Dave Erwin
Dear editor:
I was disappointed to see your article in the March 30/16 edition of the Times in which Lindsay Strickland and Cathie Sinninghe made a plea for a family change room at the Sportsplex.
I found it sad that one of the excuses trotted out was the statement: “We are at the mercy of a facility that was built in ’70s and they didn’t think of accessibility concerns like we are aware of these days.”
Almost 20 years ago, before the last upgrade of the arena complex, my wife and I approached the management of the pool complex with the exact same request for a change room to accommodate our son, who also is autistic and enjoyed swimming with his worker.
We presented the exact same reasoning to the manager (at the time the Sportsplex was a stand-alone entity) and received the same sort of answers as they received at the last council meeting: “It will be quite expensive because there is no special family bathroom—just the plumbing alone will be very expensive.”
Undaunted, we explored the whole complex looking for a place where our son, and the many other children like him, could change with some measure of safety and comfort.
We found a couple of spaces that, while not ideal, would have worked and arranged for a contractor who was sympathetic to our cause to inspect the spaces and provide a ball park cost estimate for the necessary upgrades.
Needless to say, our request went nowhere. When the plans for the arena upgrade were announced, there still was no accommodation for handicapped citizens.
Ms. Strickland also is correct in stating that there is a bigger issue of equal accessibility as a basic human right—a right that leadership of this town has ignored for nearly two decades.
I applaud those on council who have agreed that something must be done to correct this longstanding problem. Autism will not go away nor will the many other special needs our children face.
Add to this the growing number of seniors in our community who will need this basic accommodation to help them remain active and healthy.
Parents of handicapped children, as well as adults with serious mobility issues, pay their share of taxes. Do they not have an equal right to access the public facilities their taxes support?
While it is decades too late to help our son and his contemporaries, it is not too late to show a little compassion to Matthew and his generation.
We need to be sure not to allow this issue to slide into obscurity again.
Sincerely,
Dave Erwin
Fort Frances, Ont.
