Skip to content

Comox Valley Accessibility Committee hosting an event at Lewis Centre

If you’ve ever been stumped by how to get into a business fronted by stairs with no ramp or handrail or wondered how to get your wheelchair or stroller down from a high curb, you will appreciate the efforts of the Comox Valley Accessibility Committee working to raise awareness about how much of a battle it can be sometimes just to go from A to B in our town in your daily lives.
11915786_web1_180524-CVR-C-accessaware
CVAC members and CVRD staff enjoy Goose Spit’s accessible fire pit

If you’ve ever been stumped by how to get into a business fronted by stairs with no ramp or handrail or wondered how to get your wheelchair or stroller down from a high curb, you will appreciate the efforts of the Comox Valley Accessibility Committee working to raise awareness about how much of a battle it can be sometimes just to go from A to B in our town in your daily lives.

That’s why CVAC is hosting an event at Lewis Centre on June 2. There will be coffee coffee and a transit bus where you can learn to use an extending ramp to get on board and talk to friendly transit staff about using buses. CVAC members will also be on hand to explain how you can make your home or business accessible to everyone challenged by disability, temporary or permanent. We would like to hear about the difficulties you have with access.

CVAC is a group of Comox Valley citizens, both able-bodied and having disabilities who meet monthly to discuss ideas and plans to make our community more accessible. We write letters, make phone calls, and attend meetings to advise local agencies and governments about their proposed plans. Do they meet the needs of disabled people?

We respond to requests to look at building plans and answer questions about what needs to be done to make parks, homes and businesses were accessible. We can help you find information about what you need to build and where to find financial help to do it. Or how you get a disability parking sticker? The goal of the accessibility committee is to make the entire Comox Valley accessible to all individuals regardless of mobility or sensory disabilities. We could use your help and ideas.

One of our current projects is keeping public focus on the desperately needed upgrade to the sidewalk on Ryan road hill. Why is there no safe pedestrian access to North Island Hospital, North Island College and the businesses at Crown Isle?

Our accomplishments include the many lifts at pools, curb cuts around town, and better audible walk signals. We advise planning departments and recreation departments about walking paths, beaches, and sidewalks. If you have been to Goose Spit in the past three summers you may have noticed that there are wheelchair accessible (and stroller accessible) beach mats leading to a fire pit on the beach which we were able to have CVRD park staff install.

Please stop in at the bus at Lewis Centre on June 2 and see how easy it is to board the bus with a cane, walker or scooter. People with baby strollers are welcome too, of course.

Members of the accessibility committee will be on hand to provide information and to listen to your ideas about how to make our community easier to navigate for all of us.

Access Awareness Day is a province wide event.

The Comox Valley Accessibility Committee meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 12:15 p.m. at the Lewis Centre. Everyone is welcome. For more information please call Lydia at (250) 338 527 . Or visit our website at CVAccess.