CAROLYN'S ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGE: Monday, May 27th, Day One

As my contribution to National Accessibility Awareness Week, I'm attempting to use a wheelchair to get around to meetings, do errands, shopping, etc. It's possible I may not have anticipated how difficult this is going to be ..
What I learned on Day One:
1. Turning a wheelchair is harder than it looks
2. Trying to slow down going down a fairly steep ramp can be dangerous; NOT slowing down would probably have been even more dangerous!
3. People are helpful: I'm thankful to the bus driver at the Rec Centre who made sure I was able to get in, as well as the Rec Centre staff person who pushed me up a ramp from the meeting room. Not sure I would have made it without her.
4. You need a LOT of upper body strength.

CAROLYN'S ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGE:

Friday, May 31st, Day 5: whew!

My "wheeling" has improved this past week and I had no problem accessing the Rotary Room at the Kenora Recreation Centre. Still a bit scary hanging on to the rails going down, (Don't let go!) and it was hard work pulling myself up to the main level, but if I was a pro, it would have been a piece of cake.

Also no problem at Walmart - the last challenge on my list (saved the easiest for last).  But I have no idea what people in wheelchairs do with their purchases. I had toilet paper and dental floss and could barely manage to get to the car.

Final observations: 1. People in wheelchairs are very brave. 2. Ask; don't presume that you know what the person in the chair wants (almost lost a couple of fingers when helpful people grabbed on and pushed!) .. 3. I got the most offers to help from homeless/vulnerable people. They were quick to see and empathize with a person who might be in need of help. 

Still looking for these beautiful colourful wooden ramps - didn't see a one when I was out and about - message me if you see one - I'd love to know that they are being used to help people access downtown businesses.

 

CAROLYN'S ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGE:
Thursday, May 30th, Day 4:
So, hey, City Of Kenora this works! Handicapped spot, curb cut was OK, a level concrete sidewalk to the Credit Union!
And .. Rotary Way Trail, two thumbs up!
McDonald's, you have great coffee, but I have taken seniors with walkers there many times and I have never known the automatic door to work. Today was no exception. I'm thankful for helpful people .. #AccessibilityKenora 

CAROLYN'S ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGE, Monday May 27th, Day One

Monday, May 27th, Day One:

As my contribution to National Accessibility Awareness Week, I'm attempting to use a wheelchair to get around to meetings, do errands, shopping, etc.  It's possible I may not have anticipated how difficult this is going to be ..

What I learned on Day One:
Turning a wheelchair is harder than it looks
Trying to slow down going down a fairly steep ramp can be dangerous; NOT slowing down would probably have been even more dangerous!
People are helpful: I'm thankful to the bus driver at the Rec Centre who made sure I was able to get in, as well as the Rec Centre staff person who pushed me up a ramp from the meeting room. Not sure I would have made it without her.
You need a LOT of upper body strength.

CAROLYN'S ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGE Tuesday, May 28th, Day Two

Could not access two businesses today without help. Bummer ..

CAROLYN'S ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGE:
Wednesday, May 29th, Day 3:
My motive for doing this challenge came out of having done the Poverty Challenge earlier this year - I figured that "accessibility" is another area that we need to take a closer look at, so here I am on Day 3! Still alive, but with some "iffy" moments!
My first challenge today was accessing City Hall. After circling the big parking lot a few times, I realized there had to be another way, and there was - a handicapped parking spot in the back of City Hall, apparently available for a maximum of fifteen minutes. The set of stairs immediately to the left of the automatic door made me a little nervous, but I made it in, did a victory loop in the main office and headed back to the car.
Next stop: The Library - The library has always been my favourite place to go, but I have to say I would not have made it there today without the help of someone who was passing by. If you check out the pics, you'll see the problem I "wheeled" into ..
After the library, I did a quick loop of the Harbourfront - four stars, City of Kenora - it was lovely!
Not so lovely was trying to get up to Main Street to go to HoJoe's for my favourite chai latte. There are three levels of what seem to be fairly steep ramps and it was a marathon. Big thanks to the man and his young son who helped me with the door. On the return trip down to the Harbourfront level, it was difficult to stop myself from picking up momentum going down the ramps; I thought I might be going for my first swim of the year!
Going out for supper tonight was another "marathon"; one of those deals where I had to have help getting in and out - the lack of independence is hard ..

Just finished my supper of soup, salad, banana and yogurt .. not hungry, but still missing the chance to decompress with an evening glass of Pinot Grigio. No money in the budget for luxuries ..

What a profound learning experience! Finishing my final day by turning to the No Frills flyer to check out the specials!

THURSDAY, FEB. 14TH, DAY 5 - HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I'd laugh, if it weren't so painful - my tooth broke (today's challenge). The irony is that I posted something yesterday about the issue of dental care for adults on welfare, so I will phone KDSB this morning to find out if that covers my broken tooth ..

Porridge for breakfast - bringing PB & J (yet again) to work for lunch .. eating the same thing day after day is something I never thought of ..

Not laughing now; I just phoned KDSB and it'll cost $150 to fix my broken tooth. I don't have $150.

So I phoned the dentist and was told that if you are on Ontario Works, you're allowed $600 per year for dental work to relieve pain, which is certainly different from what I heard from KDSB first thing this morning. The receptionist made it sound fairly straightforward, so I called KDSB again for clarification.

NOT straightforward: Apparently the process involves letting your case worker know about the problem, going to the dentist, having them fax a quote to your worker to approve (or not) the dental work that you need. There is no hard and fast rule to determine whether or not it may (or may not) be approved; it is done on a case by case basis, and there is no way of determining how long this might take.

After four days, I'm turning into a recluse because I'm too bummed to go out .. kudos to everyone else in the challenge - they don't have the luxury of not going to work and most of them also have families to add to their work load, but I'm just at home on my own, knowing that in actual numbers I'm $27 in the hole and not knowing how to deal with that virtual stress ..

Once again, I'm bumping up against the rule that says, "Do not let friends or family purchase or supply meals" .. I'm not sure if I've crossed the line because friends came over for our Spanish conversation group yesterday and brought home-made soup and some baking with them, but that soup will be my supper tonight and tomorrow night, because I have nothing else left except bread, peanut butter, jam, boiled eggs, a bit of lettuce and some fruit. I had planned on stretching the fruit and salad over the five days, and I'm just going to make it, but my chicken drumsticks were gone after the first three days. When I started out I had $20 left over that I was going to use today and tomorrow to buy something for supper, but after calculating my household and personal expenses, I realize that $20 is gone, and then some ..

Good news, for a change: I just checked into Ontario Works and this applies to me: "You can earn up to $200 a month without having your financial support reduced. For every $1.00 you earn after that, Ontario Works will deduct $0.50 from the amount of money you receive from us." (like they're giving it to us out of their own pockets! .. ) 

SO .. the huge paycheck from Church ($129.95!) that I received on Sunday is mine, all mine! It makes me think about the positive impact of earning even a little bit of extra money, but the policy certainly doesn't give welfare recipients much incentive to work. Besides, there are expenses associated with working that might basically eliminate much of that $200 ($50 per week ) - transportation, clothes, personal items like deodorant, etc. I wonder how other countries do it?

Might be a good case here for a Basic Income experiment .. oh, wait .. 

Oh, boy .. a great time to run out of dental floss - out of curiosity I checked online regarding dental care for welfare recipients. Toronto Public Health clinics offer free dental services to eligible children and youth (0-17 years) and seniors (65 years and older). It looks like the Kenora District Services Board offers dental care, but no details are available on their website  ..  

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH, DAY FOUR

Today's challenge:

"Everyone is supposed to wear a white shirt for the Christmas concert. Your son does not have one and is worried that he won't be allowed to sing without it. What is your solution?"

This is a tricky one. I have never been a parent, but for almost thirty years I was the teacher asking her students to wear white shirt, black pants for their concert or festival performances.

As a parent, I would start by discussing it with my son - how important is it to him to take part? Would he be embarrassed if I tried to find a solution, or talked to the teacher?

Bearing in mind that I have zero dollars left and can't buy him a shirt, if he wanted to participate, I'd ask around to see if any friends or relatives had something that we could borrow for the concert. If that didn't work, even though it would be super embarrassing, I'd talk to the teacher and explain our problem.

If he's OK with not participating, I'd let the teacher know the reason why (again super embarrassing) and leave it up to him/her to decide if my son can participate without a white shirt.

Worst case scenario (and I'm sure this has happened with some of my students over the years): my son stops participating in an activity he loves because he can't meet the dress code expectations.

There's no comfortable answer to this one for anyone, and the point has been made that, if I weren't on welfare, I'd whip over to Walmart and buy him a shirt (on my Mastercard, of course .. ). We really have no idea what it's like to do without, do we?

I have generous friends who came to visit me to practise speaking Spanish this afternoon and brought muffins, dainties and home-made soup. I know it says in the rules that we're not supposed to let friends or family purchase or supply meals, but these "snacks" and the soup were items they would have brought under normal circumstances, and not because I'm doing the Poverty Challenge, so I hope they're not "illegal"! And wine, did I mention that they brought wine? What a treat! I am thankful for thoughtful friends!

I've also given some thought to the utilities aspect of our "allowance". I am probably spending approximately $10 per day (at least) on hydro, water, cable, phone, cellphone and gas, not even including personal items, so out of my $63 for five days, if $50 plus goes to non-food items, and I've spent $40 on food, I'm $27 in the hole. Depressing ..

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH, DAY THREE

Is it just Tuesday? Seems like longer than just two days doing this challenge ..

I always feel nervous opening the daily challenge envelope, but today it was good news!

"You found $5.00 blowing in the wind. What will you do with it?"

It's definitely a welcome find, because I'm hosting the members of my Spanish conversation group this afternoon and was embarrassed to have to tell them that I could supply the tea, but couldn't afford any "snacks" to go with it. Now, my plan is to buy a package of Robin Hood Banana Quick Bread Mix at $2.47, and serve it at our get-together this afternoon. BONUS! Hope it's legit to expect that the other $2.53 will cover my gas to get there.  Amazing how a small thing can lift your morale!

Speaking of morale, I have to say that I was so apprehensive the day before starting the challenge, that I had, what for me, was a mini-meltdown when something fairly insignificant went wrong, and my poor brother was on the receiving end. A small thing, maybe, but also perhaps a symptom of how stressful it is to live with the constant worry of trying to make it from one welfare cheque to the next.

Wow! A tiring day - I drove to my morning meeting without heat, with 3 out of 4 (!) windows halfway down and made it without freezing to death, but the point was certainly made that not being able to afford to fix the heater in your car when it's -27 C can make things really uncomfortable, to say the least.

Supper tonight was an exact repeat of last night, and just as good, but in order to economize I'm going to be eating the same thing three nights in a row. No wiggle room for variety when you're surviving on $63 for five days worth of food and all other expenses. What I'm able to afford for suppers for Wednesday and Thursday will depend on the challenges I face for the next three days.

My challenges for Sunday and Monday didn't have a $ amount attached to them, but want to be prepared for the next few days, just in case.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH, DAY TWO

Putting on my long underwear and extra socks: my challenge for today:

"The heater in your car is not working and you can't afford to get it fixed.  When you drive to work today, leave off the heat and open the windows half way to experience the cold."

Going to be interesting in -27C ..

I can't believe that I, a non-cook, have actually prepared a tasty dinner!

Sticky slow cooker chicken drumsticks (that were 30% off ), rice that was actually cooked properly (!) and a salad of iceberg lettuce and grape tomatoes with Italian dressing. Dessert was strawberries with vanilla yogurt topping .. now enjoying my evening cup of hot water and looking forward to my bedtime snack, a banana.

I am missing my evening glass of Pinot Grigio, but am pretty sure it wouldn't fit if I tried to include it in my $63 spending allowance.

Tomorrow I will have to spend some time calculating utilities - heat, cable, landline, cellphone, water. I'll need to do a little investigating to get an average daily cost for those items.  (My rent is all-inclusive, except for phone.)

Day One: an eye-opener in many ways!

SUNDAY, FEB. 10TH

An interesting morning; oatmeal for breakfast, and then off to church, bringing my Daily Challenge Card with me to see if I could stir up some conversation.

My Challenge: "You are working a minimum wage job and are receiving a working benefit from Ontario Works.  No one at your workplace knows.  Your colleagues are trash talking "welfare bums". Will you respond to the talk?"

I tried to start the conversation off about "welfare bums" by asking if anyone realized that the monthly rate for Ontario Works (i.e. welfare recipients) was $733 per month, and that the basic needs allowance works out to about $63 for a five day period.  I explained that by taking the Poverty Challenge, I was going to attempt to survive on $63 for a five day period, meaning $63 to cover utilities, personal supplies, transportation, entertainment, and of course, food.

It was difficult to get the conversational ball rolling in my direction, but the direction it DID go in was interesting. What I learned was that the Province of Ontario legislates $9.54 (!) per day for food for long-term care residents, and $18.00 (!) per day for food for inmates in provincial jails. The conclusion: it's better to be in jail than in long-term care!

Shopping yesterday was scary. I'm embarrassed to admit that it's been a long time since I read through a grocery store flyer from cover to cover. It helped a lot to prepare for shopping, so when I went through the checkout line with my $30.00, the total came to $29.00! Whew! I have a menu list made up for the five days, so I'm hoping that's going to work out according to plan!  The conclusion coming out of this exercise is that when it comes to shopping and meal preparation, I've been far too lazy for far too long!