The Good, the Bad and the Unaccessible
We want to hear from you about your experience of travelling. We want to highlight the good, the bad and the unaccessible.
The foundation are starting a series of events with our own tenants to highlight the good and the bad, so that together we can raise awareness and improve independence. We want to hear from you is there problem in your town?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by HELEN ROBINSON on
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The good!
Condor ferries to Guernsey
From the moment we booked we felt we were cared for. We use them in stead of flying because they go that extra mile..nothing is too much trouble.Even when bad weather caused disruption their attention to our requirements was excellent. Have used them 3 times and nothing has changed our opinion of them.
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At the beginning of June 2013 I was taken to The Lodge on Loch Lomond Hotel in Luss for a birthday lunch. The views were lovely as was the lunch. There were however, NO disabled toilets! We couldn't believe it. When we had asked where the disabled toilets were, we were shown to a tiny cubicle in the main toilet area which had a large rickety table inside for changing a baby's nappy. There was absolutely no way of getting my wheelchair in so the staff took out the changing table and left us too it. With a lot of pushing and manipulating my daughter by some amazing chance managed to get my chair in. She was now jammed in behind my chair and I couldn't even transfer onto the toilet. We then found that we couldn't get the door closed as my chair wouldn't go all the way in so I couldn't even use the toilet as I didn't want everyone to see me. I was almost in tears by now and my poor daughter had to literally climb over the toilet to get out. When she tried to get my chair out again it wouldn't budge. I was now jammed between wall and toilet. I was trying to keep myself together but felt terribly upset not to say I had a full bladder that needed emptying. Finally after dismantling part of my chair (with me still in it) she managed to wrench it out of the cubicle. It sounds like a Keystone Cops movie and one could be forgiven for laughing at the tale but it was a horrible end to what had been a lovely birthday. We had to leave the Lodge and find a toilet elsewhere. There was no apology just a comment by the receptionist that there were refurbishment plans and the disabled toilet was included in them. I am astounded that they are allowed to operate their business with a non functional disabled toilet. Even a mum would have been hard pushed to change her infant on the rickety table and she certainly would not have been able to nurse her infant as there was no facility for that either. My daughter did email the Lodge a complaint but received basically the same reply regards the future refurbishment.
Another disabled unfriendly place is The New Victoria Hospital in Glasgow. None of the doors are automatic and are all heavy spring-loaded doors. It is impossible for people in wheelchairs or on crutches etc to get through the doors without someone to hold them. Any elderly people don't stand a chance of getting through them without help. They definitely did not take disability into consideration when they built this hospital. Even the staff agree it is badly designed
The biggest joke is the pain clinic which is situated at the farthest point from the elevators so if any patient has difficulty walking etc then they certainly need pain relief when they get there. The stupid thing is that the stores elevator is right beside the pain clinic but the general public is not allowed to use it!
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An update on the New Victoria Hospital - They have now upgraded a lot of the doors to automatic opening doors which is a great improvement. One thing I didn't mention before was the clinic rooms being quite small too so if you are in a wheelchair it is very difficult to manouver once you go into the room. I don't think people designing these places realise how important free-space is whether it is to allow treatments to be given or simply getting the patient into the room in one piece! I think everyone views new buildings through rose-coloured glasses and as long as it is aesthetically pleasing no one sees a problem. Once everywhere is up and running however, it is a different story and people start to realise how things don't work and it is too late to change anything. I really wish there was a panel of people with various disabilities who could be called upon at the planning stage of any project to advise what will and will not work and what is needed to accomodate disabled people because quite honestly I feel we are going backwards instead of forwards in making life easier for the less fortunate amongst us.
A simple example of this is when I had my front door changed as part of the new windows and doors scheme. No thought had been given to where the mail box was situated. I've had a string of able bodied people look at it but not one could see the problem. I had to point out that my old door had the letterbox just above a shelf so that when the letters were posted through they just sat ready to be lifted off the shelf. The letter box is now only 1 1/2 to 2 feet off the ground and the letters end up on the floor where I can't easily get them. In fact it takes me a while fiddling around with a grab stick to pick them up. I can't have a basket attached to the letter box because there isn't enough clearance between the door and the wall. It is so frustrating but I'm sure you get what I mean by things going backwards instead of forwards simply because disabled people are not being asked for their opinion or advice before things are put in place. If they were then a lot of money would be saved I'm sure. I don't want the moon or the stars, I just want to be like 'normal' people and be able to do things without breaking a sweat or ending up in an arguement every time.
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My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter went out for a drive in summer 2014. We had made a plan of where we wanted to go but as usual having missed our turn off we ended up in the countryside and eventually wound up in a small town called Biggar, a historic market town in south Lanarkshire. It's a lovely, spotlessly clean little town and on first arriving there you could be forgiven for thinking you had stepped back into the 50s and 60s. Some of the 'main' street is still cobbled and the shops look caught in time. Looking into one of the haberdashery shops we could see the walls clad in polished wood drawers and cabinets all filled with all manner of things from stockings to underwear, threads to pins and tape measures. The window dressing looked also to be caught in time with dresses from a time long past. I was in my manual wheelchair (the power one does not fit in the family car). My teeth rattled and chattered as I was propelled over the cobbled stones to the other side of the street. When we got there we had a frantic few minutes of searching for a lower part of the pavement in order to get my wheelchair onto it. I found I couldn't go into any of the shops as their doorways were either too narrow or there was a high step leading into the shop. In the end we decided to find a cafe and have a nice cuppa to soothe our shattered nerves. Unfortunately I couldn't get inside any of them and was about to give up when we saw one that might just do. There was a lot of moving of tables and chairs but finally we were all sat around a small table. There were no toilets or fire escape and I realised that should the little area they were using to toast the teacakes were to go up in smoke, I would not be getting out of there alive! It seems that along with being caught in a time warp, the little town of Biggar had not updated its health and safety rules and regulations and as far as accessibility for the disabled was concerned, of that there was none! Clearly Biggar is not big enough if you are disabled but it is a beautiful area to visit if you can bear the shake, rattle and roll of cobbles and you can hold off going to the toilet until you are back in civilization.
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Permalink Reply by bespoken Team on
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Hi Aisla,
It's interesting that for all we like to romanticise the past and think of it always as "the good old days", this is an interesting reminder or how badly society then catered for people who have a disability. Our Founder, Margaret Blackwood, was one of the first people in Scotland to speak out against this and draw attention to the problem.
Obviously there are still plenty of difficulties today but I feel there is at least a wish to address the issue.
Thanks for sharing.
Paul
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That's a really good point, Paul. I hadn't really thought about it that way and you are absolutely right. Actually you didn't see very many disabled people out and about years ago because there was hardly anything that was disabled friendly 'back in the day'. When you think about what has changed and what can be done these days I'm left in awe. I do wonder if anyone would have stepped up to the plate had Margaret Blackwood not and if they had would they have brought about as many changes as she did. Not only that but she put in place an assured continuation of the work she started.
Sadly the one huge thing that has put a spoke in the wheel is the number of fake disabled claimants. Not surprisingly it has left a bitter taste in people's mouths now that TV has shown us what some people are capable of doing and how much money the tax payer is losing. Unfortunately people tend to be tarred with the same brush and on occasion we are looked on with suspision or treated with distaste. Of course this is not everyones attitude but it only takes one person to say something derogatory to make you feel dreadful. I am so grateful for people like Margaret Blackwood and sincerely hope that the fake claimants among us do not deter other good people from following her example.
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