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Get Me Home From the Ball Game

Rating: NNNNN


it’s the end of the longest gamein the Blue Jays’ 25-year history — 17 innings! — and I suddenly discover at 1:05 in the morning that I have no way to get home.

Despite the fact that the New York Yankees triumphed, it’s been a great game for most baseball fanatics — but for me it’s about to turn into a nightmare.

I’m wheelchair-bound and have missed my Wheel-Trans ride home by nearly three hours. My strategy now is to take the subway to Bathurst and Bloor and then catch the bus north to my apartment at Lawrence.

Problem number one: unexpectedly, the Skywalk is locked after the game and there’s no other way to get to Union Station in time for that last train leaving at 1:20 am.

I make my way over to Yonge from the Skydome with my friend Andrea, hoping I can take the bus north to Lawrence. An accessible bus does come by, but the driver informs us that there’s no wheelchair-equipped bus to get me from Yonge to Bathurst.

We call several cabs, but nobody has an accessible vehicle on the road at this time of night. I know Finch has some accessible buses, but it’s much too cold a night to be going that far north on a gamble.

I end up spending the night in my wheelchair at Andrea’s apartment at Jarvis and Shuter before getting a ride home on Wheel-Trans at 7:30 Friday morning.

Earlier the day of the game, the passage of an Ontarians With Disabilities Act was one of 21 items addressed in the Tory government’s Throne Speech. An effective ODA would surely have presented me with more options that night. (Either an accessible bus route between Bloor and Lawrence or an accessible taxi would have sufficed.)

A mere mention as an initiative in the Throne Speech is seen as a significant victory by the ODA Committee, but there are reservations about the government’s commitment — it’s item number 20 in the speech. It’s also one of the few initiatives that didn’t come with a specific date for its completion.

The ODA is aimed at getting businesses, landlords and public institutions to remove obstacles that inhibit people from getting jobs, using public transportation or getting an education, among many other things. It would begin the process of making the province barrier-free for the 1.5 million Ontarians with disabilities. And it would get me home at night, no matter how many innings the Blue Jays play.

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