Disabled Living

Tag: Disability

We’re Proud to be Celebrating International Volunteers Day

Today, Tuesday 5th December, celebrates a whole day dedicated to International Volunteer Day. For this day we would like to show recognition to our volunteers who have been supporting us on our #DonkeysToInnovators project so far.

Throughout our From Donkeys to Innovators project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, we’ve had volunteers help us with community curation, attending oral history workshops, participating in archiving and digitisation processes, plus contributing to blog posts. We spoke to two of these volunteers who have been over at Redbank House. They have been working with Archivist, Heather Roberts, and Claire Turner who is managing our project.

One of our longstanding volunteer, Avril

Just a small amount of our photo archive

We asked Avril what she enjoys about volunteering with Disabled Living. Avril is one of our longstanding volunteers, and has attended a number of workshops for our #DonkeysToInnovators heritage project.

I came to the archiving project through my interest in many years of volunteering with the Kidz team. I have enjoyed the volunteering which supports giving people with physical problems the opportunity to be more equal. The archiving project is important for me. It shows the beginnings of the organisation and how far it has come today but still keeping the core ethos. Since I have the time it also allows me the opportunity to develop more skills and be hands on in a situation that needs more hands! I also enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded people.

One of our new volunteers, Kezi

Kezi working alongside Heather

Kezi has been involved in our archiving and selection process for what photos represent Disabled Living’s history the best. Straight from the get-go Kezi wanted to get involved and that’s exactly what she did on her first visit at Redbank House. We asked her what she enjoyed about her first experience volunteering with us.

I loved helping out with Disabled Living’s archive. It gave me a really great chance to have some hands on experience with cataloging an archive for the first time. This is an area I would like to work in eventually. I loved looking through the photograph collection, which shows a wonderful range of day to day life at Disabled Living and how they have helped to enrich the lives of many different people over the years.

Thank you to all of our volunteers. You’ve made us so proud and we wouldn’t have been able to get this far in the project without you.

How are you celebrating Volunteers Day? Tell us on Twitter @disabledliving or Facebook.

December 5, 2017
Story of the Month Feature: Ben Andrews

This Story of the Month is dedicated to Ben Andrews from Empower You. The vision of the programme is to revolutionise the health and leisure industry and make it a much more inclusive place for disabled people. Ben understands the barriers that disabled people face when trying to exercise. And Ben wants to support disabled people to knock down these barriers and teach them how they can have an active lifestyle as possible.

Ben’s background

Ben has a strong level of experience in the industry. Not only has he gained a 1^st class qualification at University of Salford in Exercise and Health Sciences but he’s built up many years of experience working with disabled people. He believes that:

Everyone can profit from the many benefits of that an active lifestyle can offer.

His supportive work has been recognised by NHS Salford Clinical Commissioning Group. This has helped Ben to gain a greater understanding of lifestyle goals that disabled people want to achieve in an exercise environment.

Success stories

Below are two examples of success stories from those who have used the services at Empower You with Ben.

Katie

Through the Empower You programme Katie has lost weight as well as improving her lung capacity, something that is much lower in people with Down Syndrome. Katie is now regularly attending her dancing and drama as well as another gym group, which is made up of her newly found friends. Katie now has a much busier social life and is becoming more independent through it.

Craig

Craig has Retinitis Pigmentosa, which has resulted in near enough complete blindness.

Our initial consultation identified Craig’s goals were to become fitter, gain muscle and get out of the house more.

My programme incorporated big lifts such as presses, squats and dead lifts, focusing on the higher rep ranges to optimise muscle growth and keeping the sessions as high tempo as possible with short rest periods. These lifts are difficult to perfect as anybody who trains will know, doing that with no vision is even harder, yet Craig has progressed in both technique and workload week in week out. Craig is now seeing a noticeable difference in his size, filling out clothes, which used to be baggy as well as strength, specifically in his legs.

Ben’s personal training offers specialist programming, lifestyle support, regular reviews, and customised. If you know someone who would benefit from this programme, contact Ben today via Twitter.

If you would like to feature your story please contact Disabled Living.

October 31, 2017
Understanding Parenting with a Disability
Thank you to Chris, our Disability Trainer and Advisor for writing this post about understanding parenting with a disability.

I’m a wheelchair user who can’t walk at all and have been since I was 7-years-old when I caught polio. But very early on in adulthood I knew I wanted kids. I hadn’t thought it all through then but the thought was always there.

I graduated and started to work (as a school teacher), and eventually got married.

By this time I was very confident of what I could and couldn’t do in work, at home, around town, on holiday and so on. But the prospect of bringing up children was something else entirely.

I had concerns in 3 areas:
- Could I physically manage? Stairs, transport, carrying baby etc
- What would other people think? “Is he able to manage?”
- What came later – how would my growing kids view me? “All my friends Dads are playing football with them…”
Well I can report that it all worked – not all plain sailing but an incredible journey. Looking back now over the last thirty five years I’m now at the grandparent stage – nine so far with every prospect of many more!

Of course one short article can’t give you every practical piece of advice you might want. And the advice is very specific to your disability anyway. I can give you everything you need to know if you’re a wheelchair user and I can give you my general observations on attitudes. This includes ideas for further research (see below). If you are worried there is a tremendous amount of top-quality, specific information out there.

I think you’ll discover particular solutions that work for you. Disabled people are a very diverse group indeed – the variation across wheelchair users for instance is vast. What’s common though is problem solving and determination.

Okay, so, I can’t walk at all. How do I carry a baby up and down the stairs?

Why don’t I live in a bungalow you might ask? Well, when I became disabled I already lived in a house and I liked sleeping upstairs so I carried on. Sixty years later nothing has changed!

I found that if you tightly wrapped up baby in a shawl you could carry him/her in your teeth. Good enough for lions and tigers so good enough for me. I did what I needed to do.

How do I keep baby safe when I’m out and about if I’ve got my hands on the wheelchair most of the time?

The standard child harness went over shoulders and clipped to my belt which worked perfectly, just the same as for everyone else.

What if they run away, you can’t catch them?

Well, they just didn’t. It’s as if they know you can’t chase so they don’t go running off too far. As they grew I would be trying to give them independence but always telling them not to go too far/too fast. They seemed to take this on board.

Sometimes you see parents frantically running after their little loved ones and obviously getting really worried that they won’t catch up. But I’d say the child hasn’t been properly primed and that the child absolutely knows the parent will chase. So it’s all a bit of fun to them!

What did other adults think?

I’ve always said – most people, most of the time, do the right thing – and that applied here in abundance. There were lots of offers of help and total acceptance of the situation.

I mentioned I was a schoolteacher. There were some initial reservations about whether I could command a class, deal with emergencies and exert discipline. But the children always responded. They might mess other teachers around but not me!

I’d often transfer to sit on a higher bench so I could see the class easier leaving the wheelchair empty. The pupils would then argue about whose turn it was to sit in it for the lesson!

So, my lads turned out to be very sporty but there were no issues at all around me being unable to participate. They watched me play wheelchair basketball and I watched them swimming, playing rugby and the rest. It all worked so well I found myself running the junior rugby club for years. Interestingly not a single questioning/negative comment ever from players, parents, visiting parents etc I was just decent at the job so they let me carry on.

There’s lots of hard work but also so much to smile about.

What’s still happening?

I park up with one of my lads in the car. He gets out and gets my chair set up. If I’m fiddling with keys, gloves or bags he’ll sit in the wheelchair and scoot off round the car park for a minute. Lots of admiring faces because he’s very skilled (poor lad but doesn’t he do well?).

He then races back and promptly stands up! Admiring faces change – they’ve been duped. But then I transfer into the chair. Oh, it’s dad and he really is disabled! Conflicted or what?

Or this – I’m at home in my comfy armchair, wheelchair alongside. Grandchild asks if they can use the wheelchair and zooms off outside. “This is great; can I have one for Christmas?” “None of my friends has got one of these”. “Can I take it to school for “Show and tell?”

Incidentally, when grandchildren stay over they all copy me on the stairs. If I sit on the top step and start to bump down then so do they!

Of course I had to sort a lot of these things out as I went along – no computers, no mobiles at the beginning, but now there is a wealth of information out there. If you’d feel safer with more information, then there’s a lot to research relevant to your own specific issues. Just try to approach the situation with some confidence. People have been there before. Disability didn’t just start with the Paralympics. Parenthood will be so rewarding, and you’ll find there are lots of people in the same boat.

Try these sources of information:
- NHS Choices – discusses entitlement to support and your needs will be properly assessed.
- You can also get in touch with other disabled parents via Netmums
- Scope – where you will find all sorts of useful links
- Disability Horizons – this website has hundreds of relevant articles and a blog
- DPN (Disabled Parents Network) – again, endless links here.
- Super Nanny – lots of useful links
- Many relevant self-help groups, including specific to your disability
- Many relevant chat-rooms
- Lots of online support
If you would like to share your experience on Disabled Living’s blog about parenting with a disability, send an email to: info@disabledliving.co.uk
September 5, 2017
Why We Love Ravenglass and Muncaster (And You Should Too!)

Cumbria might not sound the ideal place for easy walks and accessible venues. There are challenging peaks, extensive lakes and frequent rivers leaving very few level spaces. But the coastal strip is a different matter with several little gems well worth a visit. And Ravenglass is my favourite!

It’s a tiny fishing port with a huge enclosed natural harbor which originally attracted the Romans with its shelter for their galleys en route to the Scottish wars.

The village is tiny. There’s one wide street with quaint cottages either side, many signed – Post Office, Reading Room, Station House and so on. They have relics of the past like the ancient petrol pump.

There’s a large central car park, well disguised, with plenty of blue badge parking, from which there are smooth paths to all parts of the village which you can explore to your hearts content.

Driving to the car park you will have already seen the boats at anchor in the bay and now you can actually access the beach at the end of the village down the concrete slope provided for the boats. The beach here is rough but hard with sand and stones giving a decent level surface for a little exploration to admire the scenery check the tides and spot the abundant wildlife.

After your exertions there are plenty of accessible cafes, pubs and restaurants to suit all tastes.

Another path from the car park will take you to the miniature railway only minutes away. Admittedly this path is a bit of a push as it goes over the “proper” railway. So, you could drive round to the Station car park where you will find more blue badge parking.

Now you can easily explore the Station, the trains, the shop, the cafe, and the museum. All of which are accessible with toilets. This used to be a proper working line taking miners a few miles inland to their work. It’s now a tourist route all the way with accessible carriages on the trains.

Get a ticket then enjoy the beautiful scenic route which has several stops you can explore, particularly at the end of the line where you have to get off while they swap the locomotive from one end to the other before the return trip. You can explore for as long as you want and catch a later train. If you’re lucky you will see foxes, badgers and rabbits together with a wealth of bird life along the route.

As if that’s not enough, back at base another smooth, flat path will take you to the remains of the old Roman Bath House once standing alongside the huge Roman fort (since demolished). This is a lovely undemanding walk with plenty of shade from the trees with views through to fields and to the sea. The remains are just alongside the path and can be reached on hard grass. Apparently these are the tallest Roman wall ruins in England.

If you want to make a weekend of it then visit Muncaster Castle only a minutes drive away.

They are very accessibly minded here. So, you can have fancy afternoon tea in the sumptuous castle, walk through the woods, around the gardens, see a falconry display, join in with the heron feeding maybe catch a medieval fayre. There’s something here for everyone. You can even rent an accessible cottage onsite.

I can thoroughly recommend Ravenglass and Muncaster for any disabled person wanting a cracking day out (family optional).

If this has whetted your appetite, you’ll need an accessible vehicle to get you there in the first place and to move around once there so why not contact Mobility Nationwide to find the perfect second-hand mobility vehicle for your needs.

You can also view their infographic below:

Would you like to share your favourite accessible attractions on our blog? Send an email to: info@disabledliving.co.uk

July 24, 2017
Finding the Right Hotel for You and Your Disability

This is a third blog by Chris, giving you the best advice for finding the best hotel for you and your disability. Staying in a good hotel can be an integral part of the enjoyment of your holiday or an indispensable part of your work. So how do you choose, if accessibility is a factor?

The word ‘access’ can be tricky here. The hotel might mean you can get in and have a drink. You may be able to reach the restaurant and have a lovely meal, but you may not be able to stay as there are no suitable rooms. You read phrases like ‘some access’ ‘reasonable access’ or ‘fairly accessible’ which are ultimately meaningless.

There are many booking websites now and good ones such as booking.com have an accessibility filter so you can click on ‘facilities for disabled guests’.

This often works well but increasingly I am encountering problems. The reason is that the establishments are self-certifying. In some cases they are given basic guidance when they sign up but it’s up to them.

There is no huge inspectorate going out to check every hotel. You would think people would be honest as the last thing they want is an argument in reception when a disabled visitor is unhappy but on the other hand they don’t want to turn away potential custom by saying they have no facilities when they may have a few. So, use the booking websites for initial research but ring the hotel direct when you think you have found one and check carefully.

In France and part of Italy there is a booking organisation called ‘Logis’. You can use this like booking.com with their disability filter. You can check whether the restaurant is accessible, whether there are any accessible rooms, or both. This filter has worked very well for me with only one disagreement in 15 years of regular use.

When researching, TripAdvisor has a disability group you can join which holds lots of relevant accessibility information.

Even when you are in a hotel which boasts about its great accessibility features there will be no consistency from one establishment to another – particularly in toilet/bathroom provision.

A typical accessible hotel room will have a few standard accessibility features – possibly a larger room, possibly a larger bathroom, often bath removed and shower installed (often with no seat), one or two grab rails in the bathroom, red alarm cords for if you fall in the bathroom or roll out of bed and a phone with large buttons.

Even if the room is good it might be located a long way from the reception or the restaurant – even in a different building. That might be the only place with suitable rooms to adapt so again, check. This is surprisingly common and arises because new buildings may have been added as the hotel has expanded and these new buildings are more likely to conform to current accessibility guidelines.

Keep a cool head – when in Cyprus last year our accessible room was an absolute delight. It had been decided that the rooms should be on the ground floor for fire safety – fair enough. But to make the ground floor accessible they had ramped what had previously been 8 or 9 steps up from Reception. The ramp was ridiculously steep. The only people confronted by this ramp were the disabled guests. Everyone else went to different floors by the lift with no slope in sight.

When in Majorca I remember talking to the manager about his brilliantly adapted accessible bathroom. He was in the bathroom and I was in the bedroom because I couldn’t get to the brilliant bathroom as the door was too narrow.

In many ways you are safer with an established chain. Premier Inn and Novotel for instance each have an excellent design for their accessible rooms and bathrooms so you can rely on consistent provision across the country.

A good hotel will have bed raisers available, maybe a mobile hoist, ability to change a double bed for two singles and so on. Check their website or ring direct.

When researching a hotel online, look for their Access Statement, which is where they all relevant accessibility information should be contained. If there isn’t a statement that’s your first warning sign!

If you book a hotel room in a hotel which is part of a holiday complex of some kind then you may have an accessible room in or near the hotel but the accessible shower and toilet are in a nearby building serving the holiday park.

Don’t take anything for granted!

May 19, 2017
Making the Most of Your Cruise Experience with Your Disability

This post has been written by Chris Cammis, Disability Trainer & Advisor at Disabled Living. He shares his advice for booking a cruise holiday when you have a disability, to help you make the most of your experience.

This form of travel has become a firm favourite for many disabled travellers in recent years for obvious reasons. It can be great fun but I do recommend that you read on to avoid pitfalls and enhance your enjoyment.

Before booking, check the cruise line website to see if there are deck plans of the boat you are interested in. You may be given dimensions of rooms, location of accessible rooms, important distances and so on which will be relevant to your planning. Generally, newer and bigger boats have better facilities.

For instance, some (smaller) river cruise line boats seem to have no adapted cabins at all although they advertise heavily in the older traveler market, whereas ocean cruisers generally will have them. It’s often a balance where the smaller boat has more of a friendly environment but may not have the physical adaptations you need.

If confronted about the lack of facilities they will often say they are not registered in the UK so do not need to comply with UK legislation.

Generally the craft are physically very comfortable – level, smooth floors, plenty of lifts, lots of space, well lit, warm and so on – perfect for most of us.

The main issue I find is getting off the boat at each destination. You are at the mercy of tides, dock structure, depth of water and timetables. The boat may not know exactly where it is docking until told at the last minute due to other traffic and you may only be able to reach land on a small ferry boat from the liner as the gangplank may be very steep and/or very narrow.

If transferring by a small boat, it’s ultimately up to the captain whether he will risk danger to you and his crew trying the transfer. Sometimes there may be a choice of different size boats taking people from different points on board. So I advise that you do your research. I’ve often found most staff don’t know all the details. So you may miss out if you rely on them completely.

In Vietnam only one member of senior staff knew there were two sizes of boats going ashore from two parts of the ship. And I needed to be escorted through the staff-only decks to one particular boat so I could get on via a level gangplank rather than by negotiating a precarious flight of steps.

Once off you will need transport. A question to consider – is it accessible? The cruise company will have various buses for various trips which you can book online beforehand or on-board and pay extra for. These buses are virtually never accessible.

If you comment they will say they are in a foreign country and have no control over access rules in that country (although we all know the buses would all be made accessible overnight if the cruise company said only accessible ones would do).

Bigger companies may lay on accessible trips with appropriate transport (if they have enough takers). So do your research online beforehand so that you can ask any specific questions.

I have to confess that I had a wonderful accessible trip around St Petersburg. There were only two disabled passengers (including me) with their companions. There was a minibus which had access to everywhere and a driver on a mission to show us all the delights of the city. We saw all the standard sights and more without queuing and spent the rest of the voyage telling everyone else what they had missed.

Staff on-board are often hazy here. They really want everyone to go on their basic trips so they make lots of extra money. They don’t have a vested interest in doing lots of disability research for one or two disabled travellers who can’t go on the official trips.

Don’t despair, there is always a way. The popular hop on-hop off double deckers which take tourists around many cities of the world are always accessible. If they cover your destination, they will be on the dockside so buy your 24 hour or 48 hour ticket and you will be taken to every tourist destination available.

Alternatively, you could book a taxi on your own. Just discuss where you want to go, when you have to be back and shake on a price. If language is an issue (very rare with English) the driver will have pictures of destinations so you can just point.

Bigger destinations will have independent travel companies so you can book online. Check itineraries, interpreters, costs, times, and difficulties then go ahead. It doesn’t have to go through the cruise company.

If you do make your own arrangements, make sure you have the right visas etc. Normally the staff on-board will organise the appropriate paperwork. But if you are going off-piste you might need to make your own arrangements well beforehand. Russia and Cambodia come to mind.

Don’t get me wrong – I love cruising. It works beautifully for me as a wheelchair user. But my partner and I do put in the hours online beforehand to make the on-land part work well.

Would you like to share an accessible travel experience on Disabled Living’s blog? Get in touch by sending an email to: info@disabledliving.co.uk or call us on 0161 214 4590.

May 18, 2017
Travelling On An Aeroplane with Your Disability

This post has been written by Chris Cammiss, Disability Trainer & Advisor at Disabled Living. Chris has been a wheelchair user since childhood. After graduating from The University of Manchester, he was a secondary schoolteacher for 28 years. Chris now delivers Disability Awareness training and conducts Access Audits over the UK. He travels widely and has accumulated a lifetime’s experience in this environment. He shares his advice for travelling on an aeroplane with your disability.

Flying has become much easier over the years with international guidelines bringing some sort of consistency to the process. However each country, airport and airline has its own individual variations.

Here is some advice from Chris to those with disabilities who are travelling in the future.

When booking the flights either online or in store, check that your disability is recorded. Also, make sure the precise nature of the help required is noted. It is important to consider possible circumstances.

Can a wheelchair user walk at all? This is necessary for ordering the aisle chair for use on-board. Do you need help around the airport? Can you walk unaided for any distance? Do you need a buggy? Can you see at all? You’re entitled to all sorts of help all round the airport and onto the plane itself.

These questions may seem intrusive but the precise level of help needed is what’s important. Members of staff are usually trained to be sensitive here.

When checking in, make sure this information has been noted. At this point check-in staff should send a message through to the assistance point, making your arrival known. It’s useful at this point to go to the assistance point yourself to double-check. Check-in staff often ring the assistance point but if the phone is engaged they may forget to ring later or may be too busy, so the assistance team could think that you haven’t turned up.

At check-in, you can get a travel tag for your wheelchair, walking frame etc if it is to be loaded aboard to make sure it doesn’t get mixed up with the airport’s own equipment. This is not part of your baggage weight allowance.

I don’t personally find it helpful to pre-book seats. Different airlines have different policies on placing disabled travellers in aisle seats, non-aisle seats, seating at a bulkhead, avoiding bulkheads and so on so I leave it to them.

If you are to transfer from an aisle chair check if the seat arm will lift to aid smooth transfer. Usually they do but not always. Each aircraft is different internally.

There will always be an aisle chair available to get you to your seat in the aircraft if you need it. However, it may be the property of the airport therefore; there may not be an aisle chair on the plane in flight although this is best practice. Check, especially for long flights. Consider urine bottles or similar to use at your seat. You may also wish to consider using your wheelchair cushion to sit on for extra comfort on long flights.

All this may seem fairly obvious but I was once helped onto a 10 hour flight to Cuba to be told after take-off that the plane was a double decker, the toilet was on the other floor to me and they didn’t carry an aisle chair – no contingency plan at all.

En route to New Zealand I asked for the aisle chair and appropriate assistance to then be asked, “What? You can’t walk at all?” as if it was my fault that I was putting the staff to so much trouble. I mentioned this to the Head Steward who saw unemployment staring him in the face and was deluged for the rest of the flight with every expensive gift they could think of.

Assistance staff will be trained, but this could have been by watching a 20 min DVD. You will encounter a range of people – many women as this is seen as a caring role and men close to retirement as the role is seen as less physical than other roles, so you may not be helped by the big strong tough guy who would make the whole process easier – far from it.

You may also find yourself transferring in a space with no support, limited help, but lots of concerned onlookers and so on. Your companion may find themselves overwhelmed – carrying their own luggage, yours as well, maybe a cushion or similar, passports and boarding passes. They become invisible as you receive all the help.

Once on board you should be on the Steward’s list so staff should make themselves known to you, asking what they can do.

Knowing how roughly luggage can be treated in loading/unloading and how tricky turbulence can be regular disabled travellers will often not take their best/most expensive wheelchair or other equipment with them on planes. It’s hard to give statistics as people often won’t claim damages but I’ve had two bad breakages of my wheelchair in the last ten years – one wrecked the footplate, and the other twisted the frame.

Each could have compromised the holiday. Luckily we were able to improvise in each case. You could check coverage in your travel insurance if you are concerned.

Equipment in the hold should be delivered to you at the plane entrance as you get off if that’s what you require, rather than at baggage retrieval, as I once experienced.

You may have to wait to be helped off a plane. If staff have several disabled passengers to help or several flights have arrived close together or the terminal is huge, there could be a problem. But it is a legal requirement that airline staff can’t all leave the plane until all passengers are off so you’ll always have someone to talk to.

If all else fails do what they do in Peru. On take-off they cross themselves and after a successful landing they burst into applause. I hope this helps and happy flying!

Would you like to share your experience of travelling on an aeroplane with your disability? Get in touch with us via email: info@disabledliving.co.uk or call us on 0161 214 4590.

May 17, 2017