Wheelchair access poor, says woman

By Sarah Schwager
A KOOWEERUP woman says wheelchair accessibility around Melbourne needed to be improved after several humiliating incidents last week.
Michelle de Hommel has been in a wheelchair since 1996 after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 19 years ago.
She says since that time she had become used to dealing with poor accessibility and facilities for people with disabilities.
“I’ve struggled with it for the last 12 years,” she said.
“You either have to be really patient or tolerant and put up with it but then there are those times that you think this is just ridiculous.”
Ms de Hommel attended an Office of Housing meeting at the Grand International in Dandenong last week and says she was astounded at the function centre’s services for people in wheelchairs.
“They have two flights of stairs and a very old machine which has to be manually taken up the stairs,” she said.
She said she was manhandled into a chair as her electric wheelchair did not fit into the machine.
“You end up going up these steep stairs with your legs spread out,” she said.
“It was humiliating.”
Ms de Hommel said later when she and the other people in wheelchairs went to use the disabled toilets they found that the lock did not work.
“You had to sit on the toilet with the door open,” she said.
But Grand International duty manager Robert Moretti said the building had Greater Dandenong Council approval and the machine had been approved by the Wheelchair Association of Victoria.
Mr Moretti said there had been seven people in wheelchairs attending the function that day and Ms de Hommel was the only one who complained.
Mr Moretti said the Grand International had been in business for 13 years and used the manual machine, which acts like a conveyor belt to get people up and down the staircases, between seven and 10 times a week and had never had a complaint.
“We abide by all legislation and laws,” he said.
He said the Department of Human Services was aware of the facilities when they booked the Thomas Street venue.
“We don’t force anyone to come here,” he said.
“If there are people in wheelchairs attending a function we show exactly how they would get up and down the stairs.”
Mr Moretti said of the toilets that Ms de Hommel had not let any of the staff know there was a problem.
He said she would have been welcome to use one of the other disabled toilets at the venue and that the lock had been fixed within a matter of minutes.
Ms de Hommel said her experience was not the first incident at the function centre.
She said last year she attended her son’s debut ball and her children had been horrified and automatically crowded around her to stop people seeing up her dress.
Ms de Hommel lives with her six children Emma, 20, Skye, 18, Matthew, 17, Tegan, 15, Laura, 14, and Darcy, 11 and her partner Andrew.
She said her family had been incredibly supportive.
Ms de Hommel said there were also issues with accessibility locally and last Friday she had almost been hit when trying to manoeuvre between parked cars.