Wednesday 12 March 2008

The Emotions of Being Disabled in South Shields

I like South Shields! It has a beautiful beach and long level promenade and pier, which for a wheelchair user like me is ideal. Much of the town is fairly flat too, as you move from the seafront towards the town centre. For other less mobile visitors, there is an excellent ShopMobility service, where you can hire scooters and much more besides.

Yesterday, I went for a “saunter” to South Shields and I was emotionally disturbed by my visit!

I travelled by Metro and set off along Ocean Road, which earns its fame from its numerous restaurants.

One of the things that emotionally affects disabled people, and not necessarily just wheelchair users, is “can you access a building”?

If it’s a restaurant and you may be staying there for couple of hours, “does it have suitably accessible toilet facilities?”

I counted eighteen restaurants in total on Ocean Road. Amongst these were thirteen Indian restaurants, two Italian as well as Colman’s famous Fish and Chip restaurant. They’ve been in the news recently after being invited to serve their award winning fish and chips at a party at the British Embassy in Guatemala to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. This was the only place open, so I stopped to enjoy a delicious plate of fish and chips and received excellent service.

Of those eighteen restaurants, only four had level or ramped access, while another three, including Colman’s, had a small step which was manageable for me.

How many had an accessible toilet? I don’t know! Sadly, Colman’s didn’t. While everyone displayed menus in the windows along with signs advising that you couldn’t smoke there (as if anyone didn’t know by now) not a single one displayed a sign advising that they had a wheelchair accessible toilet!

It really disappoints me that well over 3 years since the Disability Discrimination Act required that all premises must make alterations to enable disabled people to access their premises, and be able to use facilities like toilets, if provided for non-disabled people, such a high percentage don’t appear to be falling in line with this legislation.

This issue is widespread throughout the country, not just in South Shields, and I am emotionally disturbed by this general lack of concern and consideration for millions of disabled people.

It’s very reasonable to say that my “feelings were hurt”, which, according to the DDA, means I could sue each of the restaurants. But we all know that’s not realistic, which is why many businesses ignore their legal obligations.

In my opinion, they’re all missing a trick. Having said that South Shields is a great place for wheelchair users, any one of those restaurants advising that they had a wheelchair accessible toilet would have had my business, and no doubt many others, too.

Being accessible is commercially beneficial, and if anyone wants my help to show them how they can make improvements and promote themselves, I’d be delighted to hear from them via steve@wheelchairsteve.com.

I’d also like to hear from other disabled people about how they are emotionally affected when they encounter inaccessible places, as one day I would like to write a book called “The Emotions of Being Disabled”.

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