By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The accessible swing at Lion’s Park has gotten a little more user-friendly with the recent unveiling of a thick rubber fall protection surface that replaces wood chips, following a grant from the Tire Stewardship BC.
And while it may seem a minor thing for the able-bodied, for Leanne Scott, her husband Dale Fuhr and their neurodivergent, wheelchair-bound son Callum the ability to simply get to the accessible swing at Lion’s Park without getting stuck in the morass of wood chips is a godsend.
“The importance of it is fairly obvious when you have a child that can’t use playground equipment and wants to use playground equipment like every other child does and has the right to,” says Scott.
A number of areas were identified for accessibility improvements by the Osoyoos’s Accessibility and Age Friendly Committee (AAFAC) and this was one of them, says Gerald Davis, Director, Community Services at the town.
“We applied through the Tire Stewardship BC program and got funding of about $12,000, or about half of the cost to install.” The not-for-profit group announced the grants last fall with Osoyoos being one of 10 municipalities, schools and regional districts selected.
Davis explains that the thickness of the mat – in this case around 15 cm – is calculated according to a formula to provide a soft landing should someone fall off the swing at maximum height.
It is constructed of 831 recycled tires and is similar to those found in other playgrounds and the Jack Shaw Splash Park (which has a thinner version). The mat replaces wood fibre chips that are theoretically wheelchair accessible, but in practice are more challenging.
The TrailRider – of which Osoyoos has one – has been used to go up Mount Kilimanjaro and along the West Coast Trail.
On hand for the unveiling was accessibility committee member Linda Forrester who said “It’s nice to have an inclusive community for everybody and we are a family-based destination too. It’s nice to have something that everybody gets to take part in.”
Scott holds high praise for the town for its willingness to listen and address accessibility issues, saying it has over the years gone “out of its way to support” accessibility. “It’s not perfect” she notes but Osoyoos is much further ahead than many communities including much bigger cities like Vancouver.
On the accessibility front, Davis noted that the town has been awarded another grant about a month ago, for the purchase of an enclosed trailer to house the town’s Mobi-Chair (floating mobility aid) and TrailRider (all-terrain mobility aid). Delivery is expected by the end of May.
The other key bits of accessibility equipment that have been implemented in recent years are the Mobi-Mats which provide a stable portable pathway over the sand to enable wheelchair access to the water. This allows people in wheelchairs to bask on the beach, dip their feet in the water, or be transferred into a floating Mobi-Chair for a swim.
The new trailer will accommodate both the TrailRider and the MobiChair.
Davis notes the town has received “a lot of good feedback” from visitors to Osoyoos because of the mats. These are in place at Gyro and Legion Beaches during the summer months although they are designed to be left in place year round, something the committee is considering.
Davis notes that the grants are only possible because of the work put in to create an Accessibility Plan, without which many of the grants would not be available. In fact, as AAFAC member and town councillor Jim King noted, Osoyoos is one of the leaders in the province in terms of having an accessibility committee, which Osoyoos has for nearly a dozen years he says.
The committee is hoping that the trailer will help spur greater use of the two mobility aids as the difficulty in moving the two pieces of equipment has hampered their use.
“We have this equipment, but it was just too difficult for anybody to come pick it up,” Davis says. He adds that there had been some discussion about leaving it outside but the TrailRider alone is worth $10,000 and it was decided this was not a viable option. Part of the grant for the trailer is for a GPS implementation which will help the town keep track of the equipment.
