Escaping the heat will be top of mind for many Hamiltonians this weekend and for those with disabilities, their accessible pool options have grown slightly this week.
The Parkdale outdoor pool reopened on Wednesday after closing its doors in November 2020 to undergo $3.2 million in renovations and upgrades.
Located on Main Street East next to the Pat Quinn arena, the pool itself has been replaced with a heated version and it now has accessibility features like a ramp into the water, a beach-style entryway, and a new 2,500 square-foot change house with an open style change room, accessible shower, and both gender-specific and universal washrooms.
The first open swim at Parkdale was held after a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, during which Hamilton was sweltering under a heat warning.
Emily Daigle, a disability advocate of 30 years who uses an electric wheelchair, was dismayed to be prevented from entering the water at the same time as everyone else who showed up for the grand opening.
It took about ten minutes or so for staff to track down an aquatic wheelchair, which allows people with electric chairs to actually enter the pool.
While it wasn’t too long of a wait, Emily said it’s an example of how people with disabilities are treated as “an afterthought.”
“It’s nice to have a ramp to get in the pool, but you’re sitting on the deck in a power wheelchair looking at it, going, ‘I can’t go in until whenever sort of shows up with a pool chair.’ And it’s really frustrating because yet again, people with disabilities in Hamilton have been excluded. They’ve been an afterthought.”
Laura Kerr, manager of program development for the city of Hamilton’s recreation department, said that’s something they want to change.
“It’s really important for our staff to understand that there’s always something we can do better, it’s not like we’re going to get to the end of a year and suddenly all of our facilities are now fully accessible,” she said.
She said she had a debrief with management at the Parkdale pool about Emily’s concerns and will be working on making sure people who require accessibility accommodations to enter the pool don’t face similar obstacles going forward.
Part of that will include updating the lists of amenities on the city’s web pages for its indoor pools and outdoor pools to ensure they clearly indicate what features are available at each facility so people who need certain accommodations can plan their trips more easily.
Kerr said a lot of work has been underway to update Hamilton’s public pool facilities – many of which were built as far back as the 1970s when building standards were vastly different compared to today.
“And there’s a lot of diverse needs when you talk about physical limitations and disabilities; it’s just not those who are physically in a wheelchair. It’s visual disabilities as well, or auditory disabilities.”
The kinds of changes that are made at recreation facilities are based on feedback from the community.
In recent years, those improvements include things like height-adjustable hydraulic change tables and wider change rooms (which have been added to the Ancaster Aquatic Centre and Bernie Morelli, Norman Pinky Lewis, and the Stoney Creek recreation centre) and mechanical lifts (added at Huntington Park and Westmount rec centres).
Any facilities that may require more significant transformations will likely be included in the city’s ten-year Recreation Master Plan, which Kerr said has been informed by public consultation and is expected to be presented to city council sometime in the near future.
The city of Hamilton is also working with the Rick Hansen Foundation to get its facilities assessed through the foundation’s national certification program to further reduce barriers at recreation facilities.
Kerr said they’re hoping to use those assessments to better inform their improvements at facilities and better communicate with the public about accessibility features that are available.
“There’s always someone else that we could be engaging or involving that faces unique barriers, so I think having the most open mind to understanding what those are is really what our approach is to improvements over the next several years.”
Anyone who wants to get in touch with the city about making specific improvements and changes at public recreation facilities is encouraged to call 905-546-3747 or email AccessibleRec@hamilton.ca.
Kerr also said residents shouldn’t hesitate to speak to staff at the facility if there are any improvements they feel ought to be made.
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