They say tired old clich?s become that way for a reason: because they are proved true so often that the sheer repetition dulls their impact.

So, when someone says that little things make the biggest difference it usually tends to go in one ear and out the other.

Until you are facing a sidewalk that is just one half inch higher than the street you are on ? and you are in a wheelchair. Then, the profound truth of the clich? resonates as you understand for the first time something you always took for granted.

That is what Department of Health Permanent Secretary Kevin Monkman and Department of Planning senior building inspector Blake Lambert discovered yesterday when they spent the day confined to a wheelchair.

Originally, Mr. Monkman had pledged that he alone would spend the day in a wheelchair in an effort to better understand the obstacles faced by Bermuda?s physically challenged in a potentially inaccessible world.

However he was later joined by Mr. Lambert, who has recently been working with one of the Island?s hottest new nightclubs, Splash, to make it wheelchair accessible. The lack of wheelchair access at Splash was called to the club?s and the Planning Department?s attention after a Letter to the Editor was written by the family of Jeremy Drover, a 24-year old club-goer who is in a wheelchair after an accident four years ago.

Neither Mr. Monkman nor Mr. Lambert were given any warning that yesterday would be the big day for their wheelchair experience. While Mr. Lambert spent the morning and early afternoon in his chair, having to visit some sites in the afternoon, Mr. Monkman had pledged to spend the entire day ? and so he did.

?We gave him MS,? Ann Lindroth, co-ordinator for the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged, said.

Multiple sclerosis is a ?flexible? disease with many different manifestations allowing Mr. Monkman to experience a wide range of disabilities, she explained.

At 9 a.m. the wheelchair was brought in to the Ministry of Health (in the Continental Building at the corner of Church Street and Cedar Avenue), and Mr. Monkman was given one hour to get used to the chair as a paraplegic in his office.

At 10 a.m., however, he opened an envelope which announced that he was having an exacerbation blurring his vision. Glasses smeared with Vaseline were promptly placed on him for the hour, and his secretary was called whenever he needed to read something.

An hour later Mr. Monkman was informed that he was not immune to life?s other misfortunes. After a long period of working at the Transport Control Department, Ms Lindroth explained that the exposure to the constant noise of vehicles had suddenly damaged his hearing. The glasses were replaced with earplugs and Mr. Monkman spent an hour learning what it would be like to be unable to hear.

At noon, however, was when the real adventure began. Mr. Lambert appeared from the Planning Department (admitting that he had been forced to get a stranger to help him wheel his chair up Burnaby Street in between Reid and Church Streets), and an entourage consisting of Keith Simmons (research assistant at the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged), Dr. Melvin Dickinson (head of the National Office), and Ms Lindroth set off with for a wheelchair tour of the streets of Hamilton.

The result was an experience which opened everyone?s eyes ? wide. ?Now, I can understand,? Dr. Dickinson said. ?Before you heard it and said okay, this is a problem. But to stand behind the chair and see ? there really are so many things we take for granted.?

Store aisles had never seemed so narrow, particularly when crammed to the bursting with Valentine?s Day goods. Packing boxes both empty and full, even when left pushed to the side of the aisle, proved an unexpected obstacle. Extreme co-ordination was called for as the trio wheeled through manual store doors, holding the doors open with one hand as they went.

When Mr. Monkman?s chair nearly became lodged into the door of one airline office a representative had to open the second door as well to let him through. Mr. Simmons, watching, pointed out the feasibility of a wheelchair-bound shopper doing the same on their own: holding a double door open alone, with one hand on each side, leaves how many hands to wheel your chair?

?Many places seem accessible because they have no steps,? Mr. Monkman observed. ?But there are no automatic doors.? Some of those doors, he added, were heavy. Both Mr. Monkman and Mr. Lambert had a surprising knack for manoeuvring their chairs. Even so, some of the 90-degree corners around the store aisles ? while not requiring the multiple-point turns once so aptly demonstrated by British secret agent Austin Powers in a golf cart ? looked to be about on par with last year?s jeans: just tight enough to be uncomfortable.

Stretching to make a phone call at a phone booth, Mr. Monkman listened as Ms Lindroth commented that accessible phone booths are supposed to be just four feet from the ground. Mr. Lambert nearly became stranded on Queen Street when, as he struggled to wheel his chair onto the sidewalk after crossing the street, the rubber around his wheel snapped off and had to be stretched back by other members of the entourage.

Both Mr. Monkman and Mr. Lambert were feeling the burn as they broke a sweat wheeling up Reid Street. ?I?m tired,? Mr. Monkman admitted on Washington Lane.

?I didn?t realise the strength it takes to move around,? he admitted later. ?My shoulders are going to be sore tomorrow.?

For lunch, the pair were scheduled to visit La Trattoria, just one of several restaurants listed as being wheelchair-accessible. Unable to roll their wheelchairs over the step into the restaurant, however, they opted for the take-out section instead.

It wasn?t just the city itself that did not appear accessible. ?People didn?t make eye contact,? Mr. Monkman said last night. ?It was a little bizarre. People just don?t look at you.

?That was a bit of a surprise.?

Fortunately, there were those who happily leant their support to the initiative.

One pedestrian cheered Mr. Monkman on and several asked if this was ?that wheelchair thing that guy was going to do?. ?Good for him,? they added, on hearing that it was. Doors were held open everywhere they went and pedestrians were courteous in allowing the trio space to manoeuvre down the sidewalks.

Undeniably, the most heart-warming demonstration of support came from enthusiastic employees inside the shop Heel Quik on Church Street. Watching the trio?s attempts to wheel their chairs back onto the sidewalks, the shop spontaneously donated two large umbrellas to the cause as heavy skies threatened rain.

Nevertheless, after almost a full day of life in a wheelchair, Mr. Monkman found arriving at WindReach late yesterday afternoon to be a relief.

?That was the first time I?d been to WindReach,? he said. ?To see it from the seated position gives a great appreciation for how well it is all planned out.?

Tiny things like lower kitchen counters and sinks designed so a wheelchair could fit beneath them made everything easier in contrast to some of the challenges faced around Hamilton.

The thing that will stuck with Mr. Monkman the most was the curbs, he said. He remembered in particular struggling up onto the wooden walkway at the construction site of the old Imperial Hotel in the light afternoon drizzle. ?The walkway was wet ? it was slippery, and I couldn?t stop.

?The only way I could stop was by banging into the side. It was a scary feeling, being out of control.?

The distance between street and curb had never seemed so insurmountable, he said. ?I certainly gained an appreciation for the barrier that just half an inch between the street and sidewalk can make. ?You don?t notice it when you?re walking. But in a wheelchair, you?ve got a problem. It?s an issue.?

So what did he learn? ?How small a change can make such a big change.?

A committee set up through the National Office is already working on a policy for the disabled, he said. ?It has to be a cross-Ministry initiative, and it needs to have a groundswell of support. ?If we can get people at the bottom moving for change, it helps make change happen.?