The city is excluding people with disabilities from area playgrounds by not making them accessible a local woman says.
Tracy Hurlbert, who has been in a wheelchair since she was 18 because of multiple sclerosis, said the city needs to make playgrounds more accessible as it retrofits parks across Thunder Bay. Sitting near the newly renovated playground at Marina Park on Wednesday morning, Hurlbert said there is specialized equipment the city could have installed to make the playground more inclusive.
"I pay taxes just like everybody else," Hurlbert said. "I’m paying for something I can’t use and that’s just not right."
While it’s more expensive, the city could have also installed rubber surfacing instead of sand that would allow disabled adults to interact with their children, instead of waiting on a path on the side of the playground, Hurlbert said. The city could have partnered with charity organizations to pay for the upgrades she added.
In speaking with parents of disabled children, she added she’s not the only one who feels this way.
"They do feel that their children are being ostracized or excluded from other things that other children are able to do."
Some councillors have showed support for her ideas, but Hurlbert said city administration told her the plan would be too cost-prohibitive.
City parks planning co-ordinator Werner Schwar said accessibility was considered when redeveloping Marina Park’s playground, but time and money were in short supply.
"The budget we had available at the time made it prohibitive to use an accessible surface," Schwar said. "The decision to go with sand there was not an easy one to make."
But this doesn’t mean the city won’t consider implementing Hurlbert’s ideas in the future. Schwar said there is an ongoing plan to figure out how to make playgrounds more accessible.
"We agree that the surfaces should be accessible to people with disabilities."
"We agree that the surfaces should be accessible to people with disabilities."
The rubber used for accessible playgrounds is eight times the cost of sand, Schwar said. The city’s parks department will consider such ideas during its capital budget process.
