Wheelchair Awareness Event coming to downtown

A wheelchair awareness event is scheduled for noon, Aug. 16 starting in front of The Plaza Shops on Sherman Avenue.

"We're going take you around and show you the daily issues that someone in a wheelchair would have getting around just in this area," said Denise Jeska, disability advocate and chair for the Coeur d'Alene Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee.

City leaders, employees and downtown business owners are expected to try to navigate their way around downtown in wheelchairs.

"This event is to educate able-bodied people about the difficulties of maneuvering the downtown Sherman corridor during our summertime tourist season in a wheelchair," a press release said.

Obstacles often include people, A-framed signs, outdoor dining areas, missing tree grates, bicycles locked to trees, broken sidewalks and tight spaces.

"The sidewalks all over downtown are horrible," Jeska told the City Council. 

Mike Fuller, a member of the Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee, said July is Disability Pride Month.

"We really feel that people who are challenged with mobility deserve the respect, and the dignity and the independence that some of the rest of us have taken for granted," he said.

Jeska said the event will provide "just a little taste" of what someone in a wheelchair or with a disability routinely faces while trying to get around downtown.

"This is something we feel very strongly about and would like to see other people understand the challenges," Fuller said.