In recognition of Accessibility Awareness Week, the Efteen spoke to some folks navigating our community with disabilities.
We wanted to know what challenges they face and what might help support their quality of life in the community.
Daniel Varalta said he has an acquired brain injury which paralyzed half of his body. Varalta enjoys enough mobility he is still able to live independently and do his own cooking and cleaning. After his injury he learned how to get around and manage to some degree thanks to time he spent in the Connect Communities: Lake Country rehabilitation centre.
To get around the city, he relies on an electric wheelchair or scooter. The device gives him freedom to do his shopping and errands, however, he said there are businesses he doesn't go to because they are not accessible and he does go out less during the wintertime. He said he can get stuck with the chair and when curb cuts aren't cleared, they create major barriers for his wheelchair.
His home has been modified to accommodate his limited mobility, with handrails and a wheelchair he uses inside, but not all businesses have things like this. He also said he knows not everyone can afford the electric wheelchair or other things he has which give him so much freedom within the community.
"The biggest challenge is income, employment," said Varalta, noting there are not always a lot of opportunities for people with disabilities.
Another thing Varalta said he'd love to see is someplace for people with disabilities to gather and socialize. He started coming to the Salvation Army to visit because his friend Wayne was in a wheelchair and would bring him there to have breakfast together. While Wayne has since died, Varalta still goes to visit people at the Salvation Army and have coffee with the friends he made there.
He said he is able to access the eating room via a backdoor if he wants to have breakfast, but he isn't able to go downstairs to the more social space where people play games and hang out.
Rebecca Nesbit has been confined to her home for four years because of advanced osteoarthritis in her hip and moderate osteoarthritis in her knee.
She lives on the third floor of an apartment building that does not have an elevator and is reliant on a walker to move around in her apartment.
“I cannot remember if it was 2020 or 2021 but I remember going out for the last time to Walmart and Canadian Tire. and I was coming up the back cement steps outside and my hip gave out and I almost went down,” she recalled., adding her situation slowly got worse after that.
Nesbit has gone to the hospital three times since 2022. Each time the paramedics used a stair chair to transport her from her apartment to an ambulance.
Born in New Westminster, she moved to Williams Lake in 1980 ‘“just after the death of John Lennon,” with her mom and two sisters.
In 2019, after living in Kelowna for almost 20 years, she moved back to Williams Lake with her husband David.
“I knew it would be a bit cheaper here and my husband was on PWD (persons with disabilities) and had many issues so we had to really watch our budget.”
David died just before Christmas 2023 and had not been able to go out of the house much leading up to that so she began ordering groceries from Save-on-Foods online and paying to have them delivered.
She doesn’t have a family doctor.
Two months ago she went back into the hospital, due to cellulitis. While there she asked about her hip and knee but said she was told she needs a family doctor in order to be referred to a specialist.
“Every day I live in moderate to severe pain. It’s not easy.”
Nesbit hopes she can move into Glen Arbor when the new addition is completed.
“It will be two years next January that I’ve been on the waiting list.”
When asked how she keeps herself sane, she said she writes and hopes to one way publish her writing.
She also enjoys listening to all types of music, watching movies and knitting, sometimes.
Visitors are rare, she added.
“I pretty much came back as a stranger to a city I’d lived in before,” she said. “Things had really changed.”
