Monday 27 February 2017

Everyone ages.

I'm looking to contact elderly care homes to introduce my self and Mightywheels.ca as I'm explaining all the benefits of all wheel users joining as one group.

More people.

It doesn't seem like the city is listening to my concerns about the intersections, sidewalks and sidewalk ramps being in bad shape. Soon the babyboomers will be using more aids and wheeled devices to commute, now more than ever.

Saturday 18 February 2017

Nait letter

My name is Mel Gearing. I am happily approaching the Digital Media & IT Team at Nait for the Capstone Program and asking permission and for assistance to help one of my closest and dearest friends whose name is Timothy Parnett. His friends call him Tim.

Tim has been actively working on a road safety project, he personally created on behalf of the public to bring and raise awareness for a seemingly small tear in our Alberta Roads System.  He has given his project the name 'mightywheels', (one word, please and thank you). The tear in our Alberta Road System is our sidewalks and accessible pathways within the city for people who require assistance when using these roads, sidewalks, paths, etc. within the city.

The tear I refer to is the visual cracks we see or trip on when using our roads and sidewalks that is causing accidents and can cause damaging consequences to people using wheelchairs, walkers, and strollers. Tim has been and is campaigning continuously to prevent these foreseeable accidents and to make our city a safer and easier place to access and while he has his sights on assisting people with wheels; let us not forget, it also benefits people without disabilities. Tim has been in a wheelchair for a considerable amount of time and has been a witness to account being hurt physically due to falling over in a wheelchair because of cracks in our sidewalks and within the city’s accessibility areas which is what prompted this project to be a part of the solution for everyone and for the betterment of the whole.

He has been successful thus far drumming up awareness with his Blog, News Interviews, TV coverage, and Social Media, talking to everyone he can and managed to put a team of helpers together but has reached a standstill due to certain tasks that require knowledge and expertise in the industry to propel his project to its full potential. We are asking for your help to put together a website and upgrade his blog with proper images, links to other wheelchair and government sites and/or whatever Nait can assist with is incredibly appreciated and we are forever grateful.

My email is melgearing@gmail.com and my cell number is 780-246-2164. I have also included this letter of help as a word attachment in case someone needs to print it. 

TIm Parnett's email is parnetttim@gmail.com and phone number is 780-937-2802. Blog is mightywheels.ca

 I have included personal words from Tim as well. J

Hi, my names Tim Parnett, I'm an independent advocate with a team of various helper, just trying to help people who use wheels, I created Mightywheels.ca Canada's first wheel accessibility team. We stand up for everyone, we bring attention to problem area's in your community, so everyone can access this beautiful city. This free service can be used by anyone, parents pushing baby strollers, people using walking aids or wheelchairs like my self. Our mission is to help bring much needed attention to difficulties people face every day. We want equal accessibility, so we can all access our beautiful city. I am hoping to raise awareness for the struggles that people with wheels face everyday. We'll appreciate any help that comes our way.

I could not do this without my team of helpers.

Other things I have started doing were various interviews, one being with Transitions, (a non-profit support agency) … I did a major presentation for them explaining about Mightywheels and what we’re trying to do. An interview with AMI-TV: at the Tea place about the accessibility of businesses and what they have done to improve it. I partnered up with Zachery Weeks for a Stop Gap video, describing wheel accessibility and how “Stop-Gap” is needed in Edmonton. I have also done 10 or so accessibility evaluations on video and then posted them onto my social media outlets. I’d really like you to view my projects on: Mightywheels.ca

Despite the many things I have accomplished so far, I’ve had many challenges and obstacles. 
-being kicked out of businesses
-people not taking me seriously
-having to find transportation to do interviews
-being limited to assessing my area

Things I want to do in the future… 
-working on my book
-assess other areas for accessibility
-work with the city as a accessibility advisor
-I want to ride the city’s ETS to all my evaluations/ videos recording all my journeys available to watch on my blog.

More who know me and what mightywheels.ca does, the more people we can help, the better. :)

Wednesday 15 February 2017

Self Advocacy Federation.

This federation really help me out... they are helping me work on my speeches to inform people about accessibility!


https://facebook.com/self.advocacy.federation

Skype

You can contact Mightywheels or Tim on this Skype number. Join the conversation!

https://join.skype.com/ztVJpmycc3fv

Speaking Engagements.

Mightywheels speech, 20 minutes on what happened to me, how and why I created a wheel accessibility team.

Contact Tim at mightywheels.ca

Monday 13 February 2017

Youtube Videos.

https://youtu.be/cALodj74mUU

https://youtu.be/p-t8LGYzJUM

https://youtu.be/dzq36pzuME8

https://youtu.be/WpICP0QMHW8

https://youtu.be/Jl5tgSaZfUo

Monday 6 February 2017

University Speech

University speech 

How one citizen is trying to advocate a change in accessibility? 

Hi, well I'm that one citizen, when I first started to use a wheelchair, I really wished there was a group or a club where I could ask questions at, like where are the best wheeling areas? Or what wheelchair sport teams are around? Or where can I go hangout with people my own age. I’d think someone would of made up a group or a club like that.  

So, that they could of shown a new comer the ropes of being in a wheelchair. But there wasn’t anything like that, I couldn’t find no one to mentor people who use wheels on how to get around safely, so I had to be a pioneer and discover that stuff myself. SO SAD, I never would want anyone else to have to go through what I had too. I ended up taking a school course called “Community Enrichment” here at Grant Mac. Ewen, in school I wasn’t getting the answers to my questions. People there would say my dreams were way too big, a teacher said “no one expects that much from you.”

 So, just to prove them wrong… I took it upon myself to create a free service calledMightywheels.ca, Canada's first wheel accessibility team created to raise awareness of the problems that people who use wheels face every day. I'm very passionate about this, probably because I also use wheels and understand wheel problems. Sad to say, Edmonton is about 4 to 5 years behind in their accessibility upgrades according to a provincial planner (Robert) who moved here from New Zealand, that works on Universal Design as a side project. Here’s an example of what I mean... For an able-bodied person, the journey from my apartment to the closest grocery store is a short, 5-minute walk; they can make it even shorter by cutting through the parking lot of the neighboring plaza. 
For a person who uses wheels, that same journey takes an easy 30 minutes. They are forced to wheel over, over size speed bumps, large cracks in the city sidewalks, numerous potholes and other horrific obstacles. I have fallen out of my chair from getting my wheels stuck in a crack of the city sidewalk resulting in numerous injuries, stitches and a dislocated shoulder. 
Even the smallest crack in the pavement seems easily overcome but for most wheel users, it can be a giant problem. These problems do not only affect me, they also affect parents pushing baby strollers, people using walking aids or people using wheelchairs.

This is another reason I chose to start Mightywheels, here is one more: I read this… The inevitable is that we all will age, "Canada Health" says by the time a typical Canadian reaches 85 years old, 6 out of 10 of us will have mobility issues or have to use a wheelchair. I know that Edmonton’s City’s intersections, sidewalks, and sidewalk ramps are not in the best of conditions and I don’t think we want to be confined indoors. So let’s all think of every ones interests, and check out my blog for ideas to work with the inevitable. 

Michelle set up a meeting for me in June at the Lois Hole Library in Callingwood. There, we talked about what is being done for the city’s infrastructure upgrades and accessibility for people who use wheels. One thing that was acknowledged was that there are engineering guidelines or standards of practice in the City that have been around since 1962. Why don’t we bring them up-to-date? We have to give engineers new tools and ideas and a new set of standards to work with. We need policy change within the city and an accessibility advisor on every project. 
 Other things I have started doing were various interviews, one being with Transitions, (a non-profit support agency)… I did a major presentation for them explaining about Mightywheels and what we’re trying to do. An interview with AMI-TV: at the Tea place about the accessibility of businesses and what they have done to improve it. I partnered up with Zachery Weeks for a Stop Gap video, describing wheel accessibility and how “Stop-Gap” is needed in Edmonton. I have also done 10 or so accessibility evaluations on video and then posted them onto my social media outlets. I’d really like you to view my projects on:  Mightywheels.ca

Despite the many things I have accomplished so far, I’ve had many challenges and obstacles. 
-being kicked out of businesses
-people not taking me seriously
-having to find transportation to do interviews
-being limited to assessing my area

Things I want to do in the future… 
-working on my book
-assess other areas for accessibility
-work with the city as a accessibility advisor
-I want to ride the city’s ETS to all my evaluations/ videos recording all my journeys available to watch on my blog.

More who know me and what mightywheels.ca does, the more people we can help. 

Friday 3 February 2017

Numbers.

Do you believe in "strength in numbers"?
I do, Mightywheels.ca is trying to recruit more members for the cause of accessibility. That includes parents pushing baby strollers, people using walking aids, people using wheelchairs.

Survey

All people who use wheels do it to gain accessibility… which is the ability to travel more freely, safely and easily, whoever it may be. Here I have 5 survey questions that I would like to take to my MLA to improve our accessibility issues.
1) Did you have any accessibility issues coming outside today?
A. No, it was very good.
B. No, it was good.
C. Yes, it was moderate.
D. Yes, it was poor.
2) How do you feel the general accessibility is in the venues you use daily?
A. It was very good.
B. It was good.
C. It was moderate.
D. It was poor.
3) How often do you see people parked in handicapped/expectant mothers/senior designated stalls, who do not have a permit?
A. Very Often
B. Sometimes
C. Not Often
D. Not at all
4) How do you feel the accessibility is using the sidewalks in the city?
A. Great
B. Good
C. Moderate
D. Poor
5) What ideas would you suggest to improve wheel accessibility in the future? Please answer using your own observations …
Do you believe in "strength in numbers"? Mightywheels is trying to recruit more members for the cause of accessibility, to help parents pushing baby strollers, people using walking aids, people using wheelchairs. Feel free to complete this short survey and email your answers! Mightywheels.ca

Wednesday 1 February 2017

A long shoot idea.

I have been surfing on many alien websites, and I want to ask aliens to help re-program an injured human body upgrade so it would be possible for an injured person to more quickly regain their normal functions back. That is why I'm spending countless hours typing to find a worthy alien website to tell my situation to and hopefully link with, if know of any... please drop me an email. parnetttim@gmail.com