Emotional wreck...

I feel like an emotional wreck tonight. Just watched Channel 4's 'Slumdog Secret Millionaire' where a London based millionaire goes over to Mumbai to see how the other half live - working on rubbish dumps and sleeping on the streets...

I then watched a video on the BBC news website of 2 children being dragged out from the carnage in Haiti. 5 days they'd been trapped.

Then earlier today I was sent an email from LPA [Little People of America] c/o an e mailing list I belong to for short people which features a list of children including:

2 year old Dillon - can count to ten and is already potty trained. He brings a smile to everyone around.

Adorable 6 year old - favourite things to play with are cubes and cars. He wants very much to belong to a family.

Boy 10 - desperately needs a family. Once he hits 14 Chinese law forbids him to be adopted.

The list actually goes on and on. These are all children who are waiting to be adopted. And what do they all have in common? They all have some form of short stature so they have been placed in homes, orphanages, call them what you will because they have been rejected by their families probably because of their disability. Most were in China so I guess they have been given up because that isn't the 'one child' the parents want.

If we think we still have a long way to go in terms of awareness about disability in this country I guess it's nothing compared to the countries these children have been abandoned in.

Tesco's response to their appalling disability access at their Newton Abbot petrol station...

Here's Tesco's response to my complaint about the appalling lack of access to their petrol station in Newton Abbot sent to me on 10 Dec 2009:

Thank you for waiting for my to your enquiry about the Newton Abbot Petrol Filling station and the adjustments you would like to see in place.

I have contact our Business Support team andthey have advised the below:-

There is currently no additional rule in the DDA for outdoor payment terminals at pumps provided our standard DDA "reasonable adjustments" are met. Our reasonable adjustment is to use the Service Call facility which enables customers to call for assistance from the kiosk. We do not offer the Service Call facility at times when a PFS operates unmanned, and this is deemed as acceptable.

We have to have the PayatPump terminal at certain heights due to explosion zones and restrictions on the pumps - there must be a set vapour barrier distance between nozzles, motors and electronics which cannot be altered. We have designed the current PayatPump terminals to accommodate our varied pump estate and meet the requirements of the petroleum regulations.

As for the step, we can look at getting this removed and having a ramp fitted this has been pass to the correct area of business.

I hope this helps and thank you for you enquiry.


One of the key problems with the DDA [Disability Discrimination Act] is that service providers use 'reasonable adjustment' as a get out clause rather than providing a truely equal service to all its customers.

So in this instance disabled people have to buy petrol in a different way to their peers.

I hadn't realised before but you actually have to pay for a 'Service Call' transmitter - so let me get this right in order to buy petrol at a petrol station that they haven't bothered to make accessible I have to PAY for that privilege?

How would non disabled people feel if they had to pay to use a petrol station in this way? OK it's only £14.95 but it's £14.95 that non disabled people don't have to pay and surely if anything the inaccessible petrol stations should be giving out these transmitters for free it's not my fault the petrol station isn't accessible.

Also as the response points out 'Service Call' doesn't always work and there have been many many complaints from disabled people that people working in petrol stations don't recognise it or ignore it anyway.

As for the response about the 'pay at pump' machines, step in the old 'safety' excuse.... whilst it is possible there are certain rules/regulations about this I am sure there are also ways round it to providing an 'accessible to all' solution. You can't tell me that you can't position the machine at a suitable distance at a suitable height next to the pump for example?

The bottom line is that disabled people in spite of their £80 billion/year income are still regarded as second class customers who don't have the political clout that other minority groups do.

To put it in perspective what would be the reaction if petrol stations said Black people or women had to use petrol stations differently to the rest of the population? Enough said.

Disregard of disability access eg1 Tesco's petrol station

I went to a petrol station today [Tesco's by the way] which has installed pay at pump facilities. This would be all well and good if they were at a height I could reach.

To add insult to injury there's no way of avoiding having to access the panel because you have to press a button on it to declare whether you want to pay at pump or at the kiosk.

To acheive this I have to precariously balance on a ledge, pulling myself up on the bottom of the pump to reach my choice. Physically I can do it, just, but it's also the sort of manouvre that could easily go wrong and cause me an injury.

Tank filled I went to pay. I was then greeted by an enormous step into the shop. Great.

I asked why on earth they didn't have a ramp and was told that the council were aware of the issue and are doing something about it - er just how long ago did the DDA [Disability Discrimination Act] kick in? 1995, yes that's a wopping 14 years ago.

I then stated that the pay at pump facility isn't accessible either - "ah yes, we've got round that one by having service call". I believe this is some system where disabled muggins has to sit in their car and wait for help, presumably not possible in the dead of night [yes disabled people do go out at night] when there's only one person locked into the petrol station kiosk.

I'm sorry this isn't an acceptable solution for me - I don't want to have to rely on someone else to do a task I can do myself anyway. The solution is not to install the pay at pump facilities at an inaccessible height, hardly rocket science and it wouldn't cost the garage any more either.

Archie starts school

Well it seemed like yesterday that our little scrap of a baby was born and this weekend marked the end of his first week of primary school. Next week the real test begins as he steps up from going half days to all day, I'm not sure what that will do to him on the tiredness front...

The transition has been amazingly smooth, I guess we have to credit Archie [and maybe ourselves a bit] that he is confident enough and articulate enough just to step into a new environment and get on with it. What was crucial was that it was the right environment for welcoming and dealing with a disabled child.

The school has risen to the challenge with thought and enthusiasm which has been great. They asked my advice on how to explain Archie's disability to the other children and they have also consulted with Mike and myself about how to get round various access issues eg using the toilet.

They are going to get in an OT but we have been quite clear that we don't want him to have any 'special' [spazzy looking - as it always is] equipment. So far so good really.

What's clear is that Archie is set to become his school's internal celebrity - Mike says whenever he picks him up all the children [even the older ones] are saying goodbye to him, using his name. I do hope that in a way the fact that they have Archie in their school means that all of the pupils there will at least have a bit of understanding about disability that they might not have done otherwise.

Two Little Boys article in Sept 09 'Junior' magazine

Check out my latest article in Sept 09's Junior magazine. The article talks about my experience of having one disabled and one non-disabled child and is accompanied by some nice photos of all of us.

http://www.juniormagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=209

We're just about to move again, Archie is due to start school and Ben will start a new preschool once the dust has settled I'm hoping to get back into writing a bit more... watch this space.