Woke up this morning to discover that the predicted snow storm had indeed arrived as evidenced by a few centimeters of accumulation, high winds and poor visibility. And more snow is on the way, on and off, between now and Christmas. The good news is, it's shaping up to be a white Christmas. The bad news is, I'll be housebound until the streets get cleaned up because my wheelchair doesn't handle snow very well. Last winter I got stuck a half a dozen times and had to depend on the kindness of strangers to get me moving again.
So, here's the thing. I love my wheelchair. It makes it possible for me to walk my dog, Molly, to pursue my hobby as an amateur photographer, do my own shopping, attend appointments, meet friends for coffee and all those other activities that generally give me a level of independence I would not otherwise enjoy.
And then winter happens and, more specifically, snow. Any more than a couple of centimeters and going out means getting stuck becomes a real possibility. So what are the possible solutions to this dilemma? The most obvious one is don't go out but that's not an option simply because I'd end up going stir crazy. Of course I can take paratransit to appointments and such but that doesn't help with walking the dog or more spontaneous activities . Paratransit rides, for one thing, must be booked three days in advance so their usability is limited to those activities which I know about ahead of time. Some days it'd just be nice to go for a coffee if the mood strikes me. There's also the wheelchair taxi but that can get pretty expensive.
What about the wheelchair itself. I've looked into winter tires but there just isn't anything available. Through research on the internet I've discovered that there are chairs like this one or this one (how wild is that?) which will navigate through snow but there are no dealers in Canada (is that not ironic?) and even if there were, the Assistive Devices Program (ADP) will not provide any funding to help pay the US$12 000 plus price tag.
Another option is that I just go out and buy the chair myself but after taxes, shipping and the exchange rate are factored in we'd be approaching $20 000 and I haven't got that kind of money right now.
So here's my beef, ADP will provide funding for a chair which 'meets the user's basic needs'. Well, since this is Canada, isn't getting out of my apartment 12 months of the year, snow or no snow, a basic need? I'd even be happy to pay the difference in added cost for the upgrade but currently that isn't gonna happen. Anyone out there interested in joining a letter writing campaign to change ADP's stance on this?
So, I wanted to keep the mood here positive and here I am griping already. Hope you'll forgive me this one but I think it needed to be said and I will sit down soon and compose a letter to the minister of health for Ontario stating my concerns. After all, with all this snow I'll have lots of time to do it.
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