A Disabled Sassanach in Scotland Pt 2

Following on from my last blog, on our second day in Glasgow after I met Rosie from Enable Scotland and returned to Milngavie to prepare for Oban, I realised I had dropped an almighty clanger. I had prepared 2 weeks worth of medication in dosette boxes but had only travelled with 1 weeks worth, so at this point I would like to thank the wonderful people of the Kersland House Surgery in Milngavie for getting me out of that particular mess by issuing me with an emergency prescription with absolutely no fuss whatsoever.

Next day we travelled by train to Oban for a friends wedding. My wife had booked the tickets online and the route the website had given us seemed somewhat contrived. It was Milngavie to Westerton, Westerton to Dalmuir, Dalmuir to Oban. This is where the local knowledge of my in-laws came in useful. Westerton station had no lift that we were aware and a footbridge. No good for me. So with a bit of planning my mother in law offered to drive us to Dalmuir station and would pick us up from there on our return, thus taking Westerton out of the route completely. Brilliant (thanks Penny).

So we arrived at Dalmuir station, which also had a footbridge but had working lifts and looked pretty accessible for all disabilities that I could tell, although I was there to catch a train not do an audit. Anyway we were early for our train so I decided to have a look at the public amenities and make use of them if possible, a place is only as good as its accessible toilets. To my horror the station didn't have an accessible toilet, but it wasn't the equality issue I thought it was as they didn't have any public toilets at all!! I doff my cap to the people of Dalmuir that the station didn't smell the way I would expect a train station with no toilets to smell. I crossed my legs and prayed to the bladder Gods that I would be able to hold on until our train came.

We passed the time by checking our itinerary. We noted with interest beside the notes of the train we were about to catch 'no reservation necessary'. When the train pulled in we boarded with the luggage and our little un in the buggy to see an extremely busy train... many seats with reservation tickets on them. I was not happy. I hate having to rely on the goodwill of strangers, however we were not short of offers of assistance from the good people of Scotland (thank you good people of Scotland), and we were seated. Then I gave thanks to the bladder Gods when I found a vacant toilet.

Although the journey had started badly as we felt we had been mislead, I have to say the journey continued with about 3 hours of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever come across. The further north we went the more beautiful it seemed to become. If we weren't so crowded on the train I would have taken a picture but I couldn't reach my camera. Sadly my 23 month old wasn't interested in the scenery and instead concentrated on angling herself in the cramped conditions so she could colour in Peppa Pig in her book.

On arrival in Oban, the taxi we had pre-arranged was waiting there for us, which was a blessing. Once we were settled in we were treated to another 30 minutes of breathtaking scenery. Although I did notice that there was a lack of amenities.

We arrived at The Loch Melfort Hotel (home for the next 3 days and the venue of our friends wedding). I noticed 2 steps up into the front entrance. We weren't impressed as we had told them when we made the booking that we were both disabled and had a toddler with us and no mention was made of this. We struggled in and went to the reception desk. This is where we were told our room was upstairs and there was no lift .... erm 2 disabled guests with a toddler!!!

A young member of staff helped us upstairs with our luggage and the buggy, but I wasn't impressed, you can have all the stunning scenery you like but when we tell you we're disabled you should take this into consideration. Its all very well helping us upstairs, but how the hell do we get out once we're here??

Once in the room, which was quite pleasant without being outstanding, we were treated to a smashing view of the coast and the grounds. We began to read the hotel information in the binder they had put in the room.

The hotel is very proud of it's restaurant which has 2 AA rosettes and my wife asked me if they were like Michelin stars. I was in a bit of a mood so said I didn't care, her little Peugeot had 4 Michelin tyres but it didn't make it a Ferrari. She read out the dinner dress code ...'no blue jeans'. I looked at what had been packed clothes wise and wondered if they would mind me wearing my blue jeans if they knew the alternative was eating in my boxers. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind places trying to maintain standards but if they told you about this before you arrived you can prepare. Anyway by luck, as well as my suit trousers (for the wedding), I had a pair of black jeans: they would have to do.

I was still in a mood so my wife took our daughter out to find her something to eat, it was almost her bedtime (my daughter not my wife). I lay on the bed to see what was on TV, all 4 channels of it....oh dear...no Channel 5 which meant no Milkshake! which meant no Peppa Pig, nor did we have Cbeebies, which meant no In The Night Garden and no Timmy Time. My mood didn't improve.

I must have fallen asleep as I was awoken by wife and daughter coming back into the room. The staff at the bistro had made my daughter a sandwich, even though they weren't officially open. My mood improved at that news, maybe this wasn't going to be so bad. I went into the bathroom and noticed we had a bidet, then realised what I thought was a bidet was actually our bath. Well that brought me down again, I was never going to get in there, no shower either... oh well it would have to 'gentlemens washes', just like it was in the days immediately after my stroke. We continued to make the best of it, although I was still holding a grudge, however everything was made worse when my wife hurt her back climbing the stairs with our daughter. This is what happens when hotels don't properly take into account the needs of disabled guests, and of course there was no nearby chemist to get painkillers.

We had a chat about things and decided this was costing us a fortune so we decided to make the best of it, and besides, it was for our friends wedding.

When we went down for our evening meal (trying not to damage the expensive looking portraits on the staircase as I hobbled down), we were caught out by the procedure they had, which was go into the lounge half an hour before eating and choose your menu then you will be led through to the dining room. This might be normal in such establishments, I don't usually move in these circles but the formality of it all was enough to put me off my foi grois.

Anyway I'll not bore you any more, needless to say things didn't improve, but they didn't get worse. And quite rightly we had reservations on our return journey from Oban so the journey was infinitely more pleasant.

Next I shall tell you of the journey from Glasgow to Bristol in the final part of this story.

A Disabled Sassanach in Scotland

Recently I had the pleasure of returning to my favourite city in the world, Glasgow in Scotland. I had the good fortune and judgement to marry a fine upstanding Glaswegian lassie so she was just as happy to return to her home city for a few days and take our daughter to see her grandparents.

Although I have been to Glasgow numerous times, this time was different for two reasons in particular: firstly we would be travelling to Oban for the bank holiday weekend to attend a friends wedding, and secondly because this was my first trip of this magnitude as a disabled traveller.

The first leg (other than my friend driving us to the airport) was from Bristol to Glasgow, using the much maligned Easyjet. Before I go on I know that some people have issues with domestic flights but with two disabled parents and a child under two years old travelling I really couldn't think of a more practical way.

Anyway I digress. the check in clerk asked if I would like the Ambi-lift to board the plane, it was very nice not to have to ask, and they explained clearly what I had to do and my wife and daughter could travel on the ambi-lift with me which cut out an awful lot of stress for us all.

Next was the good old security checks. Now I have never been through the bleeping doorway without being frisked, I must just have one of those faces. Now I had to put my walking crutch through the scanning machine which left me delicately and slowly walking through the doorway unaided, wasn't too happy about that. Then I was asked to remove my shoes without being offered a chair, nor had my walking crutch been offered back to me when it had gone through the scanner. I wasn't happy about that either. I know these guys have an important job to do but it shouldn't be forgotten that most travellers are just regular people trying to go about their everyday business, and I am happy to comply with their requests when my disability is taken into some kind of recognition.

Anyway we finally got through that after a struggle, it was then down to trying to keep my daughter away from all the Peppa Pig merchandise the shops insist on putting at toddler eye level. Sadly for my wallet she was walking on my left side (my weak side) so was unable to prevent her from picking up a Peppa Pig colouring book and In The Night Garden jigsaw. Oh well!!

Next after my darling daughter had finished throwing a jigsaw piece of Iggle Piggle at her Daddy, our flight was called so we went to the Special Assistance Desk and they knew who we were so all started well. Unfortunately we were called to Gate 7 but the ambi-lift was at Gate 1 because it wouldn't fit under the awning of the building, so I ended up having to hobble as quickly as I could past 5 gates to keep up with a sprinting assistant pushing an older gentleman in a wheelchair. I wish they had thought this through properly. However with our little one's buggy, once we were at the ambi-lift it did make boarding much much easier and the first row of seats had been reserved for us with walking difficulties.

The flight was thankfully pretty eventless, this was the first time I had flown since my stroke so was a bit nervous, and when I say it was eventless we were travelling with a bored toddler so I am speaking relatively.

When we arrived in Glasgow the ambi-lift had a wheelchair in it for me, and after my experience at Bristol I was going to take advantage of it's availability. The guy pushing my chair was very chatty and friendly and I almost made out every word through his broad Glaswegian accent, but again he was flying along with his pace and my Mrs: pushing the little one in a buggy really struggled to keep up with us.

Once that was all done, it was off to my in laws in the lovely suburb of Milngavie where unfortunately they live at the top of a very steep hill and the public transport options started and ended at the bottom of said steep hill....oh well. My in laws had made me up a bedroom downstairs which was very nice, they even put cable TV in there for me (not 24hr Vince Cable channel I hasten to add).

The following day I ventured down the hill (hither to known as The Precipice) to the train station. My decent was rather speedier than I was comfortable with and not very controlled but I did manage to keep my feet just about. I travelled into the centre of Glasgow to meet a delightful young lady called Rosie from Enable Scotland. We shared a very nice lunch in a city centre public house where no alcohol was consumed, the nearest we had was ginger beer. I learned a lot from Rosie about the local disability issues, and I have to say the train journey from Milngavie to Glasgow was pretty accessible for me, not sure how it would have worked had I been using a wheelchair though.

In the next few days I shall tell you of our trip to Oban and our return to Bristol as I don't want to bore you all, but in the meantime, please feel free to comment with your own experiences of travelling as, or with a disabled person.

Music To Our Ears

Is there anybody in the world who doesn't like music? Tastes and genres go in and out of fashion but pretty much everybody I have come across in a 20 year career has an opinion on music. I enjoy music so much I had a part time career wth my mobile disco for a while and have now combined music with my work supporting people with disabilities when I became a director of Music Alive, a small Wiltshire based charity. During my work it quickly became apparent to me that people with learning disabilities don't actually get to listen to the music they choose. For those that have communication difficulties linked to their disability it's even more apparent.

I have lost count of the times when we have asked carers and support workers what the person with disabilities likes to listen to and we got the answer, 'anything really'.

We have recently run a small scale project with 23 people with learning disabilities with their support workers and carers where the person with disabilties dictated the music that was listened to for an hour. Based on our initial assessments of these 23 people the main music choices would appear to be ABBA, Michael Jackson or the aforementoned , anything answer.

Thanks to the music knowledge and communication skills of Richard, the session leader, we were able to demonstarted that the people with learning disabilities who took part in the project have as wide ranging, eclectic and diverse music tastes as the general population. One extreme case that always raises a smile with me was the gentleman who I will call Gary. Gary lives in supported housing in a house with three other residents all of whom receive 24 hour supervision. He is unable to communicate verbally but will rock in his wheelchair and bite and suck his arm when excited or agitated. He demonstrated this behaviour when he first entered the music room, which was a new room for him so his response was understandable. His support worker said when he gets agitated and has potential to self harm with bites to his arm he was played whale and dolphin sounds to help settle him down so Richard started with that with little or no response.

Richard managed to communicate with Gary using flashcards that he had made up specifically for these sessions and by the end of the session had established that one of gary's favourite tunes was Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. This is in no way disrespectful to the support workers who had put some thought into the music played to Gary as a lot of people do enjoy listening to whale and dolphin sounds to relax, but it did nothing for Gary during his session with Richard and was able to choose songs himself. The support workers have now taken this new information and incorporated it into Gary's care plan.

Now I know 23 people is hardly conclusive, but there is definitely room for further investigation here.

It certainly got me thinking about how music can be used to further enhance the lives of people with learning disabilities. Maybe informally educating people in numeracy (counting rhythms), literacy (using notes and chords to recognise letters). Could we use music to teach people with learniing disabilties about the world around them, or current affairs? Here's a thought; in the news this week a major story has been the airspace in much of northern Europe closed due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Now many learning disabled people may not have understood this story and its meaning, however by using as an example tunes like Airport by The Motors and Ashes to Ashes by David Bowie, would this make the story more understandable. My hypothesis is that it would.

Regardless of whether music can be used in this way it is certainly there to be enjoyed by everybody, disabled and non-disabled people alike.

Did Frankie Boyle cross the Line from cutting edge humour into disability abuse?

Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle upset the parents of a 5 year old girl with Downs Syndrome at his live show in Reading this week. Now I wasn't at the show so am relying on my knowledge of Frankie Boyle's humour and the reports made by Sharon Smith, the offended mother as she spoke to Victoria Derbyshire on Radio 5Live to examine what caused offence and why.

Frankie Boyle apparently made fun of the parents of children with Downs as being old and out of touch. Surely this a comedic dig at parents rather than the disabled child?

He made fun of the way people with Downs speak. Is this any different from comedians using generic accents to contextualise humour, for instance Michael McIntyre using pigeon English as an interpretation of Robert Mugabe on an episode of Mock The week, the programme that made Frankie Boyle's name?

He made references to people with Downs dying early, which isn't necessarily true but he has made similar jokes about the life expectancy of people from his home city, Glasgow.

He made jokes about people with Downs haircuts. Now over the years I have worked with several people with Downs Syndrome and each and everyone of them has commented on my lack of hair and I have shared a joke with them on their hair in good natured fun. Now the context may be different but my interactions their could be construed as either me mocking them and being abusive, or sharing humour in a two way communication to develop and maintain a therapeutic relationship. The context is different, true, as Mr Boyle is basically performing a monologue but then people aren't paying to watch me on stage talk with a dsabled person.

As a parent myself, I fully understand Mrs Smith's feelings towards his routine that referred to something affecting her child, and I may have felt the same way and felt the need to defend my child, however I have to take issue with a further comment she made in her interview. and I quote;

"We had obviously heard him making fun of other people, but quite often his humour appears to be clever humour or making a point about something.

"OK, he can be cutting, but he will often be using his humour to make a point, whereas the type of jokes he was making about people with Down's syndrome I don't see there was any point being made."

The first paragraph gives me reason to believe she has laughed at his jokes aimed at the Scottish, old people, royalty etc, but its not okay when its something that affects her and her family. In the second paragraph she refers to the nature of Frankie Boyle's performances and his cutting humour making a point or being clever. I have to say I thought it was funny but not particularly clever or thought provoking when he made a joke (again on Mock The Week) about the Queen being so old her vagina is haunted. Taking her own words into account I find it difficult to accept her taking the moral high ground.

It was unfortunate that Frankie Boyle picked up on Mr and Mrs Smith's discomfort about the routine when he thought they were talking and texting during his performance, and followed it up and putting himself and Mr and Mrs Smith in an embarrassing situation. Mrs Smith continued;

"He then went on to say that it was the most excruciating moment of his career but then tried to claw the humour back by saying we had paid to come and see him and what should we expect?"

This would indicate to me that he acknowledged that he had put himself and members of his audience in an embarrassing position, and of course he tried to pull the humour back, he is a professional comedian its what he is paid to do.

While I appreciate that Mrs Smith tried not to draw attention to herself during the performance, the fact that she has since seen fit to go to the press about it for what I see as an unfortunate incident again doesn't really sit right with me.

I will sign off with one more comment regarding this incident. All of us working with disabled people work tirelessly for an equal society, Frankie Boyle pokes fun at everybody in society, if he pokes fun at everybody but disabled people, is he treating them equally?

Think Through National Insurance Increases

Now I have no particular political axe to grind but I have something to say about the proposed increase in National Insurance to come in April 2011 under the current Labour government. Several big businesses have come out against this plan as it will hit employment, which is true, the more employees you have the more National Insurance Employer contributions you pay. Many employees (but not all) are unaware that their employer pays a NI contribution as well as the chunk that is taken from their wage as an employee.

Lord Mandelson has said that businesses have been 'victims of a cynical deception' by the opposition. I don't know or really care that much if this is true or not because I feel more salient points are being missed here in all the big business talk.

There are thousands of us out there who work in the public and voluntary sectors for whom the story of proposed National Insurance increases is very different but no less damaging. The key component of this damage is that National Insurance is not based on profit and as public and voluntary organisations usually do not make a profit, they cannot increase trade to absorb the increase. So what does this mean?

Well for public sector employers this would mean to keep the same number of employees, there would be a likely increase in Council Tax to maintain current service levels, without that there is likely to be a dramatic cut in service provision in the public sector, with as usual; health and social care bearng the brunt.

For people like me, the director of a small independant charity employing 6 people the affects could be devastating. With charitable funding becoming harder and harder to find as the country recovers how on earth am I going to find the extra money to pay higher National Insurance contributions for my employees. Yet this seems to have been forgotten about.

This is far from a party political blog for the Conservative Party as their record with health and social care provision is hardly glowing, but what it is is a plea to review this proposition and stop just looking at business. Listen out for the quieter voice of us social entrepreneurs who don't make profit, but provide extremely good value for money providing professional service at grassroots level direct to those that really need it, on the shoestring budgets