Montrealer gives free wheelchair ramps to Hochelaga-Maisonneuve stores

A Montrealer is offering free ramps to merchants in an effort to make businesses more accessible to clients who are disabled.

Martin Beauregard, who uses a wheelchair, founded the organization AXCS.

The group distributed 15 free ramps to businesses in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve boroughof Montreal last weekend thanks to a$5,000 subsidy.

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Beauregard says that clients with reduced mobility can now access businesses that they could not before.

"It gives you a choice and I would sayit also gives you the pride of being able to use the same door as everyone else instead of having to enter by the back, between two garbage containers," Beauregard told Radio-Canada.

The pilot project is not the first of its kind in Montreal.J'accde Qubec, another city-based group, has distributed at least 20 ramps to merchants along major arteries such as Mont-Royal Avenue and Notre-Dame Street.

Future plans

Both organizations hope to offer more ramps in 2016.J'accdeQubecis aiming to give out 500 ramps wileAXCS plans on distributing 200 ramps next year, specifically to businesses along St-Laurent Boulevard.

For Beauregard, it's a step in the right direction.

"Our mandate is to find simple, temporary solutions in hope that one day we will reach universalaccessibility," said Beauregard.