Roll out the ramps: Wheelchair users get accessibility upgrades in the Glebe

Michael Estabrooks, owner of Irene's Pub in the Glebe, is photographed at the accessible neighbourhood bar as local businesses work to improve accessibility ahead of the 2026 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships at TD Place later this month. Photo by Ashley Fraser /POSTMEDIA

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At Irene’s Pub, a sign with the bar’s phone number is plastered on the window.

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The poster lets customers know the neighbourhood pub is accessible to wheelchair users, despite the step at the front entrance.

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“If anybody is out there, the bar is busy and we’re not able to see them, they can just call the number and we can bring the ramp out,”  says Irene’s Pub owner Michael Estabrooks.

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The portable ramp at Irene’s was custom-made for the bar, but other businesses in the Glebe are receiving free ramps from the Glebe Business Improvement Area as part of an initiative to make the neighbourhood easier to navigate for everyone, said the BIA’s executive director, Darrell Cox.

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“We’re looking at the current state of accessibility in the Glebe and how to improve on it,” Cox said.

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The BIA’s impetus for rolling out the ramps on Bank Street is this month’s arrival of more than 300 wheelchair athletes.

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From Sept. 9 to 19, the International  Wheelchair Basketball World Championship will draw 336 athletes, 1,200 participants, 28 teams and thousands of visitors from around the world to the nation’s capital.

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The games are held at two main locations, Lansdowne Park’s TD Place Arena, on Bank Street a few doors down from Irene’s, and Carleton University’s Raven’s Nest, a few kilometres away.

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Preparations for the influx are already making the Glebe, one of Ottawa’s oldest multi-use neighbourhoods, a little bit more accessible.

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Accessibility is on the rise among Glebe businesses. Photo by Ashley Fraser /POSTMEDIA

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A neighbourhood audit

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The first step in the program was a neighbourhood accessibility audit of the Glebe, which stretches from Lansdowne Park to the Queensway, and includes some 300 businesses along Bank Street, one of Ottawa’s main thoroughfares.

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The audit examined how easy it was to enter each store, as well as the experience inside the establishment.

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It revealed that almost 40 stores currently meet accessibility criteria. This includes having ramps, proper door widths and a layout that allow mobility devices to move comfortably.

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“The newer businesses in the Glebe, especially those closer to Lansdowne, had mostly met the criteria because they were built (more recently),” Cox said.

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But a stretch of older storefronts at the heart of the neighbourhood didn’t.

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“What we found is that in the more central area of the Glebe — with the older stores — that’s what we focused on to get those ramps,” Cox said.

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While businesses could choose to have ramps for accessibility purposes, changing the width of a door is more challenging.

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“We understand that just from the way these buildings were built and designed, they (were) not looking at accessibility in the same way that we are now,” Cox said.

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Old buildings need upgrades

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Estabrooks, who has worked at Irene’s for 15 years and owned it for five, says the Glebe BIA reached out earlier this year ahead of the championships.