Does Richmond deserve a reputation of being the most accessible city in Canada?

Richmond is geographically flat, and the City also pays attention to physical accessibility for people with disabilities. I commend the City for doing that. Saying this, there is always room for improvement. I suggest that we need to hear from people with disabilities themselves to understand what barriers they see in moving around town, accessing services and living in Richmond. The other important factor is that the general public sees the needs and accepts as a civic responsibility to provide appropriate and reasonable accommodations to make the city accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.

Let’s first explore the definition, the context, and the scope of “accessibility”.

The term “accessibility” is used in different contexts. In the city/urban-planning context, however, the term is used to mean the ease with which a person can reach from one location or facility to another. Examples include from one floor to another floor of a building, from one block to another block of a neighbourhood, from home to school, to a shopping mall, and so on. All these relate to physical accessibility, although it may well be extended to cover non-physical ones too (e.g., access to a job and to more…

As a person with a disability I find Richmond mostly accessible but as others have noted there is always room for improvement. The recent agreement by Richmond to install verbal messaging is an example of the city listening to its citizens with disabilities, but why does it take a complaint to the Human Rights to get attention and action?

So now how about an accessible parking bylaw with some teeth!

And what can we as PWD s living in Richond do when we see a facility constructed accessible but changed with or without city approval that decreases accessibility?

Lets make sure that all future planning (and development) incorporates provisions that truly continue to make Richmond accessible and inclusive for persons with disabilities in all aspects of our community.

I will choose to focus on physical accessibility in terms of mobility. Richmond is a city designed for car use. It may be the most accessible in Canada but there are a lot of other cities in the world that we could learn and borrow from.

-Markets and malls are all conceptualized around the use of a car.

-Often pedastrian walks are missing from one side of the road or completely missing from bridges.

-Cyclists lanes are missing from most roads and where they are shared are usually not honored by drivers

-Translink services are downright pathetic:

-Most bus-stops more…