she laughs easily upon her arrival in the lobby. She booked her Para Transpo bus ride two hours in advance just to ensure she’d make it on time for the tour. Leclerc, 45, is relearning how to walk nowadays, but the cerebral palsy in her legs has confined her to a wheelchair since her 20s.
Trudy Holmes, the foundation’s residential canvass manager, leads Leclerc through the maze of cubicles to the volunteer room. It’s bright and spacious, and the computer desk is the right height.
But the wheelchair-accessible washroom is a problem. The doors that lead to it don’t open automatically.
“At first glance you think it is (accessible) until you really look,” says Holmes, shaking her head. Together, the pair discuss an arrangement. Holmes will open the door when Leclerc needs a hand during her shift. “I’d be happy to do that for her,” she says.
It’s that can-do attitude that makes Leclerc feel welcome here: “the openness, how the person hiring is willing to accommodate,” she says. But volunteering isn’t new to her. She has donated her time for years at places like Amnesty International.
“It’s hard when you have to ask someone to open the door.”
Leclerc is a participant in Volunteer Ottawa’s new pilot strategy to find a placement for applicants with mobility impairment—and most importantly—ensure their individual needs are met.
“Often it’s the volunteer who opens the ears of the agency to what they can do and what they can’t do,” says Rachel Stoparczyk, assistant manager of recruitment and referral services at Volunteer Ottawa.
Fifteen per cent of volunteers with the referral agency have a disability, and while there’s been an increase in recent years, the placement rate has been low. If the pilot program is successful, organizers hope to include applicants with all types of impairments in the future.
It’s a myth that accessibility is expensive, says Stoparczyk. She recalls a young man who volunteered to run the clock for a women’s hockey league but couldn’t access the scorekeeper’s box.
“The next week he came back there was a (wooden) ramp,” she says. “They didn’t need to pour concrete to make it happen. They didn’t need to bring in an architect.”
David Lepofsky, chair of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act committee, says anything that impedes people with disabilities from geting an education, a job or getting around, also limits access to volunteer opportunities.
The provincial government’s recently proposed legislation would impose mandatory standards so public and private spaces are barrier-free.
“It’s good for society because it takes a pool of people (and) provides more opportunity for them to volunteer and that helps society all the way around,” says Lepofsky. “It’s not just us saying, ‘hey, what will you do for us?’ We want the opportunity to do for society.”
Leclerc likes giving back to her community and says she was relieved to hear about the new initiative at Volunteer Ottawa. “It’s about time,” she says. “It’s just like anything else. The population doesn’t know until they try, until they ask.”
Holmes props open the back door which is normally used as an exit to the parking lot. She’s found an alternative route to the corridor of washrooms.
“Inquiring mind,” Leclerc jokes as Holmes pokes around.
On this route there’s an automatic door that swings open with the push of button. Then Leclerc discovers she can actually get the washroom’s pull-handle door open with a hard push. No help required.
“We found a way around it. We’re good,” says Holmes, throwing her hands up with satisfaction. “I’m glad I had to think it through.”
Leclerc is glad too.
“We can start!” she tells her new supervisor, flashing a grin.
“Cool,” says Holmes.