Coquitlam resident petitions for better accessibility for deaf kids in recreation programs

At the beginning of May, Ryan De Temple created an online petition on calling for equal access to recreation for deaf kids in B.C. It’s now garnered nearly 500 signatures.

Why? His eight year old daughter, Alba, is deaf, and the Coquitlam resident says the city hasn’t provided adequate sign language interpreters for his daughter to participate in all of their programs. She doesn’t speak verbally, and he said she needs a sign language interpreter to help her communicate.

Currently, Coquitlam provides her with a sign language interpreter for two weeks of summer camp and two concurrent recreation programs throughout the year.

“Summer’s eight weeks long. So, [it] just means that she’s kind of excluded from recreation — summer camps and stuff like that — through the summer,” De Temple said.

In his petition, De Temple called on Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart and City Council to “allocate the necessary resources to provide ASL [American Sign Language] interpretation for all recreation programs upon request, so no child is left out due to their disability.”

His goal is for Coquitlam City Council to increase funding to the city’s recreation programs “to provide equal access for all kids of all different abilities.”

De Temple said that the city has told him that they don’t have enough budget to provide an interpreter, and that he’s been “in dialogue” with the city for a couple of years.

“Initially they told me they would not provide any [funding] and after about a year of advocacy, they started providing some,” said De Temple.

“But some is not good enough,” he said. “It’d be nice if we didn’t have to fight for everything, if people would just do what’s right, when first requested.”

His daughter experiences “social deprivation” without the same access as others to recreation, he said.

“As parents, just seeing your daughter kind of excluded from or not included in social opportunities — she has a very small friend group, and she’s got no ability to grow that friend group without access to programs.”

It also means they are left with the challenge of finding summer camp coverage elsewhere. Last summer, his daughter spent her two allotted weeks at Coquitlam’s recreation programs. Then, they filled in the remaining summer vacation through programming run by the deaf community and time with grandparents.

De Temple said his plan is to request a meeting with City Council. And if Coquitlam doesn’t end up providing more funding, he said he’s prepared to file a human rights complaint. The Human Rights Act, he said, states that nobody should be excluded for their disability to the extent of financial hardship on the service provider. 

De Temple believes he has grounds to do so, since Coquitlam’s operating budget is  in the hundreds of millions.

“A cost in the tens of thousands of dollars per year would not pass the test for financial hardship, so I think that is very strong case under the BC Human Rights Act to request that they need to provide the service with sign language interpretation.”

Jennifer Keefe, the Director of Community Recreation, Culture and Facilities for the City of Coquitlam, said that the city takes accessibility seriously.

“We’re committed to continuing to work with families like Mr. De temple on a one on one basis,” she said. 

But the programming comes down to their available budget.

“We’ve been supported by our council with a budget to offer these dedicated supports, and we’re trying our best to manage within it. That budget is based on what the need and demand has been historically,” she said.

She said that the city’s operating budget supports things like fire services, police services, water, roads, and sewer. 

“If we weren’t going to reallocate from elsewhere, we would be looking to the taxpayer to contribute more to fund more in this area,” she said.