(Image Credit: CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

An Amazing Race to inclusion

An Amazing Race to Inclusion sheds light on everyday challenges for persons with disabilities

May 3, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS – Navigating downtown Kamloops, taking the bus, even ordering a coffee can be challenging for those with disabilities.

On Friday morning, 14 teams got a taste of those challenges.

The fourth annual Amazing Race to Inclusion pushes able-bodied participants to experience some of the challenges people with disabilities face every day.

“It’s a chance for people to have an experiential time within the community — whether it’s in a wheelchair, whether it’s having visual impairments, different kinds of challenges for each individual,” said Justine Richmond, the event’s organizer and advocate for persons with disabilities. “They go around the community to different challenge points and they experience some of the barriers that happen for people within Kamloops.”

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For Karina Laitres, a competitor on Team Hope, losing her vision was a real eye-opener.

“Not being able to have full vision was really difficult and honestly kind of scary,” said Laitres.

In the amazing race-style event, during the event, teams raced around downtown, completing challenges while taking turns experiencing life without hands, in a wheelchair, with vision impairment and hearing impairment.

“It’s one thing to think that you might know what it would be like to be going through the community with different challenges, it’s a whole other thing to actually experience it,” Laitres told CFJC News. “It was very difficult, to be honest with you. Some things surprised me.”

Laitres’ teammate, Shena Christian, was the first on the team to get in the wheelchair.

“Being in this wheelchair made me realize how much upper body strength is needed even to navigate some of our sidewalks that have a bit of a dip in them. To anybody walking down the street throughout the day, they may not recognize that as being quite challenging for someone in a wheelchair,” Christian explained. “However, when you’re in it, the wheels are shifting on you, you get caught.”

While the event was an enjoyable experience, it also highlighted the frustrating reality of people with diverse abilities.

“One thing that really stood out to me was – if I was by myself right now, what would I have done? Because, we did have teammates jump in if that became a safety issue or whatnot, or we were really stuck,” said Christian. “But in reality, that’s not always the case. We don’t always have people with us and so that was something that was brought to light doing this.”

According to Richmond, shedding light on realities like this, is exactly what the event is meant to do.

“When people begin to understand some of the barriers, they can start to make changes or advocate for change,” said the event’s organizer. “Whether it’s something small within the workplace or connecting with the city to start talking about those things that they’ve experienced and that they’re more aware of so that the city can then become more inclusive for everyone. “

And that’s just what Team Hope, representing the Canadian Mental Health Association, plans to do.

“I have a whole new perspective and appreciation,” said Laitres. “With my team, we’ve actually already been talking about and brainstorming ideas of how we can make sure that our services are more accessible.”