Breaking Barriers: What's Possible With Manitoba Possible

Dismantling the Invisible Barriers: How Manitoba Possible Is Driving Accessibility Forward in Winnipeg

Winnipeg, Manitoba — While conversations around accessibility often focus on physical elements like ramps, elevators, and curb cuts, the most persistent barriers can’t be seen. According to Darrin Luke, Training Coordinator at Manitoba Possible, it is attitudinal barriers—rooted in assumptions, stereotypes, and a lack of understanding—that pose the greatest challenge to a truly inclusive society.

Through his work, Luke is helping Winnipeg organizations better understand the diverse realities of disability, including invisible and neurodivergent conditions. He regularly conducts accessibility training sessions across sectors, including media organizations like You Multicultural Channel. The goal, he says, is not only to raise awareness but to create meaningful shifts in mindset that enable equal access for all.

“Disability is a spectrum,” Luke explains. “There are people who live with heart conditions, ALS, or autism who face just as many challenges as someone using a mobility device—but they’re often overlooked.”

His point is underscored by personal experience. Luke, a wheelchair user, once received unprompted help from a stranger at a Winnipeg shopping mall that left him with four stitches. The individual had assumed Luke needed assistance, without asking.

“You always want to ask before you assume,” Luke says. That principle, simple but powerful, represents a cornerstone of Manitoba Possible’s philosophy: respect for autonomy and individual needs.

Shifting Attitudes Through Education

One of the organization’s most impactful strategies is its focus on education, especially with children. In classroom sessions, Luke fields unfiltered, often personal questions about his life with a disability—from bathroom logistics to bathing routines.

“These kids aren’t afraid to ask what adults won’t,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to break down barriers early.”

Manitoba Possible also advocates for inclusive design processes that directly involve people with disabilities. Too often, well-meaning developers make assumptions that lead to inaccessible or impractical features, such as poorly placed grab bars or sinks that are too high.

“When you ask people with disabilities what they need, you get better outcomes for everyone,” says Luke.

Building Community Through Accessible Sport

Manitoba Possible’s commitment to breaking barriers extends into recreation. One of its most successful initiatives is its sledge hockey program, which Luke has helped grow from six participants to nearly 100 athletes over 15 years. The program exemplifies how adaptive sport can foster both physical health and community connection.

Initially, the City of Winnipeg was hesitant to allow sledge hockey on municipal ice surfaces due to concerns that the picks on players' sticks would damage the ice. Advocacy from Manitoba Possible—and support from True North Sports + Entertainment, which allowed the use of the MTS Centre—proved otherwise.

“That’s the kind of partnership that makes progress possible,” Luke says.

The program has produced multiple athletes who have reached national development camps, with three women advancing to national teams. For these athletes, the opportunity to compete at a high level has been transformative, and it’s helped raise Winnipeg’s profile in the realm of adaptive sport.

Progress Through Policy

Institutional support for accessibility in Manitoba took a major step forward in 2013 with the enactment of the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA). Unlike the Human Rights Code, which largely responds to individual complaints, the AMA takes a proactive approach by setting standards in five key areas: transportation, customer service, design of public spaces, employment, and information and communication.

“The AMA has been a huge opening,” Luke says. “It’s no longer just about responding to problems. Organizations are coming to us.”

But progress is uneven. In rural areas, funding and awareness lag behind urban centres. Even in Winnipeg, winter snow removal remains a persistent issue. Although the city is one of the few in Canada to regularly plow sidewalks, the timing and thoroughness of those efforts often leave wheelchair users stranded.

“It can feel like you’re handcuffed,” says Luke. “People assume the snow gets cleared, but that’s not always the case.”

Even accommodations labelled as “accessible” can fall short. Luke recalls a hotel stay in Thompson where he had to perform six difficult transfers just to access the shower. The label didn’t match the reality.

Accessibility Is a Shared Responsibility

Founded in 1949 to support returning veterans with disabilities, Manitoba Possible is celebrating its 75th year in 2024. Today, the organization places diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) at the core of its mission. Its facilities include features like automatic door openers, accessible restrooms, and fire alarm systems with strobe lights for the hearing-impaired.

For Luke, the goal is clear: accessibility is not a favour—it’s a right.

“This isn’t about making life harder for anyone,” he says. “It’s about ensuring everyone has the same opportunity to participate fully.”

As Winnipeg continues its journey toward inclusion, organizations like Manitoba Possible are demonstrating how education, advocacy, and design rooted in lived experience can lead to meaningful change. The responsibility, Luke stresses, belongs to everyone.

“When we build with inclusion in mind,” he says, “we build a better city for all.”