COVER FEATURE
In Burley’s opinion, the first thing to
do when starting to think about the accessibility
of your resort is to look at it
from someone else’s perspective.
“You have to make yourself approachable,”
he said. “People still love the sport
and the places they used to go before
they, for example, sustained the injury
that changed their life. These people are
skiers and snowboarders, and they want
to get back to that. You can’t expect
people with disabilities to come to you
to learn how to ski when you don’t have
parking spaces or accessibility.”
Catherine Cosby, director and founder
of the Ski 2 Freedom Foundation, says
that its natural for the implementation
of an adaptive winter sport program to
take years to fully develop, but resorts
simply need to make the commitment.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, programs
have been started by a ski school,
an instructor or someone living in the
resort region who has a passion to share
their love of skiing and the mountains
and may also have a personal reason to
initiate an accessible program. Then, it’s
a question of evolution. It can take some
years but, once things have started, then
it’s about building an infrastructure that
takes into account the needs of those
who require adaptive equipment, instruction,
somewhere to stay, accessible
restaurants and washrooms, etcetera,”
Cosby said.
That happens to be the exact way
that Jamie McCullough, executive director
of Rocky Mountain Adaptive Sports
Centre in Canmore, Alta., got his world-
renowned program off the ground.
“I had come over from Britain to work
as a ski school instructor at Sunshine
Village in Banff. Due to having a sister
who lives with Autism, who I’d taught to
ski over in Europe, (adaptive programming)
was where my main passion was.
Sunshine had no adaptive program. So,
I approached their ski school director,
Stewart Laver, and asked if I could look
at setting up an adaptive program. He
was like, ‘Go for it! That’s awesome!’”
Train the trainer – and
then some
As a resort, your overarching goal is to
provide your guests with the best, most
positive experience possible in order to
draw them back season after season.
The exact same goal is and should be
applied to guests who are living with
a disability. To decide on an adaptive
program means to commit to properly
training your staff and volunteers, ensuring
all areas of the resort are accessible
and up to legislative standards, making
sure all necessary equipment is on
hand and working properly and more.
“The lift operators are the key to the
whole venture because, without their
help, it’s impossible for people to access
the mountains!” said Cosby. “Training
them to understand the needs of
all groups is vital – to experience what
it is like for a visually impaired skier, a
child with a neurological condition or a
paraplegic skier in a sit ski – so there is
empathy there, so they truly understand
all that’s being asked of them.”
Training staff and volunteers so they
can teach and assist in an adaptive program
is certainly important. But ensuring
you have the proper equipment and
that people are trained to use it properly
also matters significantly.
“The big thing is seat height and
educating operators on what to do
with the equipment,” said Burley. “For
example, chair number 34 is adaptive
so they ping it. When it gets to the top,
they may need to slow it down or just
be more alert. You also need to practice
evacuations and getting people off of
chair lifts annually. Entries and exits to
slopes and trails, that’s where grooming
comes in. And just, how do people
access things? There is a customer service
element to everything.”
Training people who are already passionate
about helping people with disabilities
learn to ski and snowboard can
make a huge difference in the success
of your adaptive program. But the biggest
factor when it comes to the people
involved in your program, whether it
be staff or volunteers, is what they already
know.
“There has to be experience and
knowledge that goes with that passion,”
said McCullough. “There are so many
variables and criteria that you need to
know about. For example, fitting someone
who has a spinal cord injury and assuming
you can sit them in a sit ski – it’s
not as simple as that. What sit ski? What
fitting are you going to do relative to
that individual’s body? Have they been
susceptible to pressure sores in the past,
creating the potential to cause serious
injury or health issues if not fitted properly?
Do you have catheter bags? There
needs to be that knowledge base.”
Know your why
To take an adaptive program from good
to great means knowing exactly why
you’re doing what you’re doing. For far
too long, people living with disabilities
have been regarded as second-class citizens.
And that simply has to stop.
“It really is a civil rights law,” said Burley.
“This group has not had access to
rights and to quality of life, and that’s
what we’re trying to overcome. People
are skiers and identify themselves as
skiers. They want to come back to it.
There is equipment out there and it’s
easily attainable. How do we make the
best use of the individual’s functional
abilities – that’s what we focus on. We
don’t look at their disabilities; we look at
what they can do.”
Creating an adaptive program is good
for everyone: the resort, the guests and
the surrounding community. Accessibility
of amenities off the resort is just as
important as accessibility on the resort,
but can sometimes be a lot more challenging
to obtain. If you’re a local ski hill
trying to start an adaptive program and
attract a specific market, but the nearest
town has no hotels with accessible
rooms up to code – that’s a huge road-
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN ADAPTIVE 20 September 2018 | snowopsmag.com
/snowopsmag.com
/snowopsmag.com
