03 December 2009

December 3rd = International Day of Disabled People

At the conclusion of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons (1983-1992), the General Assembly, on 14 October 1992, proclaimed 3 December as the International Day of Disabled Persons (resolution 47/3). The Decade had been a period of raising awareness and enacting measures to improve the situation of persons with disabilities and to provide them with equal opportunities. Subsequently, the Assembly appealed to Member States to highlight the observance of the International Day in order to further integrate people with disabilities into society (resolution 47/88).

(From United Nations Conferences and Observances)

Yeah, OK, so then the UN renamed it the medical modelised International Day of Persons with Disabilities a year or two ago. So I'm starting off by posting the link to my fave guide to disability language.

Yes, I'm aware that American English speakers generally prefer "person first" language, but that doesn't make the term "persons with disabilities" any less medicalised/individualised in origin.

Person with disability = the person has something wrong with them, it's their body that prevents them from being equals.

Disabled person = person is disabled by barriers (social, architectural, environmental, etc) preventing them from living an equal life.

You know how when you switch off the wireless connection on your computer it says "wireless network connection has been disabled"? That means that someone has switched off the connection, it has been prevented from functioning. "Disabled people" has the same implication; we have been prevented from functioning. When you switch your wireless network back on it says "wireless network connection has been enabled," it has been allowed to function again.

"Disabled" has nothing to do with "less able" like most American English speakers seem to think (and apparently the UN too). When your wireless network has been switched off, has it become broken or less capable? No. It's just switched off. Enable it and it'll work fine again.

I'm a person with an impairment. I am disabled by steps, stairs, escalators, lack of computer access, inaccessible housing, and so on. To me a flight of stairs without a lift as an alternative is the equivalent of right-clicking me and selecting "disable Lisa." I'm not disabled by my osteogenesis imperfecta.

In other news: The EHRC has used today to launch an inquiry into disablist harassment in the wake of the Pilkington murder/suicide.

And finally: Eddie Izzard tweeted that today it's exactly 1000 days until the 2012 Paralympics (even if he did spell "Paralympics" incorrectly). Also on Twitter there's the #intdayofdisabled hashtag. Update! Now there's a Twibbon too!

13 November 2009

Care consulation... the last post

The consultation on care ends today!

Makes sure you've signed http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/AttendanceA/.

To be eligible to sign you need to either be a British citizen (regardless of where in the world you live) or live in Britain (even if your nationality is not British).

Also, please make sure you've forwarded this on to *everyone* you know that's eligible to sign.

The government has claimed that DLA for under 65s is safe. But that still leaves 2 problems:

1) People like me being plunged into poverty and dependence because we've turned 65.

2) The crap wording of the green paper means they could change their minds about this and take DLA away from under 65s without going to consultation again.

Bear in mind that most over 65s develop an impairment of some kind so there's a very real possibility that this might affect YOU in the future.

08 September 2009

Save Our DLA: What now?

(This is a follow up to this post.)

If you've missed the Emails from Benefits and Work suggesting how to campaign to stop the government from taking Disability Living Allowance/Attendance Allowance out of the hands of disabled people, here are the three tasks:



If you're pressed for time and want to do just one quick thing that'll make an impact then this is it: The Number 10 petitions website reopened for business yesterday following the summer recess. A Save DLA/AA petition has been created: http://3.ly/saveDLA. Please sign and pass the link on to anyone and everyone you know. (The paragraph is italicised for emphasis as it's so important.)

Even if you don't get DLA/AA please sign the petition (as long as you're British). You never know if you'll need to in the future (and as most people acquire an impairment in old age, the chances that you'll need to claim AA are quite high). And even if you're not British you can pass the link on to anyone who is.

Finally the government are having a "Big Care Debate Roadshow" where you can go and tell the government exactly what you think about their plans to impoverish and remove independence from disabled people. For the tour dates see here.

16 August 2009

Oink?

Got up this morning (well, afternoon. It's Sunday and I was still stuck in a traffic jam at 00:30 last night/this morning) to find a text message from a friend I'd hung out with yesterday afternoon. She's got swine flu. Great. So I phoned NHS Direct for advice and the nurse I spoke to carried out an "assessment":

Her: Do you ache all over?

Me: I have Ostesogenesis Imperfecta.

Her: Do you have a blocked nose or difficulty breathing?

Me: I have severe chronic sinusitis.

Her: Are you fatigued?

Me: I take 4 times the standard daily adult dose of antihistamines so I'm always fatigued.

Her: Do you have a sore throat?

Me: I have a persistent sore throat from the Nasonex

Her: Do you have any muscle weakness?

Me: I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta.


And my favourite:

Her: Imagine the worst headache you could possibly have. Do you have that?

Me: I have severe chronic sinusitis. My normal headaches require morphine.


Hmm...

05 August 2009

Save our DLA

Below is copied and pasted what lilwatchergirl posted on a messageboard.

Benefits and Work sent me the following e-mail. They're looking for 1000 people to sign up before they start hardcore campaigning, in order that there are enough people on board to make a different. I think their campaign is massively important, given the serious threat to our DLA/AA and other benefits.

DLA was established, after years of research, because the costs of living as a disabled person in a barrier-filled world organized by and for non-disabled people were considered to be so high. The estimated costs of disability that came out of this research were far, far higher than what is actually now given to DLA claimants. It was also emphasised that DLA should not be means-tested, because the costs of disability are high whether a person is extremely poor or generally has enough to live on.

Yet the government is proposing either means-testing DLA and AA, or removing it altogether. Their proposal to put the money in the hands of local councils is TERRIFYING, especially to those of us who have experienced first-hand the way that council-funded care has been limited, cut and removed from a majority of disabled people. Councils would leave DLA claimants without enough money either to fund their care or to cover their disability-related costs. The end result of this could well be the death of the poorest disabled people. Do we want to live in a society where the richest are subsidised to the tune of millions (HBOS et al), while the poorest people with the highest costs are left without enough money to fund their care, to support their mobility needs or potentially even to eat?

Benefits and Work's e-mail, detailing their campaign, is copied below. They have 300 people signed up to the campaign so far. Help them get to 1000, and then we can start campaigning.

Ideas for smaller-scale campaigns to support this one could be thought up and discussed here, too...
________________________________________________________________

Claimants have just 100 days to prevent their DLA and AA being abolished.

A government green paper has revealed proposals to stop paying ‘disability benefits, for example, attendance allowance’’ and hand the cash over to social services instead.

Under the plan, current claimants would have their disability benefits converted to a ‘personal budget’ administered by local authorities and used to pay for services,– not to spend as they wish.

Once the green paper consultation period ends in 100 days time, if an almighty row has not been raised, it is likely that both major political parties will see the lack of outrage as a green light to end both DLA and AA.

We’re looking for a minimum of 1,000 claimants, carers and support workers to join our campaign to save these benefits from being abolished. Find out how you can take part from this link:

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/disability-living-allowance-(dla)/dla-aa-cuts

We know that many people will take false comfort from the fact that, unlike AA, DLA is not specifically named as being for the axe. But if the government was planning only to abolish AA it is extremely unlikely that they would refer constantly throughout the green paper to ‘'disability benefits'’, a term which includes not just AA but also DLA.

Others will dismiss this as just another idle discussion document and our concerns as scare mongering. But it’s much more than that.

36 meetings have already been organised around the country for people working in government and the caring professions to meet to be told about the setting up of a new National Care Service which would oversee the system. In addition, a stakeholders panel of more than 50 voluntary sector organisations, trades unions and academics has been established to offer advice to the government.

Some organisations and individuals, such as RNIB and welfare rights worker Neil Bateman writing for Community Care magazine, have already voiced their alarm.

But not every disability organisation is opposed to the proposals and some even agree with them.

In a press release, Disability Alliance has welcomed the publication of the green paper and said that it ‘looks forward to working alongside Government and all the other stakeholders in bringing these plans into fruition.’ They have even said that they agree that there is a case for ‘integrating disability benefits such as attendance allowance’ into the new system.

One thing everyone does seem to agree on is that huge cuts in public spending will have to take place in the next few years as a result of the credit crunch and global recession.

Political parties are desperately looking for the softest targets to be the victims of these cuts. Dismissing the green paper’s proposals as hot air and not worth worrying about could be the costliest mistake you ever make.

Find out more about the proposed abolition of DLA and AA and how you can join our campaign to fight back:

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/disability-living-allowance-(dla)/dla-aa-cuts


Please sign. Without my DLA I'd be practically housebound, unable to afford supermarket deliveries and would pretty much have no quality of life at all. Also bear in mind that most people develop some kind of impairment in old age; Attendance Allowance, a benefit for over 65s who need assistance, is currently the benefit at the top of the "at risk" list. So signing this petition isn't just for those who are currently claiming, signing up is an investment for your own future!

Links to people talking about the proposals:

Lilwatchergirl
Bendy Girl
Batsgirl
Neil Bateman (I feel like he should be "NeilBatemanGirl" as the other people I'm linking to about this all have "somethingGirl" as their moniker. I do not wish to imply Mr Bateman is in any way effeminate; I do not know him from Adam. Or Eve.)
Edited to add: Purple Noise (OK, another person without their handle being somethingGirl)
More from Lilwatchergirl

If tweeting on the subject please try and use the hashtag #saveDLA. The media takes a lot of notice of Twitter these days so it'd be awesome if we could make #saveDLA a trending topic. A shortened, easily Tweetable link to this post is available: http://short.ie/aws3bv

Edit Aug 7th: There is now a Facebook group protesting the planned DLA/AA axe. And from Nabil Shaban (yes, he was in Doctor Who):

"First they took away your "Home Helps"
Then they took your Incapacity Benefits
They they took the DLA Care, and Attendance Allowance.
Then they took away your Mobility Allowance, and Motability
Then they forced you back into institutions
And then offered you Assisted Suicide"


Edit September 8th: The Number 10 petitions website reopened for business yesterday following the summer recess. A Save DLA/AA petition has been created: http://3.ly/saveDLA. Please sign and pass the link on to anyone and everyone you know.

21 June 2009

Nice One, Guardian

In an apparent acknowledgement of criticism of a lack of vision at the heart of government, the prime minister said he had found it hard to focus on strategic planning


From Yesterday's Guardian.

In case you've been living under a rock for the last few years, Mr Brown does literally have a lack of vision: He's blind in one eye and severely visually impaired in the other.

31 May 2009

• Jeffrey Marshall, senior organiser for the BNP's London European election campaign. Following the death of David Cameron's disabled son Ivan, Marshall claimed in an internet forum discussion: "We live in a country today which is unhealthily dominated by an excess of sentimentality towards the weak and unproductive. No good will come of it."

Later, in response to comments made by others on the site, Marshall is alleged to have written: "There is not a great deal of point in keeping these people alive after all." He said the comments were private and some had been paraphrased and taken out of context. He admitted making the former comment, but said he could not recall making the latter one in an email to the forum, a copy of which is in the Observer's possession.


From today's Observer.

Oh I wish I could show this to the bitch in the chemist on Friday who said she would be voting BNP. She was a pensioner so not contributing to the economy anymore, thus I'm sure she'd fall into the group of people Marshall would like to see dead.

I'm sure Marshall would like to start by cutting off her free prescriptions in the hope that she'd die. Rather ironic considering I encountered her in a pharmacy.

A junkie in to collect her methadone tried to explain that the BNP are racist Nazis with the same political convictions as Hitler. To this the old bag said "at least they're all English." (As a friend of mine pointed out: They're not all English. They're the British National Party, so some members are going to be Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish.)


If I were the (Turkish) pharmacist I'd have banned the cow from my shop at that point. I wonder where this woman is planning on collecting her free prescriptions when her local pharmacist has been sent back to Turkey? And the next pharmacist down the road has been sent back to India? And there are no trained, qualified "English" people to take their places?

Edited to add: I've just learned this today (June 13th); Nick Griffin is one of us! He has a false left eye. I wonder if Marshall wants to drag him off to a concentration camp too?

03 May 2009

BADD 09

I still haven't written a post for Blogging Against Disablism Day 2009 for 2 reasons:

  1. My disablist cat. Last week I was staying at my dad's. I had to come home on Thursday in order to go to Cine-Excess III on Friday. So when I decided it was time to put the cat in her carry box she disappeared. For 5 hours. I spent a good 90% of that time walking around looking for her. As everyone who knows me knows I can barely stand for 5 minutes without pain, so after standing for 5 hours 3 days ago my legs are still killing me. (I eventually found the cat inside the sofa.)

  2. My disablist computer. The bones in my arms are funny shapes because of my osteogenesis imperfecta, so the muscles in my arms are in funny positions. This has made my arms incredibly vulnerable to RSI. So for typing anything substantial I need to use speech-to-text software. My computer decided it wasn't powerful enough to run Dragon's NaturallySpeaking so had to go to computer hospital for a RAM upgrade. It's still there.


Hopefully I should get my computer back around Wednesday. So in the meantime here are my 2 favourite posts, both exploring disablism in film and TV:


ETA: I won't be getting my computer back until Monday, so by then I think the BADD sailboat for 09 will be well and truly passed. I was going to write something about disability in the media, but I think Sweet Perdition and Trouble is Everywhere did better than I could (at least while I'm on painkillers for my foot that make me forget what I was saying whilst in the middle of saying it). So instead I'll just direct you back to my post about how I think Susan Boyle was a victim of disablism when she appeared on Britain's Got Talent and my post on #amazonfail; specifically "edited to add"s 3 and 4 in which I talk about how the press completely failed to acknowledge that disability titles were affected too.

19 April 2009

Word of the Day

Disdar - The ability to recognise fellow disabled people, even if their impairment is not obvious (like gaydar, but for disableds).

18 April 2009

Susan Boyle

She became instantly famous last Saturday because of her audition for Britain's Got Talent. As soon as the program aired I started reading mentions of her online, but it wasn't until Tuesday that I actually watched the YouTube vid to see what all the fuss was about.

As soon as she started talking I thought "she seems to be slightly learning disabled." I suspect that the majority of the audience, not being as disability aware as me, thought that she was just stupid:

Stupid for appearing on national television in an unflattering dress.

Stupid for appearing on national television without running a bit of Frizz Ease through her fuzzy hair.

Stupid for appearing on national television with unplucked eyebrows. Surely everyone's heard of tweezers and noticed that everyone on telly has skinny eyebrows? She must be stupid to have not noticed that.

Stupid to think that she's sexy enough to flirt with the judges.

Tanya Gold wrote in The Guardian about how Susan was a victim of 'uglyism' until she burst into song. I think she was a victim of a different ism - disablism.

It wouldn't matter if Susan's IQ was less than 70 (the typical criteria for a "learning disabled" label) or over 170... she appeared to be learning disabled, and the audience both those present and watching at home, judged her on that appearance and started discriminating accordingly.

In Yesterday's Hate Mail she "came out" as learning disabled (I don't read it, I promise. Someone pointed the link out on a disability messageboard):

She had suffered mild brain damage after being starved of oxygen at birth.

Recalling her childhood, she said earlier this week: 'I was born with a disability and that made me a target for bullies.'


Rather entertainingly that article also says "Her rather wild hairdo and bushy eyebrows have led her to be dubbed the 'hairy angel' in some quarters." - It was their paper that gave her that name!

There's a global assumption that disabled people can't have any talent for anything; and so the audience having given her the label of stupid assumed that there was no possible way she could actually be a good singer. Surely if she's too stupid to know how one should appear on TV she must be so stupid that she thinks she's got a talent even though she can't have?

And so they laughed.

Then she sang. The laughter stopped.

Suddenly everything turned round, instead of laughing at her, the audience applauded along with her.

But this applause was of course also the result of a disablist belief system. The world has such low expectations of us that when we turn out to be capable of doing something that warrants far more praise than if a non-disabled person had the same skill.

I thought Susan's performance was great, I think it's great that a disabled person has shot to fame for being talented. I think it's great that a disabled person is now admired by the disablists that were bullying her only 2 weeks ago.

I have to wonder though, would she be the global phenomenon she is if her learning impairment hadn't been so apparent during the pre-audition interview?

13 April 2009

#amazonfail

So... the internet, especially Twitter, is all a buzz with the news that Amazon has removed the sales rank from all lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender titles. What this means is that gay books are now excluded from showing up in bestseller lists, and turn up down the bottom of search lists (if at all).

But what hardly anyone is talking about (yet) is that books to do with disability and sexuality have had their rank stripped too.

Books like Tom Shakespeare et al's sociology text book "The Sexual Politics of Disability". "The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability" has also been de-ranked.

The story is starting to crop up in news articles all over the world, and most articles are citing Twitter. There have also been petitions set up protesting against Amazon's effective censorship of LGBT titles. But none of these mention that us crips are getting censored too.

If you tweet, do mention something about Amazon de-ranking books on disability and sexuality also. And make sure you use the hashtag "#amazonfail"

ETA: This of course isn't the only recent disability-related Amazon fail: http://is.gd/qC8W

ETA2: This blog post explains the importance of literature on disability and sexuality. There's also another blog post on the issue here.

ETA3: Disabled people seem to be taking a double whammy in this whole thing. First our books get de-ranked. And then the mainstream press fails to acknowledge us when writing about this. It doesn't matter if it's a glitch, a new policy, or a hack - the press should be representing us.

ETA4: Amazon have apologised and said "that the de-ranking was not limited to gay and lesbian titles.... In fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as health, mind and body, reproductive and sexual medicine." Hmmm. "Health and mind and body" - their way of saying "disability" and trying to reassure LGBT customers that it wasn't just us (I say "us" wearing my lesbian hat. And I do actually have a hat that apparently makes me look very dykey). What the press still aren't picking up on was that, yes, it wasn't just LGBT titles, it was disability titles too. I even Emailed The Guardian and asked them to even give a sentence to the fact that it affected disability titles too. They haven't.

09 April 2009

Extra Crippy

You know it's gonna be a strange day when you've been patronised by 9:15 a.m. I'm not usually even awake by 9:15 a.m.

I hurt my foot four months ago. I can't pinpoint exactly when because I was painkillered up to the gills because of the post-op pain in my face. All I noticed was that it started hurting some time during the nine days my mum was in hospital between her heart attack and her death.

The delay in receiving medical attention for it was slightly my fault. I've got osteogenesis imperfecta, so if I went to see a doctor every time something ached or hurt I'd never leave my doctor's. But after two months of pain I figured it was probably worth mentioning the next time I saw my GP.

He immediately referred me to orthopaedics, but I didn't get an appointment for another two months. In the interim period I wound up in A&E one night when I found I could no longer move my foot. All they could really say was "you need to see an orthopod," but my A&E adventure in the snow did nothing to bring the appointment date forward.

So that brought me to today. I arrived at the clinic reception and the receptionist, who had been talking at a normal speed until she clocked me, s-t-a-r-t-e-d t-a-l-k-i-n-g r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I spent the next half an hour compulsively checking Twitter on my phone and wishing that I'd ducked into Euston on my way there to pick up a copy of Metro. A hospital waiting room without any crap out of date magazines? Outrageous! And very very boring.

The first doctor I saw did not inspire me with confidence. He pronounced it "osteogenica imperfecta." Twice. Did I mention that he's supposed to be a bone specialist?

Establishing that I'm more knowledgeable and qualified than the doctor is not good.

He then proceeded to demonstrate his ignorance further by attempting to ask me about how I predominantly get around.

"In the average day how much time do you spend mobile and how much time do you spend in your wheelchair?"

"I'm actually very mobile in my wheelchair. I can push for miles."

"I mean, how much time do you spend mobilising without your wheelchair?"

"I don't do much mobilising without my wheelchair. I spend most of my time without it either sitting on the sofa or on my desk chair."

"Okay, in the average day you spend eight hours sleep. How do you split the rest of your time between immobilised in your chair, and mobilised walking?"

This circular conversation went round for a while until I let it slip that my flat isn't wheelchair accessible. I did remind him that most of my time awake and in my flat is spent either sat on the sofa or the chair, but he didn't think that laying on the sofa moving nothing but your thumb to operate the remote control is immobile, because at least it's not in a wheelchair.

He then decided to examine my foot. This was where he demonstrated that there is potentially a proper orthopod in there somewhere - he poked my foot till I screamed. I don't know why x-rays and the words "it hurts there," are never enough for an orthopod; they have to prod until you yelp.

He went to "look at my x-rays" leaving me alone in a room for a good 10 minutes with someone else's medical notes on the side. And people are concerned that computerised notes are going to lead to confidentiality breaches (I didn't look at the notes, I'm not an arsehole).

He came back with The Boss, they'd both looked at my x-rays together. The first thing The Boss asked me to do was stand up, so he could check out my flat-footedness. He then asked the first doctor "did you check that?"

"No."

"You should have done."

Then The Boss turned to me "have you always been that flat-footed?"

Which of course I have. He then also proceeded to jab the bit that I said hurt with his thumb and gave me a diagnosis; I've ripped the tendon out of the end of a bone in my foot, and yanked a lump of bone off with it. It's actually an injury I've had before, only last time it was a finger where my hand collided with the foot of a breaststroker in the neighbouring lane in the pool.

The Boss decided that I need an Aircast boot to support my foot while walking for the next few months. He wants me to come back in two months (presumably so he can poke it again) and then for me to have orthotics in my shoes to correct my super flat-footedness.

So then The Boss left leaving me with first doctor again. He walked with me out to reception, handed me a piece of paper, and told me to take it to the orthotics department. I looked at the piece of paper and asked "are you sure this is the right paper to take orthotics?"

The paper clearly said "Patients: hand this paper into reception before you leave." It also had a "next appointment" box in which the doctor had hand written "two months". It said nothing about an Aircast boot, which I figured was kinda what orthotics needed to know.

"Yes, take that down to orthotics."

"Are you sure this is the right paper to take orthotics?"

"Yes, take this down orthotics reception and they'll sort you out."

"Are you sure this is the right paper to take to orthotics?"

"Yes."

"Okay then."

Then the receptionist put on her slow voice and called me over. She handed me a paper and told me to take that to orthotics.

"But he [pointing] told me to take this [handing over paper] down to orthotics."

"No, you're supposed to hand that in here."

"That's what I thought."

At which point First Doctor came over and started getting all defensive about the fact that he was wrong. During his defensiveness I pointed out to the receptionist that someone had spilt sugar all over the counter. For some reason this observation convinced her that I was intelligent enough to be spoken to at a normal speed.

Anyway, the receptionist sorted me out with right bits of paper, and pointed me in the direction of orthotics (because the doctor didn't know where it was). So I headed down into the bowels of the building. Why is it that orthotics departments are always underground? They gave me the splint I'd been prescribed and sent me back up to the clinic to get the splint "fitted" by a nurse.

The nurse was actually really nice and friendly, she showed me how to put it on properly and inflate it. I tried standing up in it and said "erm, it's supposed to support my flat-footedness, but I can still feel my foot rolling over inside it." I took it off to show her how the boot is designed for either foot, so it's got no arch support.

She immediately understood the problem and said "I'll get the doctor."

So who did she bring back? You've guessed it, First Doctor. "You need to try it for a couple of months to see if it helps."

"I don't need to try it for a couple of months, because just standing for a few seconds I can tell that it's not providing the support it needs to." Another circular conversation ensued, with him getting progressively more and more, erm, I think "assertive" is the most appropriate word. The more wound up he got, the quieter and calmer I spoke. I think most patients would have been intimidated into leaving with a piece of inadequate equipment, but that's just not me.

Eventually I finally got through to him when I said "have you ever tried on a pair of shoes in a shop and not bought them because you could tell just from standing in them for a few seconds that they were way too big?" So he went to phone orthotics to ask for advice. He was gone for ages leaving me with just Twitter on my phone for company. Eventually he came back with a sheet of sticky backed padding to make an arch support for the inside of the boot. I thought I'd achieved success until:

I tried walking in it.

Thankfully there was a desk within reach for me to grab hold of so I didn't go splat on the floor. "I'm gonna need a crutch or something."

More drama. I was sent back and forth three times between the clinic and the basement before someone finally located a midget sized crutch in the hydrotherapy pool changing room. It's unbelievable, kids break things and need to be given crutches all the time, so how can it be so hard to find some kiddie-sized crutches in a fucking hospital?

During one of my trips down to the basement in my crutch-hunt I asked the (American) orthotist if there was a toilet nearby.

"There's a handicapped bathroom just there on the right. Erm, I mean left."

1) Handicapped?

2) An orthotist that can't tell left from right is a bit worrying. You could end up with a completely incorrect body part splinted.

Anyway, the crutch thing. Of course in an ideal world I wouldn't need a crutch because my flat would be wheelchair accessible so I could use my chair indoors. But the wait for an accessible property was years anyway, and that wait is gonna be even longer now that disabled servicemen and women will take priority for accessible housing over all other disabled people.

So anyway, I finally had my boot with a rigged up arch support and a crutch to lean on. I got to go home!

As I was pushing past Euston station on my way back to the flat, I passed a group of four police officers talking to a group of three people. To carry on pushing I needed to cross the road by one of the service entrances into the station, but the police had blocked the dropped kerb with their car.

"Excuse me, is this your car?" (A bit of a stupid question, but it's what fell out of my mouth.) "Can you move it away from the dropped kerb so I can cross please?"

They didn't kill me, so it's all good.

When I got home I discovered that when I was in the hospital asking for a crutch that my flat had become much bigger in my imagination than it actually is. I got in, leant the thing against the sofa, and haven't touched it since. My flat is so small that wherever I am I can always reach either a wall or a piece of furniture to hang on to. So all that travelling back and forwards hunting for a Lisy sized crutch was for nothing.

This thing is a bitch to walk in. I can only walk really slowly anyway, but this has reduced me to about one third of my normal walking speed. Though I seem to have cracked it, the fastest, safest, and easiest way to walk in this thing is sideways like a crab.

Now excuse me while I scuttle crustacean stylee to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

Update Friday 6 pm: I've given up on the boot. It was pressing/rubbing on my heel, and causing that to hurt more than the pain at the injury site!

28 January 2009

Twitter

In case anyone feels like following me on the increasingly popular site, my Twitter page is: http://twitter.com/lisybabe.

20 January 2009

Happy Obama Day

So, like everyone else in the world I was watching the inauguration this afternoon. I saw one of the reporters interview an elderly black woman from Alabama. She was of an age to have lived through racial segregation.

She basically said (I'm paraphrasing only slightly) "We had to go to separate schools where the teaching was inadequate, sit in a separate part of the bus, use separate bathrooms...."

Anyone realise that sounds a bit familiar? Disabled children STILL get sent to separate schools with inadequate teaching. Mobility impaired people have only recently got the opportunity to be allowed on the bus at all, we're still at the point of being grateful for the opportunity to sit in a designated part of the bus. Our bathrooms are always separate too.