monkeylizard

I have a question....why does this person need access to the council president's podium if he/she isn't the council president?

It would be cheaper and just as accomodating to hire an aide to carry any documents up to the president if needed.

Or..here's a novel concept: if he/she can't get up there, nobody but the president can either. That levels the playing field and doesn't cost anything.

papa-bear

Don't know if it is the right word but pride might be an issue. Can you imagine having to rely on someone else all the time to do things for you? Okay my first thought when I typed that is heck yea, that would be great as I could then do what I want to do. Well, the difference is, the person with the disablity probably wants to be able to take the papers/files (or what ever) to the podium.

That would solve it. Make the council president look after him/her self. That would work until a handicapped council president was voted in at which time accomodations would have to be made for him/her to do their job properly.

There were all sorts of automatic doors, curbs changed to ramps, extra parking stalls, etc... put in place when the current Mayor of Vancouver (in a wheel chair) was first elected onto council (a number of years ago) and more when he was voted in as Mayor. I can't say I saw any extremes but he made sure things were accessable for him.