come on in go ahead you look at this isn’t this crazy yeah there’s no turning back now tell me a little bit about what’s happening here well this is a major seat replacement in progress for sure now what’s going to be in place of what we’re seeing now well we’re somehow by you know the magic of a design we’re only losing about eight seats uh so what we’re really excited about from an accessibility perspective is that this whole last row here in this front section there will be a platform placed upon which up to 10 uh wheelchair seats could be installed that’s a vast improvement over the four seats that we used to have uh in addition to the wheelchair seats that could be placed here on the platform we also have the ability to place a number of bariatric seats so those are chairs that have a wider bottom a wider seat no arms so that people who may need a wider seat can have that option also in the front section in the front row uh at every performance we reserve four seats for people who may have a visual impairment so uh in response to requests that we were receiving from patrons who said that you know I I’m partially visually impaired or I’m fully visually impaired but if I can sit closer to the stage I can have a much better experience I can feel the vibrations I can see some of the motion on stage and that really has been uh that service is being used a lot and we’re really hearing back from the patrons that it just makes all the difference in their entertainment okay okay and what does it mean to physically see these changes I mean I’m sure it’s a long-term project so now that you’re in the thick of it how does it feel to be seeing it it feels terrifying uh you know there’s a lot of nervousness about the project being completed on time obviously this is a great barrier to our operations so it has to get done we have a construction calendar for 13 weeks uh they’re already ahead of schedule the demolition went really well and again we’re so excited to see the seats adopted and diverted from the landfill uh so no means that uh we’re going to see new seats with greater accessibility for people in the community uh they’ll be more comfortable they will offer more leg room the seats on the main floor are going to have cup holders because that’s an important part of a performance for some people so tell me what’s uh changed in this area yeah for sure um so the audit did uh recommend that the signage on the accessibility washroom was too high and it was too small and that would it should include the the services available here and the motor door was not automatic like this so we’ve changed that oh Kevin’s going to show everyone the way into the uh the accessibility washroom here that is uh plenty wide and uh has lots of space for a wheelchair or a you know chair to move around um so that was improved uh there was recommendations actually to to change all of the height of the signage here for the washrooms and way finding so as we as we get through the list we’re we’re making those changes as we we go through the building okay
The CBC’s Katelin Belliveau gets a tour of how the Capitol Theatre in Moncton, N.B., is upgrading after an accessibility audit.
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