Review

To travel is to let your dreams wander.

Travelling is one way for persons with limited physical abilities to become integrated into society. Travel is an opportunity to learn, be open and let our curiosity lead us. It allows us to put aside prejudices and communicate. André Leclerc is convinced, and has been for decades, that, in a tourist context, a disabled person displays his or her abilities and actively participates in a community's economic and social activities.

In 1976, André Leclerc set off on a hitchhiking trip in his wheelchair.

In 1976, André Leclerc had already experienced accessible travel. At the Centre de réadaptation Lucie-Bruneau, where André lived as a young adult, the general manager at the time, Jacques Gilles Laberge, was convinced that the maxim travel broadens the mind also applied to the centre's clients. This proactive and open attitude of Mr. Laberge regarding integration of disabled persons was, for the major part, at the origin of the journey André Leclerc began in the 1970s and which still continues today: to make tourism and culture accessible.

André Leclerc during the seventies In his early twenties, André Leclerc had a dream: he wanted to go on a long trip that would take him from Montréal to California, then to Mexico, then back to Quebec via Florida, all this while hitchhiking! In order to combine business with pleasure, he proposed a project to visit persons in the United States who work with disabled persons in order to explore what is being done about their integration and compare it to the Quebec approach. American centres accepted t accommodate him, but the Young Canada Works program demanded Canadian content in order to subsidize the project. He then decided to test the project's feasibility by opting for Quebec.

This is how he found himself one summer morning in 1976 on the shoulder of Highway 20, heading in the direction of Québec City, after Paratransit dropped him off. His destination: Chicoutimi, 500 km north-west of Montréal. André Leclerc wanted at the same time to test his abilities on a trip without an escort, see his current girlfriend and visit his family.

"The first part of the trip from Montréal to Québec City went smoothly since a travelling salesman picked me up almost immediately. Because his grandson was disabled, he didn't find that I was that different. But once in Quebec City, 300 km down the road, I waited several hours and no one stopped to pick me up. After all that waiting, I finally flagged the patrolling police officers to get information on whether I was in the right place to get a lift.

- Where are you from? asked one of the policemen.
- From Montréal!
- Where are you going?
- To Chicoutimi!
- How did you get here?
- I hitchhiked!
- Did you run away from home?
- No.
- Did you run away from an institution?
- No.

They brought me to the police station, thinking that I ran away from a rehabilitation centre. After checking my identity, they understood that I knew what I was doing. And they paid for my bus ticked from Québec City to Chicoutimi. I was very tempted to sell my ticket to continue hitchhiking, but it was late."

He returned from Chicoutimi also on a bus. Even though he succeeded in broadcasting his request for a lift over a local radio station, he spent many hours waiting, with his thumb up, without anyone picking him up. Finally, his grandfather accompanied him to the station and André left again on a bus with a Chicoutimi-Montréal ticket in his pocket.

During those years, André Leclerc took part in trips organized by the Centre de réadaptation Lucie-Bruneau, the Office franco-québécois pour la jeunesse and Tourbec. His first projects dealt with the prejudices that existed in the travel industry and evaluating accessibility of camping sites and youth hostels. At that time, the obstacles that prevented Quebec from being a tourist destination for persons with a limited physical ability were enormous. In 1979, one thing leading to another, Roulbec became Kéroul (the contraction of Kébek and roule), and was incorporated. By doing so, André Leclerc wanted to persuade the tourist industry to offer accessible tourist services and encourage persons with a limited physical ability to travel.

Since the organization's beginnings, many persons have put their shoulder to the wheel believing in Kéroul's mission. Lyne Ménard, a faithful collaborator since 1984, Louis Jolin, Daniel Côté, Normand Dulude, Réjean Frenette, Paul Rioux, Léo Bellerive, Denise Paquette, Diane Giguère, Chantal Gélinas, Lynda Chabot, Hélène Tardif, Michel Carpentier, in short, everyone who contributed during the last quarter century to the organization's success. There are more than 300 persons who have "chipped in"!

Since then, André Leclerc persists, travels and lets his dream wander, just like thousands of persons with a limited physical ability for whom he opened doors to accessible tourism and culture.

Here are a few of Kéroul's noteworthy achievements:

Recognition of the clientele with limited physical ability in the policies of Quebec's ministère du Tourisme (2005).
Organization of the third interministerial meeting with 15 ministers of the Quebec government (2004).
Obtaining the mandate from the Tourism Committee of APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) to select the best practices in accessible tourism (2001)
Ensuring that accessibility and training criteria for welcoming disabled and elderly people were recognized in the tourist industries Programme qualité
Producing major studies on the substantial economic weight of disabled persons in the tourist market (1995 and 2001)
Organizing the International Adapted Tourism Symposium in Montreal (2000), attended by representatives from Peru, Costa Rica, France, and the United States
Ensuring that measures to improve the accessibility of new buildings were included in the new 1995 Building Code, such as the one requiring that 10% of the rooms in a hotel should be adapted.
Acting in partnership with Voyages CAA to develop accessible tourist circuits in Canada (1996-2000)
Training the trainers and 10,000 employees at Air Canada (1994)
Organizing hospitality services for 300 disabled persons from many countries during the Autonomy 1992 Conference, the closing event for the Decade of Disabled Persons
Gaining recognition for Kéroul as Tourisme Québec's chief consultant for the clientele with limited physical ability (1987)
Producing numerous documents and publications such as Le Québec accessible tourist guide
Organizing the Journées québécoises du tourisme pour les personnes handicapées (1981-1982-1983)
Setting up the organization's different sectors of activity: Promotion and lobbying - research - training - information

Where does the word Kéroul come from?

Kéroul is the contraction of Québec and roule (the French word for roll or wheel).

André Leclerc

André Leclerc 2004
Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Honours:

2007 Ambassadors, Palais des congrès de Montréal
2004 National Transportation Week Award of Achievement, Canada
2003 Ambassadeur AeGTH, Association des étudiants en Gestion du Tourisme et de l'Hôtellerie de l'UQAM.
2001 Prix de la personnalité de l'année, Grands Prix du tourisme québécois, Quebec
2001 Recipient of the Murray Award granted by the Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality (SATH), United States
2000 Les 100 personnes qui font bouger le Québec, week of June 15 2000, L'Express, international edition, France
1996 Prix des Droits et Libertés de la personne, Commission des droits et libertés de la personne et de la jeunesse, Quebec
1996 Personnalité de la semaine, week of 15 December, La Presse, Quebec
1992 Recipient of the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Confederation, Canada
1991 Prix W.M.F. Macklaier, Association québécoise de la paralysie cérébrale, Quebec