When I leave my home, I do not think about my basic human right to enter and exit the places I visit or my ability to find a washroom that meets my needs. My friend Larry from Providence, Rhode Island cannot be so carefree. He navigates in a wheelchair and drives a van using hand controls. When he and his wife Lis came to Montreal last year, my priority, and ultimately my greatest challenge in planning their visit, was accessibility.

Montrealer Marc-André Fabien’s involvement with the Paralympic movement dates back over a quarter century. He remembers his first true exposure to para sport in the late 1990s while fundraising for the federal Liberal party.