But the family connected with the incident says it's too little, too late and vows not to return there.

"We won't go back," said Tracy Dupuis, mother of the four-year-old who was denied access to a play structure because she couldn't play without wearing shoes. "They need to learn how to accommodate special needs children."

Matthew Dupuis said he took Eloise to Funmazing Guelph on Saturday afternoon as he had done a dozen times before, but this time he was told his daughter had to remove her shoes to play on the equipment.

'No shoes/just socks' is a standing rule at Funmazing along with several other rules guiding behaviour, food, and sanitary practices at the play centre. But Eloise has cerebral palsy and needs to wear shoes and ankle braces to get around. Matthew said he explained this to the staff person the family was dealing with but this time was told Eloise had to take off her shoes or she couldn't play on the structure.

She could keep her shoes on for other activities at the facility, but not on the climbing structure, Matthew said he was told.

"This time it was a different woman we dealt with," Matthew said in a phone interview Sunday afternoon. "She said Eloise couldn't wear shoes on the structure. It's not allowed. It would wear down the structure.

"I couldn't believe it. It was a wear-and-tear issue for them, not even a safety issue. And I thought, how can I tell my daughter that we can't go on the thing we came here for?"

They went to a play centre in Kitchener instead, Matthew said, but in the meantime Tracy called Funmazing and followed up.

Tracy said the experience concerns her and seems to be a case that would be covered by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act that came into effect in January.