On our arrival in Edmonton, we planned to go to the City Center mall. Our first thought was, of course, the West Edmonton Mall. I visited thier website and almost gave up at 15 minutes finding nothing about wheelchairs or scooters to rent. Maybe it's because I'm a bad surfer, or maybe they didn't think it important enough to highlight, either way, I was annoyed. Finally, on finding it, they tell you that they have such a thing but do not show you where in the mall you can find a scooter, where to park that's close by, any information. We do it. Be glad of it. Now find it on your own.
Not, um, welcoming. So we decided to go to a smaller mall, the City Center mall. We know it well, have gone to movies there and have often stayed at the Delta which is attached to the mall. It is a mall of much more human perportions. I wanted to get something at EB games, Joe wanted to check out pants and Eddie Bauer's store. We park and get in to find that the one main elevator is broken down. There is another in the Bay but it doesn't go higher than the floor we are on. To get to the Elephant and Castle, we were going to lunch and plot out our shopping assualt on the mall, we had to go down the Bay elevator, make our way round to the Delta elevator and then make our way up to the 4th floor. This we did with much 'is it this way' 'no it's that way'.
Lunch came and as we were eating 'outside' we could see down past the elevator shaft to person with disability after person with a disability coming into the place and being, like us, momentarily stunned at the 'oh wow what next'. After lunch we realized that the work it would take to use these smaller elevators to get around floors was just too much.
Instead we just headed out to have tea with the trip organizers. After a frustrating few minutes we arrived at a hotel that had been scouted out for accessibility. Our room photographted and sent to us. We could get everywhere, do everything, accessibility the perfect way to say 'Wecome home.'
2 comments:
Dave, maybe you were looking in the wrong place for the required info.
Wheelchairs and scooters are available from Guest Services at the Ice Palace (Entrance 48).
http://www.wem.ca/#/shop/Services/Wheelchair-and-Scooter-Rentals
780-444-5330.
-Mary
One of my friends in Calgary has CP and has a service dog to aid her with mobility, but the dog is just not always able to help her, so she also has a wheelchair (manual).
She and her partner went to West Edmonton Mall a while back and left the dog at home (of course). They went to rent a scooter and were lucky enough to get one of the three scooters the mall provides. Yes, you read that correctly: they had three scooters.
One went to a woman who was nine months pregnant, one to my friend, and the last to the pregnant woman's father, who didn't feel like walking that day.
The elderly couple who came up behind them, one with a cane and one with a walker, didn't get a scooter that day.
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