Accessibility complaint settled after ’embarrassing experience’ at Tsawwassen restaurant
Posted February 10, 2020 2:00 pm.
Last Updated February 10, 2020 2:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TSAWWASSEN (NEWS 1130) — After what he called an incredibly embarrassing experience at a Tsawwassen restaurant, a man who uses a wheelchair has settled his Human Rights Tribunal complaint with the Pat Quinn Restaurant & Bar.
In 2016, Vince Miele made a reservation for four and told the staff in advance he used a wheelchair, so they could accommodate him. The day of, he found his friends seated at a table he couldn’t get to because of three stairs. He had asked for help but wasn’t able to make it up the stairs.
Miele said the incident attracted undue attention and the restaurant’s response was not good enough.
In the decision, the Tribunal noted physical environments can exclude many people with mobility-related disabilities.
“They are the one of very few groups of people protected by human rights legislation who could be excluded, by design, from a public space because of their protected characteristic,” it reads. “This is important context for understanding whether Mr. Miele has any prospect of proving the barrier itself creates an adverse impact on him, and in particular why a barrier that may seem benign to a person without disabilities is not experienced as such by a group which has long faced exclusion from public spaces.”
The restaurant’s application to dismiss the complaint was denied.
The Human Rights complaint has since been settled, and every level of the restaurant is now accessible.
