Every time Emma Butler gets to the end of her driveway and turns to go down the footpath she is reminded about her disability.
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Ms Butler suffers from cerebral palsy and is confined to a motorised wheelchair.
Despite her diagnosis she lives as independent of a life as she can, often heading to her local Ravenswood shops in her wheelchair by driving along the road.
But every time she does she risks being pulled over by police.
"Then the police pull me up, because it's illegal for me to be on the road," Ms Butler said.
But Ms Butler has no choice, her chair is too wide to take to the footpath.
Her regular routine is just one example in her life where she is at a disadvantage because of her disability.
At a meeting with then Health Minister and now Disability Minister Sarah Courtney she was unable to enter the government's St John Street building in which the meeting room was located.
"The automatic doors only opened for 5 seconds, and they didn't stay open. I couldn't line my chair up to get through the door because there was no room, there was a set of stairs right behind me," Ms Butler said.
"I had to get someone to hold the door open because I couldn't get in."
Once in the doors, Ms Butler said the problems were not over. The meeting room itself presented further barriers for her.
They had to move tables, chairs, rugs, they were moving equipment, there just wasn't enough space to get a wheelchair in.
- Emma Butler
A government spokesperson said Ms Butler had faced added difficulties because the St John Street building was in the process of renovations.
"As such there were some materials which needed moving that would otherwise have not been present," they said. They did not comment on the automatic doors.
As for the footpath, Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said upgrading that infrastructure was something the City of Launceston continued to work towards as a priority.
"The Council has undertaken more than $400,000 worth of footpath upgrades in our Northern suburbs this year, and a total of $1.2m worth of footpath works across the municipality in the past 12 months," he said.
While there is always room for improvement as we work towards making Launceston a more accessible city, the City of Launceston ... has a demonstrable track record in this area."
But for Ms Butler the construction works and ongoing issues with the footpath were just a reminder that consideration of people in a wheelchair often falls by the wayside.
Her frustration was reiterated by Advocacy Tasmania chief executive Leanne Groombridge who said life in Launceston was not accessible for many.
They aired their grievances in the wake of wheelchair bound Launceston man Michael Mitchell calling for changes to the Elphin Sports Centre to make it more disability friendly after he was impacted when watching his daughter play basketball.
People with disability have the right to access their community like anybody else, but over and over we're seeing that's not what's happening.
- Equality Tasmania chief executive Leanne Groombridge
"Instead of doing the bare minimum, and then having to go back and fix things afterwards, we should be raising the standard of accessibility right from the start. Whether it's for a policy or a building code - government needs to consult directly with people with disability otherwise it's just tokenistic and we will never see change.
"A person shouldn't have to sacrifice their dignity to go to the shops or access community services the rest of us take for granted."
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