David Onley, a Scarborough College alum and former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, looks back on how the accessibility of the Scarborough College in the 1970s enabled him to fully participate in campus life as someone with a physically disability.
View Transcript
0:05
Well it’s certainly, initially in starting with Scarborough it was a very significant turning point for me, because as a person with a physical disability, there were, the — Scarborough was the absolute exception to the rule of post-secondary education given its degree of accessibility.
0:27
And even though it was designed, 50 years ago or more than 50 years ago, the original building of the H and the R wing and the Meeting Place, when you put it together in its totality as it was originally laid out, is amazingly accessible.
0:46
And even by today’s standards is amazingly accessible, and so, for me as a young man who had come from a high school that was brand new and had all sorts of accessibility features built in,
1:00
it was a seamless transition and it enabled me therefore to fully participate in
1:12
the college life and of the college community life, and also enabled me to get my education, and do so in a very independent way.
1:22
And so that was a very significant turning point, and I’ve often reflected over the years how, notwithstanding the difficulty of some of the courses and um, a few broken hearts along the way both given and received [laughs],
1:37
as well as, you know, just hard work, in order to get some good marks, notwithstanding those aspects, I have nothing but positive memories of my time at what was then Scarborough College, just really some of the best years of my life.
1:57
And now having the opportunity, some 40 years after graduating, to come back, and be a part of campus life as an instructor is like a tremendous sense of opportunity, and something that I enjoy very much, and I just enjoy it every single time I come onto campus.
