Northern Ont. siblings lobby for accessible shopping carts

A brother and sister from Levack are hoping to convince big box stores in northern Ont. to offer shoppers an accessible cart.

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and two siblings from Greater Sudbury are advocating for improved accessibility in big box stores.

Ella and Austin Kurtis have spent much of their March Break trying to get what’s called Caroline’s Cart into every big box store in northern Ontario.

The Levack brother and sister discovered the cart online and approached their mother about the idea after witnessing their grandparents struggling to navigate retail shops.

“They’re not all mobility accessible,” Ella, 15, said.

“Accessible needs to be accessible, which they aren’t. So I started looking further into it and realized I’ve never seen this in my area. So I talked to my mom, to my brother, and we realized that we should really try to make a difference in Northern Ontario.”

“I saw this lady pushing her mother in a wheelchair,” Austin, 10, said.

“How (can) you push a wheelchair and a cart at the same time? So we just thought it’s a really good idea to get it into those stores because it would help a lot of people.”

Caroline’s Cart, which hit the American retail scene in 2011, was invented by a mother who has a child with disabilities.

“If you’ve got a teenager that has mobility issues or even something as simple as asthma … they can’t walk through a giant store,” said the pair’s mother, Chantelle Gorham.

Created a video

“This is a perfect alternative. And it can be pushed front-facing or rear-facing. It’s just simply a place to sit, even if you’re a senior that just needs a moment when you’re at the back of the store just to rest. So it’s just very functional.”

With the help of their mother, Ella and Austin created a video to raise awareness of the cart, contacting stores across Sudbury and Espanola in honour of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

Currently, five big box stores carry it in the north, but there is hope to increase that number.

“They need to know that no matter the age, whether you’re 15 or 50, if you can make a difference in your community, you really should,” Gorham said.

Ella and Austin said once March Break comes to an end, they will work to get Caroline’s Carts into stores in Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and North Bay.