A Winnipeg man is hoping a frustrating experience on the weekend will bring awareness to the struggles people with accessibility issues face every day. 

Nate Sawatzky and his wife were enjoying the Doors Open Winnipeg tours on Saturday until they went to take in a tour of the Bank of Montreal (BMO) building at Portage & Main.

On the Doors Open website, it listed the historic BMO building as wheelchair accessible. When Sawatzky arrived at the front steps he encountered his first hurdle.

"My wife just ran in quickly and asked somebody if there was an alternate entrance that we could go through," Sawatzky says. He said that a friendly staff person from the BMO came to show him another entrance. However, when they arrived at that entrance they were greeted with more stairs.

Sawatzky, his wife, and the staffer then headed across the street to try their luck with the underground concourse accessible through the Fairmont Hotel. They went through a "maze" of hallways and lifts, and finally met a locked door that they couldn't get past.

"We went down one lift and then back up another lift. Then when we got to the part where it goes directly to the Bank of Montreal, there were stairs to go up into there. So, there was another way, I believe it is going through the MTS building to get to the Bank of Montreal building, but the doors to go into the MTS building were locked from the skywalk on the weekend. There was a sign that said it was only open for certain hours on weekdays,"

Sawatzky decided to tweet his experience. It wasn't out of anger, however.

"I wasn't angry. I just wanted to let people know what people with disabilities go through in that area," Sawatzky said. 

With the current public debate on whether Portage & Main should be opened to pedestrian traffic or not, Sawatzky thought it was timely. Also, he notes, he's been just as guilty as anybody in not considering accessibility issues when considering the discussion.

"That's the funny thing. I drive a lot, and usually my first thought [about opening the intersection] is 'oh, that's going to slow down traffic.' Then when I finally had to deal with it I realized, 'oh yeah, that's the reason I don't go down there on foot very often.'"

Neither Heritage Winnipeg, the organizers of Doors Open, or the Bank of Montreal were immediately available for comment. However, Sawatzky notes that BMO reached out to him online, and somebody from the bank will be contacting him on Monday.