MELBOURNE: A retired Paralympic athlete detailed the struggles of living with a disability after council documents have revealed almost half of the paths are not disability friendly.

The Active Transport Plan 2026 is set to be discussed in this week’s council meeting to make “walking, riding and rolling an easy choice for everyday trips”.

It updates the previous Active Transport Plan 2011-2031 established in 2011 to accommodate population growth and major events like the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.

However, the plan does face challenges such as “40 per cent of paths being non-compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act 1992”.

These paths are non-complaint due to them being less than 1.8m wide, making it difficult for people with disabilities to navigate.

Three-time Paralympic medallist, Marayke Jonkers has lived on the Sunshine Coast her whole life, and started a charity in 2008 called Sporting Dreams to empower people with disability.

Ms Jonkers cannot walk due to a spinal injury, and uses a wheelchair for mobility.

“A footpath is your lifeline to leaving the house essentially,” Ms Jonkers said.

“Footpaths sounds to most people as something you take for granted because you walk on it.

“Once you’ve got to the point where you’re using a powered wheelchair to get around, it’s the difference between leaving your house and not or actually really dangerous situations.”

Ms Jonker said many of the footpaths on the Coast are outdated, with her footpath not being upgraded after living there for 26 years.

“They’re probably as old as me or older because they’ve been the same paths since I’ve lived here,” Ms Jonker said.

She also mentioned many of the problems she encountered due to some paths being too narrow.

“When the foot path is not wide, there’s not a way around,” Ms Jonkers said.

“So if I encounter a tree root or an inaccessible part in a footpath, you have to backtrack to the nearest place you can get off the footpath and walk on the road.”

Ms Jonkers said these narrow paths lead to congestion with other pedestrians, cyclists and other mobility users.

“You’ve got me in my wheelchair, but I cannot get off the path to let all those other people through, which would be faster,” Ms Jonkers said.

She often needs to look up paths on satellite maps to ensure she can travel on routes, creating a disability time tax.

“There’s a disability time tax as in you’re going to have to look up satellite maps at a bare minimum to try and figure out whether I can do this route,”, Ms Jonkers said.

“If yes, is the footpath going to work?”

The Sunshine Coast Council declined to comment on matters ahead of the meeting.

However, a Sunshine Coast Council spokesman said “the accessibility aspect is very important and Council has been working hard in this space”.