Hi my faithful readers!
I’m about to tell you a tale that is true, and should cause outrage, while at the same time, cause you to be grateful for the people around you.
I know I am!

To make the long story short, as it happened a while ago, I will suffice to say that:

I had an appointment lightyears from home, it was one hour on regular transit, and another 45 minutes on HandyDART, Vancouver’s door-to-door service for persons with a disability.
My pickup time at Surrey Central was for 9:45 AM, my wife and I arrived at 9:15, we had 30 minutes to jump through hoops…
Since my wife did not have her customary chilled coffee enroute, I mentioned that there was a ubiquitous coffee outlet in the mall yonder across the road. So, we sallied forth with my wife walking, while I motored along in my power chair; we held hands.

The mall has a curved rotunda with plenty of doors, some automatic, some not, each door had an easy to spot white arch, plus, the whole area was flat, easily accessible.

You can see all that in the picture… the banana is all about preventing accidents…

So, we enter the mall, approach the coffee store. My observant wife informs me that there are stairs, the barista is 10 steps down. (I know the place exists, but I’ve never stopped there.)

My wife briskly descends, orders an iced coffee, I observe from above. Drink in hand, she heads towards the door, not bothering to ascend. She spots me and gestures to “come on.”

I understand, backup, turnaround and leave the coffee shop. Immediately outside, to the left, I see a door with the white arch, its not the same door I came in.

“Oh look,” I thought, “a door, right there! It is opening! Excellent. I’ll just zip through.” I did that, “Oh there is my beautiful wife…”.

With my eyes set on that beautiful soul, I motor straight ahead…

…right down a flight of stairs!

“Holy shit!” I yell as I clanged to a stop in the middle of the steps! This expletive was quickly followed by a couple more.

My wife, who was not looking at me, but across the rotunda, turned with a jerk at the sound of my profanity, assessed the scene immediately and charged like a linebacker! She stopped my inertia before I toppled over and became a squashed banana.

Oh, the irony…

My wife, bless her, yelled for help, many came, including three security guards. I was helped out of my chair, while this phalanx heaved my chair down four more stairs to flat ground.

Thank you one and all!

Oh this story is already too long… but I must continue!

After I back in my chair, the senior security guard, I’m assuming, was having a discussion with me wife. They were trying to determine who was at fault…

Let me tell you: It was not my fault.

Here is why:

1) the stairs were the same colour as the concrete, NO difference in colour,

2) NO yellow edge markings

3) NO railing at all, not even adjacent to the wall,

4) I motored straight ahead after leaving the mall because all the other doors had a flat access, when I got outside, I didn’t see any of the above, it looked like a smooth flat path. Yes, I assumed the area was flat, because of all the other access points were also flat.

Suffice to say; the mall undertook some, after a couple of callbacks, maintenance to that area of the rotunda. I’ll let you know next time I’m in the area.

My wife wrote a really good blog that expresses her feelings about this unintended jump. I will post tomorrow with you, yes I have her approval.

Moral of this story is two-fold; for others, please update your accessibility protocols, for me, don’t assume everything is a (flat) bed of roses…

Thank you for listening, reading, donating, sharing!