{"id":2555,"date":"2013-06-12T17:47:20","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T21:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=2555"},"modified":"2013-06-19T18:06:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T22:06:10","slug":"mobility-maze-puts-everyday-challenges-into-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/mobility-maze-puts-everyday-challenges-into-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobility Maze puts everyday challenges into perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether you drive, bus, cab, or walk, getting to your ultimate destination is something people all too often take for granted \u2013 but local accessibility advocates encouraged people to see the other side of the coin Wednesday in the Mobility Maze. <\/p>\n

Over 25 residents, stakeholders and lawmakers were put in wheelchairs, assigned walkers, and tethered to blocks mimicking having an aid dog by their side. After some brief instructions and getting a tentative handle on moving about in their chairs, manoeuvering their walkers, or making sure they had everything they needed for their furry set of eyes, they left their own names and identities at the door to live the day in the life of an individual for whom this is a regular and often challenging part of their daily life. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople might have had different ideas or expectations going into the event and at the end of the day what we wanted to do was raise awareness,\u201d said organizers. \u201cAll the scenarios acted out today are based on real life scenarios that have been provided to us through surveys from community members.
\nThey were speaking to participants in a debriefing session the Community Centre following the Maze where people who completed their challenges spoke of their experiences and what they learned. \u201cSusan 2\u201d, as portrayed by political advocate and blogger Darryl Wolk. <\/p>\n

The Newmarket resident said going through the challenge put many of concerns he has getting around the GTA into perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I noticed is I used to complain if I had to wait five minutes for the subway, but people might not be able to go to routine doctors\u2019 appointments,\u201d he said, of a day in Susan\u2019s life, relying on the guide dog as his eyes, navigating transit and noisy traffic to get to her appointment.
\n\u201cYou might find yourself in a situation where you are constantly waiting. I can\u2019t imagine walking with all those horns and distractions and having to rely on the kindness of strangers \u2013 and at the end of the day I missed by doctor\u2019s appointment anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the tension of wondering what is going to happen now,\u201d added Debbie (A.K.A. Susan 1). \u201cSomeone here might help me get to the next location, but what is going to happen then?\u201d<\/p>\n

During the maze, Mr. Barker joined two other wheelchair users at the \u201ccustomer service\u201d desk, doling out transit cards and some often inconvenient schedules to users looking to book a trip on Mobility Plus. While he admits he was hard on some of the people in the lineup, it is something he said he encounters all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I wanted people] to understand the challenges we\u2019re facing and understand that we\u2019re not asking for the moon,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re just asking for regular, every day service like everyone else to go to work, or go to the movies with friends. We\u2019re just asking for what normal, everyday people go through and we can\u2019t get that. We want to know why. <\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s Mobility Maze, however, was observed and participated in by members of Mobility Plus. They took exception to some of the scenarios that were handed out to. They have heard some of those concerns, said manager Sharon Doyle, and opened up lines of dialogue, but to no avail.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what they said happened doesn\u2019t really happen,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have had meetings with them, they have made some insinuations, we have gone to some meetings to try to diffuse that, we thought we had put it to rest, and they still rear their ugly heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

One exaggeration, she said, was the time it takes to book an appointment, noting that people can book from seven days prior to the appointment or up to a day before the requested trip. There were, she added, a lot of \u201cuntruths.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ms. Doyle did not participate in the challenge, scheduling and dispatch supervisor Shelley Ayres did. She said people in the customer service booth were asking \u201cincorrect questions and giving way out there times for booking trips\u201d that does not reflect the reality. When asked if she saw any value in the Maze, she said she did not.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Whether you drive, bus, cab, or walk, getting to your ultimate destination is something people all too often take for granted \u2013 but local accessibility advocates encouraged people to see the other side of the coin Wednesday in the Mobility Maze. Over 25 residents, stakeholders and lawmakers were put in wheelchairs, assigned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/2013-06-12-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-Fd","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 19:24:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}