Theatre Northwest expands wheelchair access

The entire first row of seating at Theatre Northwest is now wheelchair accessible.

“This is hugely important for us because we want to ensure our organization and our space are accessible to anybody who might want to come,” said Artistic Producer Marnie Hamagami.

Previously, Theatre Northwest only had wheelchair accessible spots at the far ends of the first row.

“The new chairs that we have are free-standing, so they’re not bolted to the floor, we can move each of them easily to create wheelchair accessible spaces for patrons,” said Accessiblity Coordinator Heidi Klepsch.

“Twice during the course of this season, we have had more wheelchair demand than seats available,” Hamagami said.

“The demand is there, I think one time we ended up having 15 people here who wanted to use the site, we were able to make it work but it was a less than ideal situation.”

Funding for the project was given to Theatre Northwest by IREN (formerly Iris Energy) and BC Gaming.

The old front row seats have been moved into storage, and will be used in case any of the other seats at the theatre break.

“We are also in the middle of getting some more safety railings for the staircases in our audience areas,” Klepsch said.

“We’ve had a lot of feedback from patrons who say they’d feel a lot more comfortable and more safe if they did have more handrails to hold onto.”

Last year, Theatre Northwest also brought in a hearing loop to help those hard of hearing.