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Oct 2008
8:43pm, 25 Oct 2008
2,481 posts
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hls
I was part of a team that did a survey on how disability friendly York was many years ago and until you start looking at things like that you dont realise how bad they are. My SIL boyfriend ended up in a wheelchair as a result of a serious car crash, and that is when you start looking at things, you go somewhere and wonder how they would get in, how they would manage, I was even more conscious of it when K was a baby in a pushchair, the number of places I struggled to get in and a wheelchair is so much wider and harder to handle.
We lost Pete in another car crash just a couple of years later, he had the controls adapted so he could still carry on working.
Whilst in the motor trade I came across many disabled customers, most of them were great people but there were a small element who were the most bitter nasty people, they expected to be treated differently, they had to be more important and had huge chips on their shoulder, dont get me wrong I dont doubt they were overcoming severe problems but that does not give them the right to be rude or ignorant or in some cases downright nasty. 
One of the technicians I worked with in Leeds had a bad crash whilst on his motorbike which put him in a wheelchair, he couldnt do his original job but wanted to keep working so they transferred him into admin with us, he ended up quitting, not because he didnt want to work or was having problems working but because he had been advised he would get more in benefits sat at home on his own doing nothing than coming out to work
As part of our job as a firm of designers we have to look at disability access issues and incorporate specialist equipment, can I ask why a disabled toilet pack which is only a sink, toilet and a few bars costs in excess of £1000 when you can go buy a standard suite for less than £200.
Excuse the essay sized rant but you may have guessed I get a bit annoyed sometimes
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Oct 2008
8:46pm, 25 Oct 2008
2,394 posts
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Haddi :-)
woh Hls
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Oct 2008
8:48pm, 25 Oct 2008
2,484 posts
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hls
sorry
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Oct 2008
8:48pm, 25 Oct 2008
1,395 posts
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For My Light
I didn't realise how difficult it was for a wheelchair until went on a stag do with my brother's mate who is in a wheelchair. The toilets in pubs are terrible.
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Oct 2008
8:49pm, 25 Oct 2008
2,395 posts
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Haddi :-)
you don't need to say sorry
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Oct 2008
8:50pm, 25 Oct 2008
1,620 posts
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Yorkshire Pie (YP1)
You're not the only one to get annoyed. As you know my parents live in Spain, and their house isn't particularly accessible so when my grandparents came over they wanted to stay in hotels. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to arrange. All they wanted was to be able to book a package with flights and a hotel, but the tour operators couldn't guarantee them a disabled room even if they told them when they booked that they needed it. And we couldn't book directly with the hotels because the tour operators had first option on the disabled rooms if they needed them. And we went round some hotels where the disabled rooms were OK if you were in a chair but could get out and use crutches to transfer to toilet/bath/bed etc, but nowhere near adequate for grandpa. And he was nowhere near as disabled as someone like Matt. Even if a hotel had four or five disabled rooms they might not all be OK. In one of the hotels the lift doors weren't wide enough, and some of the disabled rooms needed a lift to get to them. The rooms were fine, if you could get there... Not to mention the cafe which had a fully equiped (and fantastic) disabled loo... with a step to get into the building.
In the end because my parents do trips for one of the tour operators, they decided that they'd book a package with them on the basis that the people in the office who my parents know could fiddle with the room allocations when they came through.
I'm ranting too...
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Oct 2008
8:52pm, 25 Oct 2008
1,621 posts
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Yorkshire Pie (YP1)
And I won't go into what happened when he went into hospital for the last time. The ambulance service didn't cover themselves in glory...
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Oct 2008
8:57pm, 25 Oct 2008
2,486 posts
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hls
we went to Pizza Hut last week and a grandma came in with two grandchildren, one of whom was in a wheelchair, they were guided to a table that whilst there were no steps meant several people had to move to let them through, these were diners in the middle of their meals. Now whilst I have no problem moving to let a wheelchair through why wasnt it set up to accomodate them in the first place. Again the disabled toilet was on the ground floor and you could just get the wheelchair through the door, but someone had to hold it open for them to get through it. Too many places pay token attention to this without actually taking notice. Perhaps if people were put in a chair for a day and asked to get around on their own they would be more considerate.
I was in Asda the other week and a couple were at customer service asking where the wheelchair trolleys were. The staff didnt know! You know when you know you have seen something and cant remember where.... Anyway on my way out back to the car I spotted them so took one back to the customer service desk where they still hadnt solved the problem. K asked me why and I just said "because doing something like that cost me nothing and made someones day better. Someday I might be grateful to someone doing something good for me". Isnt it sad that K had to ask that question, shouldnt we as parents and at school taught them to do things like that without being asked?
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Oct 2008
8:59pm, 25 Oct 2008
1,622 posts
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Yorkshire Pie (YP1)
I see an afternoon of ranting on the cards tomorrow
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Oct 2008
9:00pm, 25 Oct 2008
1,623 posts
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Yorkshire Pie (YP1)
(and the reason I spent half of my stay in NY in Hooters was because it was the only accessible bar near the hotel. Honest )
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