That recent accident left me with a minor disability, my right arm is weak but I am told it will get stronger the more I use it. How fortunate I am that my disability is both minor and temporary. This has been an important lesson. As a society we do not properly accommodate people with disabilities. I am NOT saying that we should go out of our way to accommodate disabled people, such should be the natural way society lives its life every day.
In my book MY KA’S ADVENTURE IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD I take inspiration in one chapter from my arrogant teenage life working as a management trainee in a giant Birmingham City Centre department store. There two lift operators were disabled, one losing a hand and one a leg in the war. I thought it disrespectful to customers to be confronted by men with bits of their body missing. What a horrible, arrogant young man I was.
Today we have disabled parking bays, we have wheelchair access, disabled toilets and so on. We have support dogs for people with hearing and sight problems. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was founded way back on 30th August 1934.
If I had to lose one of my five senses which would I sacrifice ? That is a very hard question to
My great-grandfather lost his hearing in the trenches of World War One caused by the incessant explosions of shells around him. Living in London during the Blitz of the Second World War he never heard the bombs drop but always felt the ground shake from their explosions.
Hearing versus Sight. I would give up sight before hearing.
Losing the use of my right hand, I can type on my laptop with a couple of fingers assisting those of my left hand, it has been so frustrating not being able to hold a pen and be able to write properly. (My handwriting has always been scruffy !)I am thinking back to that lift operator, he could not hold a pen in his right hand as he had no right hand ! I wonder if he learned to write left-handed.
I have complained for years about excess packaging of products we buy from our local supermarkets. I complain that there is a deliberate confusion as to what can and what cannot be recycled. I complain that a chain saw need to be a household tool to open such a huge variety of packages. But what if you do not have the use of a hand with which to hold a chain saw ! Don’t buy a tin of Del Monte pineapples. Such comes in a ring-pull can which the world’s strongest man would have difficulties opening !
Back to toilets. Some disabled toilets have notices explaining that not all disabilities are visible, other are locked demanding any potential user obtain a key from the building’s operator. Two extremes !
Perhaps we should stop using the word disabled and in its place use diffables, diff as in different.
A couple of times a year I take a break in Devon staying in a hotel which goes the extra mile and some more to accommodate disabled people. There are slightly raised bands in the corridors helping people to use their feet to find their way. Brail notices abound. Assistance dogs are welcome, very welcome.
How many places in Milton Keynes can match that ? I can’t think of any but I would love to be wrong. How many places in our City are disabled person friendly ? I can certainly answer that – NOT ENOUGH
As I have been working through the names on our war memorials, composing Milton Keynes Book Of Honour, I have been thinking of those who did not lose their lives but lost a hand or leg while serving King and Country. The area of our City was then a rural community; Coffee Hall was Coffee Hall Farm. Emmerson Farm, Valley Farm today Emmerson Valley. Cities like Birmingham created special jobs for disabled servicemen, what jobs could be created for these persons on farms ? I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and speak with them, invite them to tell me their stories.
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