WATCH: Vancouver has a reputation for being fairly accessible to those living with disabilities. Now a Canadian filmmaker is putting that to the test with an app he created. The app users give Vancouver a passing grade — but the city has a ways to go to be truly accessible. Jill Bennett reports.
Jason DaSilva is trying to make it easier for people with disabilities to get around Vancouver.
“I was able-bodied for like 25 years, so I know exactly what it feels like to have your advantages taken away. So I’m trying to bring it back,” he says.
The filmmaker was raised in Vancouver and graduated from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with primary progressive MS.
As mobility became more of challenge, DaSilva found there wasn’t a way to know which public places are accessible, so he developed an app called the AXS Map.
It allows people to rank the accessibility of businesses, for anything from ramps to washrooms, on a one to five-star scale.
“They go in a business, tell them that they’re rating them, and then business owners are like ‘you’re right, I do need to put in a ramp in!'” he says.
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