A Vancouver Island wheelchair user who has spent years asking her strata for changes to make it possible to go to and from her condo safely and without help from friends has won $35,000 in damages and an order for action on her complaints.
Last week, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered the owners at the Eagle Point Bayview complex in Nanaimo to begin the process of making their building wheelchair accessible, and to pay a penalty to 76-year-old Ada Jacobsen for injury to her dignity, feelings and self‐respect.
"She has essentially been a prisoner in her own home ... Each time Ms. Jacobsen wants to go somewhere, she has to plan ahead with one of her friends so they can assist her," tribunal member Grace Chen wrote in
a Sept. 11 decision.
"No one should have to spend their golden years fighting with their strata to get their accommodation requests addressed."
Chen said the strata didn't make any serious attempts to deal with Jacobsen's concerns about accessibility until she filed her human rights complaint.