Disability, In Praise of Carers and a Stormy Night

It is now just over a year since the London Paralympics finished and it is interesting to see a piece in this mornings news about how this event has changed peoples perception of disabilities and the disabled.

 

The Paralympics were a great show case to present to the world what disabled people can achieve.  It wasn't about the negative - what I can't do - but rather about the positive - what I can do.  We watched great sporting endeavours from athletes who daily have to overcome huge hurdles just to live a normal life.

 

But was it a fair representation of disability and disabled people.

 

Of course it showed off the undoubted talents for people who have worked very hard to overcome their disabilities to compete in sport at the very highest level.  But not all disabled people are able to achieve, and participate in sport.  There isn't the facilities at most sports clubs to accommodate disabled people, let alone the equipment to enable them to participate.

 

Only 17% of disabled people are born with their disability, and if like me you come to be disabled later on in life, then the adjustment to be able to live independently takes a great deal of time and effort.  Being able to participate in sport is a non-starter.

 

The public's perception of disabled sport and disabled athletes is at an all time high.  People like Jonny Peacock, Hannah Cockcroft, Dave Weir and Ellie Simmons are now spoken of in the same terms as abled body athletes and their achievements are recognised as being on the same level as their abled bodied counterparts.

 

And all of that is great and very positive.

 

However, very little has changed for the ordinary disabled person.  I've had this conversation with able bodied friends, and they seem surprised when I say the Paralympics made very little difference to how I, or other disabled people are seen.

 

If you try to use public transport as a disabled person, you find that seats which should be there for the use of disabled people are occupied, and people simply won't move. 

 

Try catching a  bus in a wheelchair and invariably you'll find the space for parking your chair is occupied by pushchairs, or by people simply standing in the space. 

 

And similarly on a train, the space for a wheelchair, is used by passengers for storing cases and pushchairs.

 

How often do you try to park in a disabled parking space only to find this is occupied by someone without a "blue badge".

 

Or try to use a disabled toilet, and find that an able bodied person is using it, because they couldn't be bothered to find and use the able bodied facilities.

 

And that's all without commenting on the difficulties of accessing public transport and buildings, because they aren't wheelchair friendly.

 

On social media there are often comments directed at disabled people, that make uncomfortable reading.  Examples like:

• "If she was my kid, I'd have her walking by now,"
• "I'd do anything to be sick like you and thin."
• "Is your child normal?"
• "Disabled people don't have to pay bills, do they."
• "People like you should be in a home, its not fair that the rest of us have to deal with your problems."

I've been shouted at and abused in the street, often when I've asked an able bodied person to move their car, when its parked over a drop kerb, where I need to cross the road.

 

For all the good that the Paralympics could have done, sadly it was followed by a campaign by the current government aimed at reducing the welfare bill.  One of the main targets for this was benefits which are specifically for disabled people, and the governments intention to reduce the welfare bill.  In trying to justify their policy they have labelled disabled people as work shy, scroungers, who are happy to sit at home, and take hand outs from hardworking tax payers.

 

This distorted view of the disabled has ignored the fact that disabled benefits have less than 0.5%fraud, and that many disable people have worked and paid their taxes, etc, prior to their disability impacting on their ability to work.

 

But it has helped to foster a public perception of disabled people that is very negative.

 

A great quote that I think sums up attitudes to disability comes from the sculptor, Tony Heaton, who created the giant wheelchair sculpture that adorned the Channel 4 building in London during the Paralympics.  He says:

 

"It's amazing that in 1969 we as a society managed to put a man on the moon and yet we still can't get a wheelchair user from one railway station to another nearly 50 years later… You have to come to the conclusion that it is a lack of will to create a more accessible world, not lack of technology or design skills."

 

Last night, here in the UK, we had one of the worst storms that has hit the south of the country since the hurricane of 1987.  There has been loss of life, extensive property damage, homes left without electricity and major disruption to the public transport and roads network.

 

In my area it all started to kick off as it was getting dark, round about 5.00pm last night.  You could hear the wind and rain battering the house.  Early in the evening I had a call from my carer to say she would come to me late to put me to bed.  She arrived at about 11.20pm - which is fine by me.  She was soaking wet, from running from her car to the homes of the people she was visiting, and looked worn out.  But she could still laugh about the weather.

 

She put me to bed and as normal, I dropped off almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.  I slept right through the night, without disturbance from the wind and rain.

 

I expected my carer this morning to be late.  She has to come quite a long way, and I was anticipating that there would be debris from the storm on the roads, that would make her journey difficult.

 

However, at 6.00am, right on time, she let herself in.  Although she said the journey had taken longer than normal, she had left early to try to be with me on time.

 

What a fantastic effort by two lovely girls, and it just shows how great most of the carers actually are.  A big thank you to Margaret and Hildreth.