August 06, 2014
Wednesday

I am concerned about Ketchikan's support quality integrated access to the performing arts center. I am an active member of the First City Players, which has been an integral part of my life even while I was out of town working for the past 10 years in public service. In many ways it is my refuge, my release and my savior. The arts keep me grounded and involved as a community member; it is my therapy. First City Players has always been about my ability not my disability. They have strived to be inclusive and have gone out of their way to provide a place for anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of the program. I think the City should want to support this.

I have come to realize the importance and profound impact 1st city players and Ketchikan s amazing Art Programs has had on me in my life time. I have left and come back many times, and lived from Los Angeles, New York to Kotzebue Alaska. There is no other place like Ketchikan and without a doubt it is one of the most amazing communities on the planet. With Quality Integrated Access, the Performing Art Center will define our community and tell the world that we involve and invite everyone on equal ground. My Great -Great Grandmother Harriet Hunt once wrote a letter in the 30 s advising the importance of accessibility for all community members so that we could live and retire here, regardless of when or how we became disabled so we could remain with our families and live in the community we love.

After my accident, I came to understand the frustrations of many of our fellow community members who had mobility issues and how important it is to people with disabilities to have the same amount of independence available to them regardless of their physical disabilities.

As an able bodied person we do not understand or realize the importance of integrated access and that it isn t just about being able to access a building or program but being able to do it in a fluid manor that doesn t require making special arrangements, calling someone to help. It is about being able to at the last minute say Hey I am going to go to a show! and get up, get there and stroll, wheel or hop in to the building with all the other people from the same vantage point, and do it comfortably and without added mileage.

Yes many of you look at me and say she can walk, she can climb that hill. What you don t see is that climbing that hill wears on my good knee, it is painful on my joints and takes another year off the life of my leg, hips and good knee, I do not know how many years I have left till I may be using a prosthetic or in a wheel chair myself. Yet there are so many others in Ketchikan who have arthritis and other mobility issues whom through pride do not nor can they ever explain how the extra trip or climb up part of that hill wreaks havoc on them for days after. Yes they persevere and yes they do it because they will not be beaten by a hill. But eventually that day comes as it does for all of us. We are all aging up, and for many of us Ketchikan is our forever home.

According to the 2000 census. 16.5% of Ketchikan residents over 5 years old were projected as having a disability, or 2054 individuals. If Ketchikan is representative of the national averages, 42% of those, or 7% of the general population has a disability that affects mobility, or 872 Ketchikan residents.

Level Quality Integrated access is not only good for wheelchairs but for those of us with other not so visible mobility issues. It also tells us we are an important part of this community, and we want you to feel welcome and equal.

The Decision of the City council will have lasting repercussion regardless of how it votes, but it will be much easier to improve parking at a later date should it ever be necessary than it would be to renovate the performing art center again after the initial one.

Also we need to be aware of the message we are sending to our elders, families and friends who are aging up, and plan to retire here, as well as our physically disable community.

Do we really want to send the message to our disable community, elders and visitors that basement access is the value we place on them as an equal member of our community?

Received August 04, 2014 - Published August 06, 2014

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