Imagine sitting in your favourite restaurant. You're midway through a spectacular meal when nature calls. For most of us, that's no big deal. We get up, walk up three stairs to get to the bathroom - end of story.
But for many among us, that simple scenario is impossible.
"You don't know until you're halfway through your meal and desperately have to pee that the bathroom is inaccessible," said Ellen Frank of Gibsons.
Frank knows intimately of what she speaks. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at age 40. During the 18 years she's lived with MS, Frank has seen a gradual change in her abilities.
"I have primary progressive MS, which means it starts and just slowly gets worse. For at least 10 years, if not more, I was able to walk around," she said. But life has changed radically for the former travel agent.
"On a really, really good day now, I can walk across my living room by holding onto a wall," Frank said.
And she's found as her strength and mobility levels have changed, her access to former haunts has changed too. So now the local woman is busy writing an accessible travel guide to the Sunshine Coast for folks with disabilities. The guide, called Sticks and Wheels, is supposed to be finished by the end of June.
In some instances, nature is a problem for people with mobility concerns.
"Many things were built long ago. For instance, the slope in Lower Gibsons - you can't renovate the landscape," she explains.
But in many other instances, it's a matter of poor communication.
"If you have a business, have proper signage. Let people know how to get into the building. I struggled for ages with two steps to a restaurant I really liked when there was a ramp right around the corner in the bushes where I couldn't see it," Frank said.
Frank is indeed frank when discussing MS. She uses the word disability as opposed to challenged. "Challenge is something I pick. I didn't pick MS," she states.
But her progressively diminishing health doesn't stop her from travelling, and her reason for writing the guide is to help others with similar needs.
And while most places on the Sunshine Coast are reasonably accessible, one place that's not raises Frank's ire. "I can't get into the medical clinics in Gibsons or Sechelt because there's not an automatic door. Someone has to come and help you get into the clinic. It's outrageous," she said.
While she's quick to say the people who work at the clinic are unfailingly helpful, they can't always get to the door right away.
"They're busy, they're not door people," she exclaims.
She explains how that lack of accessibility makes her feel.
"On a good day, it makes me annoyed. On a bad day, it's beyond demoralizing. I feel like I shouldn't need help to go and see my doctor," Frank said.
Reg Forward, manager of the medical clinics, said there is an automatic door in Gibsons, and one for Sechelt is in the planning stages. The change will be made when the clinic in renovated. The cost of the Gibsons' door was $6,000.
"None of the other clinics on the Coast has [an automatic door]. These buildings are 25 to 35 years old and things have changed since they were made," Forward said.
In our province and nationally, the need for accessibility will continue to be an ongoing concern. Right now, 14 per cent of the population of B.C. has a disability and the number will continue to rise as our population ages. At present, 53 per cent of Canadians over 75 have a disability.
Frank thinks it only makes good business sense to have buildings that are accessible to everyone. And she points out hot on the heels of the 2010 Olympics comes the Para Olympics, with a complement of 500 to 800 athletes and 5,000 and 8,000 volunteers.
"That is a lot of people with disabilities with a lot of international media right behind them. Hopefully, by 2010, we in B.C. will be proud of our accessibility," she said.
While her subject matter is serious, Frank, who uses both a walker and a scooter, also has a highly developed sense of humour.
Chapter eight in her guide is all about the best and worst bathrooms on the Coast. You can mail in your replies to efrank@sfu.ca and, yes, she does have her own opinions on the facilities that qualify for each category - but she wants to know yours. She promises the results will be published in the guide.
Frank is, for the most part, proud of the community she has adopted as her own. "People will really go out of their way for you. The goodwill is certainly present," she said.
And to bump the accessibility up to a higher level just takes people being conscious of the issues.
As Frank says, most of us never count steps until we can't climb them.
