The community of Embrun will be home to an accessible Halloween event this weekend, designed to help those with disabilities and special needs experience trick-or-treating. “So, it started three years ago on our street with the idea of just bringing accessibility into trick-or-treating and letting people with disabilities be able to trick-or-treat where they might not be able to during a regular Halloween event,” event co-founder Kim Vincent told CTV Your Morning Ottawa on Wednesday. On Saturday, Marseille Street in Embrun, Ont. will be turned into a Halloween Village. The neighbourhood approximately 44 kilometres southeast of downtown Ottawa, will feature a 12-foot archway, gigantic Halloween décor, a red-carpet-style photobooth and special appearances from popular superheroes and cartoon characters. Tables will be set up at the end of the driveways to make trick-or-treating more accessible. The event will also feature regulation stations, a chill zone, accessible parking spaces and accessible porta-potties. There will also be no loud music. “We just tried to make sure this event is as accessible as possible,” said Vincent. “Everybody thinks of just wheelchairs, but we’re also thinking of invisible disabilities. We just want people to come out, have a good time.” In addition to candy, there will also be non-candy items and fidgets given out to attendees. The event will run between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. and all ages are welcome, says Vincent. “There are a lot of adults who come out who love to enjoy trick-or-treating as well,” he said. Vincent co-founded the event with his wife Josée Martel. The couple have a daughter on the autism spectrum who is non-verbal, and they say until they launched their event, their daughter had never been able to trick-or-treat. “It was something that was very difficult for her,” Martel said. The couple say they took inspiration from accessible Halloween events they saw happening in other parts of the country and decided to launch their own version in their community. Over the past three years, they’ve seen the event grow to the point where they now have multiple partners, including the Township of Embrun. “The first year we had literally a week to plan it out. It went great, we had 75-80 people out,” said Vincent. “Last year, we had a few hundred people out and this year it’s just grown even bigger and bigger.” For more details, visit: https://abilityhive.ca/pages/accessible-halloween?srsltid=AfmBOoqVAqD9G9Ugmseaa-_g0fJ7XF5mmwoK9L34DORIIyxaMJ6_blOs
