Montrealer gives free wheelchair ramps to Hochelaga-Maisonneuve stores
Two organizations are trying to make businesses across Montreal more accessible for the disabled
A Montrealer is offering free ramps to merchants in an effort to make businesses more accessible to clients who are disabled.
Martin Beauregard, who uses a wheelchair, founded the organization AXCS.
The group distributed 15 free ramps to businesses in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough of Montreal last weekend thanks to a $5,000 subsidy.
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Beauregard says that clients with reduced mobility can now access businesses that they could not before.
"It gives you a choice and I would say it also gives you the pride of being able to use the same door as everyone else instead of having to enter by the back, between two garbage containers," Beauregard told Radio-Canada.
The pilot project is not the first of its kind in Montreal. J'acc ède Québec, another city-based group, has distributed at least 20 ramps to merchants along major arteries such as Mont-Royal Avenue and Notre-Dame Street.
Future plans
Both organizations hope to offer more ramps in 2016. J'accède Québec is aiming to give out 500 ramps wile AXCS plans on distributing 200 ramps next year, specifically to businesses along St-Laurent Boulevard.
For Beauregard, it's a step in the right direction.
"Our mandate is to find simple, temporary solutions in hope that one day we will reach universal accessibility," said Beauregard.