This week we feature an interview with bespoken member George Perfect

Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

I’m 58 and married to Louise – the love of my life. I have three sons, two of whom have followed me into the IT industry – though, as an industry, it’s unrecognisable from when I started in it over 35 years ago.

I grew my main business from ‘one-man-in-a-shed’ to a multinational software and IT services business with offices in the UK and Australia and partner companies in Japan, China, USA and Europe – mainly servicing large multinational companies, banks and financial institutions. I sold that business before I became disabled, then carried on as a one-man operation advising a range of start-up and big businesses.

My wife is a head teacher, and she decided to install a broadcast quality TV studio in her primary school to make programmes. But she realised she had no way of sharing them with parents or other schools. I made the mistake of saying “Oh, I know how you can do that” … so got the “job” of designing and developing The Primary Channel (http://theprimarychannel.tv). The Primary Channel now runs as a separate business and has so far been taken up by 2/3 of all the primary schools in Hartlepool where it started, and is slowly spreading nationwide – despite the hiatus of the last 2 years as I recover from my last stroke.

Where do you live and operate your business?

I live in County Durham and work either from home, in the school or NHS office I’m working with at the time, or anywhere around the world. If you phone me, the call gets routed automatically to wherever I happen to be.

Our house is “fully computerised” in that there’s a server farm in the garage. The entire house is CAT-5 Gigabit network cabled. All of our CDs, DVDs, photos, TV, email, phones and video-conferencing exist on the servers in the garage. All the TVs around the house are actually computers connected to the servers so any “TV” can become a fully-fledged computer at the push of the button, and we can access it all from anywhere in the world. 

Much of our home is automated (lights, doors, curtains etc.) and can be controlled with the same remotes we use for the TVs or by under program control where necessary (we can have the lights come on at dusk – or at random times after dusk to confuse burglars).

At home, my study computer consists of 4 x 23 inch monitors, but away from home I use my ‘phablet’ (a device that is half mobile phone, half tablet computer). It can record a meeting and transcribe the recording into written text. These notes are then instantly synchronised (via the garage) with all my other computers and devices – which is very useful when a stroke leaves you with a poor and patchy memory. Basically these days, if it isn’t written down and a machine doesn’t remind me - it never happened and it won’t get done!

How did you start up your business?

I started my first business in 1979 – at the very start of the “microcomputer revolution” before the PC or Internet had even been thought of. All the banks I approached for start-up finance thought my ideas were great, but way too risky for them. So I quit my job, bought a microcomputer with my meagre savings and started writing software.

How did you find out about bespoken?

I first met David Jarrold at NAIDEX when the site was but a glint in his eye. He seemed a nice chap so I said I’d contribute to the site as and when I can.

You obviously have an innate passion for technology – is that what interests you about bespoken?

Technology is only a tool. It has the same value as a pencil – or the first lump of chalky rock picked up by a caveman. A modern PC or smartphone is quicker at “writing” messages (or drawing pictures) than a pencil – just as a pencil was quicker than a quill pen – which did a better job than a handful of crumbly chalk as a tool to aid expression and communication.

Modern computing and communications technology lets us communicate our thoughts – often instantly – to many people. As such, it can be considered a “better” tool. It’s great for keeping in touch with family or friends who live far away.

Used well, a social network like Bespoken can bring a group of like-minded people together, allow ideas to be shared and give them a common voice. My interest in bespoken is to see it develop as an engine for good – a place where disabled people can get together, share ideas, help each other – and, just perhaps, make positive changes to our world.

Have you had a hand in any technology businesses that develop/design independent living equipment and products for disabled people?

Not yet! But I’m trying to interest various companies and university research groups in the idea of developing better powered wheelchairs. Since being forced to start using the current generation, I’ve come to realise just how ancient the technology is. Huge improvements can be made overnight in the control electronics which are currently truly crude. The lead-acid batteries used date back to the discovery of electricity and need to be consigned to the scrap bin of history – we have had better, more compact, lighter weight and more efficient ways of carrying round electricity for quite some time and newer better ways are appearing all the time. The same goes for the motors, the materials used in construction of the chairs and even the design and methods of construction which owe more to the 19^th century than the 21^st.

The problem seems to be lazy manufacturers who are happy to recycle old designs and technologies year after year with a new colour scheme or cushion shape as their “next big thing”.

It will take some disruptive technology to shake them out of their cosy complacency. As I recover my energies after my last stroke and find myself with a bit of time on my hands I might just rattle the cage a bit.

I’ve also done a little ‘proof of concept’ software development to help a fellow stroke victim who has yet to recover from the aphasia he was left with. That’s far from being a commercial product though.

Can you explain why you are a wheelchair user?

I’ve suffered drug-resistant hypertension (high blood pressure) for most of my adult life. I have “twisty arteries” that are trying to strangle my brain stem. It was all but inevitable that high BP over such a long period would lead to cardio-vascular disease and a high risk of stroke. I’ve had both, including several strokes over the past few years, the largest two of which first made my left leg “unreliable” and the last one affected my right side. As a result, I can no longer walk more than a few paces – and then only with support and at risk of falling.

In your experience how has assistive technology helped you?

Obviously, without my powered wheelchair I’d be housebound much of the time and largely dependent on others to get around. But, I do have a powered wheelchair and an adapted vehicle to carry it – complete with wireless remote that I designed which allows me to get the wheelchair in and out of the car safely without assistance. Luckily, the good folks at the assessment centre let me keep my driving licence (with some modest restrictions) so I can and do get out and about on my own. Without the technology, my life would be very different – much more restricted.

My mobile phone is now programmed with alarms that remind me to take the medications I need during the day. I usually dictate documents straight into my computer, having lost my former super-fast typing skills. As a Microsoft “insider” I’ve been playing with the new Windows 8 operating system for some time. While I have doubts about its attractions for the majority of business users, when run on a touch-enabled screen it’s absolutely wonderful for someone who has limited hand use as the whole swipe-drag-prod thing is tremendously easy to use and, taken together with other accessibility options in the operating system should bring access to people who have been put off by the previous keyboard + mouse paradigm.

On your website (http://www.biznik.co.uk/about.htm) you mention that you keep up to date with technological developments and are involved with developing new software for the next generation Internet –

Do you feel there is a need to make the digital world more inclusive for people with disabilities and would you be interested in working with people who aim to make this possible?

An emphatic YES in answer to both questions. I’ve already approached or been approached by several companies and research groups but in each case, while the work they are doing may be worthwhile and of benefit to some, I consider the chances of the R&D they are performing reaching a wider audience – whether as a “free” service or as a commercial product lacks viability. Many inventors hold to it too tightly, failing to recognise the range of other skills and efforts that would be necessary to take it to market. And so many good ideas wither on the vine before getting anywhere. Or get hijacked by an “expert” who deploys the wrong kind of technologies to develop the idea, or just runs out of money.

Today’s technologies potentially offer so many great and huge benefits to disabled people. The challenge is to get the right groups of people working in harmony to assemble the necessary technologies together with the “light bulb” ideas to make it happen. Such things as incubator funds, science parks and innovation boards exist in the “able bodied” world – a sure sign of how difficult it is to make this stuff work anyway. It maybe needs disabled groups to do as they demand of others – treat themselves as equals and engage with some of this activity to make progress happen.

An idea that interests me is to train young disabled people as “technologists” or software engineers so that they gain the skills needed to see how disparate technologies can be joined to form something of benefit to the disabled community. In this way we may just raise the ambitions of those on design courses above designing yet another “better” spoon up to something that would make a real, significant difference.

We are currently exploring the theme of “Mobility”on Bespoken - since you have been using a wheelchair how has your life changed and how do you remain as mobile as possible?

I’ve tried to allow as few changes as possible to impact on my life. It was extremely important to me that I regained some independent mobility as soon as I could after my last stroke and I’m proud to say I managed to get myself into a powerchair and back behind the wheel of a car within 4 months.

For various reasons, a self-propelled wheelchair is out of the question for me so I have to use a powerchair – with all the extra weight, bulk and lack of manoeuvrability that brings, not to mention the fact that you can’t just fold one up and throw it in the boot of a standard car.

But life is a series of goals. Once you decide what you want to do it’s up to you to make it happen. So – though remaining aghast at the unforgivable number and scale of the obstacles thrown in the path of disabled people – for me, it was a matter of: get a suitable powerchair, find a suitable vehicle I can drive and that’s large enough to adapt and carry a powerchair = goal achieved.

Why was independent mobility important to me? Being able to at least re-engage with the voluntary work I do with the Princes Trust or get involved with the new NHS Care Commissioning Groups that will have such a large impact on us all over the coming years was important to my feeling of “self”. And without independent mobility, those things would have been so much harder to achieve. I’ve always been a “doer” as much as a thinker and I’m not prepared to let my disability get in the way of what I want to achieve. Ideally, my disability would be wholly side-lined. But I can’t see that happening so I make the best of what I can – sometimes you have to accept that your goals have to be reined in just a little bit.

Public transport is best described as patchy. In places, it’s superb for wheelchair users but in the main it is best regarded as unusable if you’re in a wheelchair. Taxis are surprisingly accessible. In London, I fit into a standard London cab with only a little difficulty – each cab has a built-in ramp and I’ve found the drivers universally kind and helpful, even when hailed down on a street. Most London buses are fully accessible too – so as long as you travel outside rush hours, getting around the capital by bus is not a problem – it’s also free for wheelchair users and there’s a dedicated website run by Transport for London that shows you what’s possible and allows journeys to be planned. The Underground is getting better but still so erratic that reliably travelling from one arbitrary part of town to another is still best thought of as a lottery.

Railways are a joke. My local station requires 24 hours minimum notice of my intention to travel, then provides a manual ramp that present an almost 45 degree angle to climb into the train, then you get stuck sitting alone in the “disabled space” they’ve kindly provided, separated from your travelling companions. If you’re travelling to a terminus, sometimes someone will be there to let you off without you having to call for someone and wait half an hour – but if your journey is to end somewhere along the line you’re in the lap of the gods as to whether the message got through and if a man with a ramp will actually let you off the train before it speeds off again.

So, while I’d love to be greener, we find ourselves driving across the country to whatever destination we are aiming for.

How independent do you feel?

Independence is largely a state of mind so I feel as independent as ever. In practical terms though - I can no longer travel overnight independently as I have to rely on my wife for care. And we’ve yet to tackle any form of air travel, which as a former “globe-trotter” and private pilot’s licence holder is a bit of a biggie. I wouldn’t entrust my main wheelchair to an airline for one second and there’s also the problem of lack of adapted hire vehicles to carry it in at the other end. But I’m pretty well along the road to solving that conundrum: I’ve found a smaller powered wheelchair which can be folded up to fit into a normal car boot and which is probably safe to hand over to an airline. My only reservation is whether I could rely on it on the small plane and smaller boat that took me to the interior of Borneo to see Orang-Utans still living in the wild. Give me time and I’ll find a way – I really want to see those Orang-Utans again!

Have you discovered any particularly useful and innovative equipment/products/services that have maintained your independence and improved your quality of life as a wheelchair user?

For the wheelchair, a raid on a mother & baby shop proved most successful: large carabiner type hooks that I now have on the back rails of my chair allow me to quickly and easily hang shopping bags on it; a sort of structured bag designed for carrying baby bottles does a great job of carrying daily essentials – though I need people to hand them to me as I can’t turn around that far.

Hanging things on the side of the chair causes difficulties as the width then becomes a problem when navigating through standard door frames. But I found a couple of heavy fabric bags – designed to hang on a workman’s belt – that can be easily attached with Velcro straps to the arm of a wheelchair to keep drinks bottles, tissues, tickets, small tools, computer spares and even folded business papers easy to hand without fouling narrow doors.

With the advice of another bespoken member, I found an ordinary messenger style bag that had loops (intended for its detachable shoulder strap) that I could use to hang (with Velcro) between the leg-hanger supports of my chair, where it sits just behind my legs and is easily yet securely accessible for wallet, camera, sound recorder, medications, RADAR key and even a small laptop when I need to carry one.

Around the home, a visit to B&Q located some extra door knobs that make it easier for me to reach when I need to open or close doors manually. The OXO Good Grips brand of cutlery is, of course, a great boon to anyone with poor manual grip who wants to eat!

I modified my chair with an “Anderson” socket (of the type used to connect starting batteries to race cars) that can carry FAR higher charging currents than the daft microphone connectors manufacturers install for wheelchair charging purposes. So, I can charge my chair at 30 Amps rather than the pitiful 8A that the manufacturer’s design allows. The difference is that on a busy day, I can easily exhaust the 70Ah batteries in a morning – and fully recharge them while having a (suitably leisurely) lunch – rather than be stuck immobile for the rest of the day. PLEASE DON’T attempt this kind of modification unless you know how to do it safely – otherwise get someone else to do it for you – it’s a very simple modification to make and need not affect the warranty in any way but it has to be done RIGHT.

What barriers do you/have you come up against as a wheelchair user?

Where do we start? Lack of ramps on kerbs. Potholes that cause severe pain to anyone with skeletal or neurological problems. People who selfishly park on pavements (mothers pushing prams deserve to get by too). People who eave their wheely-bins out in the middle of the path for hours after the bin-men have been. “Fully-able” bodied people who park in a disabled bay, putting their selfish convenience above your need. People who ignore the BIG BRIGHT sign on the back of my MPV and still park so close behind that I can’t open my tailgate or drop the tail-lift to get my wheelchair on board. Hotels, restaurants, doctors’ surgeries, NHS buildings, offices that pay no regard to the DDA (or its replacement, the Equality Act) and make NO attempt to make their premises accessible – even when just a thirty quid ramp would do the job and bother no one else. Where a ramp is provided, they are often too short and narrow.

“Specially converted for the disabled” hotel rooms proves to be a standard room with a cheap lowered army-cot style bed, a flimsy sliding door across the hole that leads to the bathroom – which still contains the same bath and sink it did before “conversion” with no space to turn, let alone park a wheelchair.

So-called newly refurbished “wheelchair accessible” premises (such as the Trafalgar Studios theatre in London – see my post on Bespoken) are actually so inaccessible they are a danger to life and limb.

Councils and property owners who spend £millions on refurbishment works without a thought or care as to how disabled access could be integrated at the same time and with minimal or no cost –leave the wheelchair bound still unable to get where they want or need to be.

The list could go on…

Can you describe what travelling is like as wheelchair user? In what ways is it a challenge? How do other countries compare in terms of awareness and accessibility?

I’ve already mentioned that we’ve yet to solve/tackle air travel. But we’ve continued to travel widely round Europe and I know other countries well from the time before I became disabled.

I’d say that in Europe, the UK is one of the best adapted countries – probably only bettered by Germany. I’ve talked elsewhere about London, which I would rate as very accessible – as long as you plan ahead. I know that minor rural roads still present enormous challenges – and even the outskirts of some of our towns present many of the problems I’ve described above. But overall I’d say that most of our towns have ramped kerbs and crossings. Most shops in the UK have ramped or level access and even older buildings have mostly done what they can to make themselves accessible. There’s still a problem (Marks & Spencer should take note) with shops cramming display racks and clothes rails too close together – so you may be able to get into the shop, but you can forget actually getting near the thing you came in to buy. I find that blithely driving down the aisle regardless, scattering stock and clothing on the floor behind me usually gets the staff’s attention and results in a promise from the manager to take more care to leave room in future! Nothing like a lesson well demonstrated, is there?!

Staying in France is very patchy. The biggest cities, like Paris, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Toulouse etc. are very accessible. Kerbs, ramps and level surfaces abound. Entry to specific shops can still prove impossible though and you will still hit obstacles accessing some of the older parts of these cities where steps and uneven surfaces still exist. You will find the French love of a cobbled street (the most hated surface by far for a wheelchair user) occasionally impedes progress but, generally, it’s easy to get around and in and out. Turn to smaller cities and the picture becomes far patchier. Despite French laws decreeing that “all must be done” to provide equal access to able-bodied and disabled alike, towns like Angouleme are fine while major cities like Orleans can be a nightmare. Rural France can be very difficult – variable on a regional basis. The Charente region generally presents few insurmountable problems so, as long as you take great care with your choice of accommodation, the region makes a great holiday destination. The Loire is almost the diametric opposite. Its towns, cities, public buildings and monuments have a long way to go and have missed the 2012 deadline for compliance with that equality decree by at least a decade! You generally see very few people in wheelchairs or mobility scooters out and about in France – that says a lot about the French attitude to disability in general.

The Benelux countries are fine (Holland is almost entirely flat for heaven’s sake). Italy and Spain present a similar picture to France though somewhat poorer. The many older public buildings, including theatres, offer no access, best forget about the towns and villages, but Venice is wheelchair accessible (of sorts) if you are brave and avoid times of year when the city gets flooded.

Wider afield, the USA has to be the wheelchair user’s dream destination. Though you’ll find many native American wheelchair users griping about the state of pavements, a wheelchair user can basically get anywhere an able bodied person can – and do (disabilities permitting) almost anything an able-bodied person can do. Americans have that “can do” attitude in spades and I’ve seen disabled tourists take helicopter rides, go microlight flying, bungee-jumping, mountain climbing, riding Space Mountain. If you can physically do it, Americans are all up to make it happen for you.

In Asia, as long as you stick to the developed cities you’ll find the places far more “21^st century” than here. So cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide can be regarded as accessible as anywhere else on the planet you might want to go. Outside the cities (other than Singapore) you should expect problems and very definite challenges. If it’s your ambition to visit those places, take specialist, local advice from people who know the ground from a disabled perspective. Japan is generally fine – as long as you can put up with the crowds. Tokyo, Osaka and tourist destinations like Kyoto and Hakone can all be approached with ease. In Thailand, personally, though I love Bangkok, it would be a challenge for any wheelchair user as so much of life there is based on (often pretty choppy) water and monuments, tourist sites, markets etc that pay almost no attention to accessibility. As for Indonesia, I’d say no to even the capital Jakarta unless you plan to restrict yourself to the 5-star hotels, shopping malls and private transport. Even then I’d have to have a compelling reason to visit the place before going. Anywhere outside the capital is best regarded as inaccessible to all but the very most intrepid among us. Even the big islands (like Borneo) throw up too many challenges – as for the smaller islands, Bintan, which has been developed as a purpose built luxury resort might be OK but forget anywhere on the thousands of other small islands.

Africa is generally a no-no for the wheelchair traveller. Johannesburg and Cape Town apart, and unless you are travelling with specialists who know the areas and can plan your itinerary, bigger cities are best avoided.

Do you have any other advice that you would like to offer people who are experiencing disability?

I’d like to make the point that anyone can be affected by disability. Regardless of background and whatever you did (or were never able to do) before disability got in the way, life is about moving forward – not looking over your shoulder but looking straight ahead, deciding what you want to do then finding a way of making it happen.

If I have achieved one thing in my life, I hope it is that I have given my sons that inner belief that life is good – and every day should be about pushing that (metaphorical) pea a bit further up the hill.