The First British Freak Show
I couldn’t blog on Friday about the BAFTAs’ open and publicised rejection of the documentary on DisAbility, The Last American Freak Show. One major reason for this was that when I first read the story, I felt like crying. Here’s the story:
A truly DisAbled director, Richard Butchins, made a film about six truly DisAbled people who tour America with a carnival and are proud to be freaks. And so they should be, because as any DisAbled person will tell you, they’re not freaks at all!
Here’s the problem: BAFTA have accused the documentary of being too explicit, raising too many questions and being too demanding for the event in question. This seems hilarious, especially since the ‘event in question’ is a disability film festival! I thought such events were a chance to celebrate real DisAbility. Obviously not. This just proves the point that there is a very long way to go in the fight for real inclusion.
Very nice try, Richard Butchins. All the best to him from me. I feel truly sorry for him, and I really hope he knows that the problem is with the mainstream BAFTA organisers, not him. Maybe they should axe the idea of a disability film festival altogether. Unfortunately, they obviously can’t handle it existing… yet. I really hope this changes in future but for now, they are right to be very embarrassed.
More Wheelchair Tennis
Thanks to BBC Ouch. As usual, all the best from me to these real stars who are truly DisAbled.
Deaf Rugby Results
It seems that a lot of DisAbled sportspeople have recently finished their tournaments! So it is DisAbility Sports Day here at RTAID. This time it’s the Welsh deaf rugby team who are celebrating. They may have beaten England, but at least deaf rugby exists, so they have the chance to play in the first place. And their results got published in The Times! Amazing. All the best to DisAbled rugby players everywhere, and a very big thanks from me to BBC Ouch and to The Times for publishing the results.
More Wheelchair Tennis
This time it’s for teenagers! Fantastic as always to see DisAbled sportspeople turning professional. Well done and all the best to all of them, and a big thanks from me, as always, to BBC Ouch for publishing the results!
Jeremy Beadle Had A Disability?
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I went to BBC Ouch, looking for material to blog about, as I usually do once a day, and read that Jeremy Beadle, who sadly died yesterday, had a genetic disability called Poland Syndrome. I’ve never heard of Poland Syndrome, but much more importantly, Jeremy Beadle never let this stop him becoming a TV star. In an old interview, published on Ouch today as a tribute, he said that he didn’t try to hide it on TV. But, I thought, he sure hid it well from the media, because I’m sure the public didn’t know, and it was certainly never in the news! Not during his lifetime, anyway. Now if becoming a star of Saturday night TV isn’t a perfectly wonderful, amazing example of DisAbility, then I don’t know what is. Consider this my small tribute to a truly DisAbled star, readers.
Hearing the Need For Education
I have always strongly agreed with inclusion of DisAbled students in mainstream schools, classrooms and subjects. So imagine my happiness when I read about these extremely sensitive, hearing teachers, who are trying to bring Science and Maths to British Sign Language, for deaf children to use in schools and exams. I was very impressed to read that deaf students in Scotland can take their exams in Sign Language! I hope they get loads and loads of funding so that as many students as possible can benefit from this very good idea.
This post is part of the Inclusion Rules! debate at Same Difference.
Neighbours Forgets The Ability in Disability… again!
First we had Mrs Cammeniti’s… outdated reaction to the very idea of her daughter, Rosie, marrying Frazer Yeats who, at the time, was in a wheelchair. He was miraculously cured, just in time to walk down the aisle on his wedding day. How convenient. Thank goodness for Rosie’s sensitivity in defending Frazer instantly.
However, just when I had finally forgiven the producers of the second-best soap opera in the world (the first is a post in itself, which I will write someday when I get some time) for their outdated attitudes to disability, along comes a car driven by Susan Kennedy which runs over Bridget Parker. Bridget Parker then goes into a coma for all of three episodes. Her parents are told she will wake up with brain damage. So… she wakes up and is told that she’ll need a wheelchair. So there was I, looking forward to the sight of a wheelchair on Ramsay Street again. But… wake up, samedifference1, this is Neighbours we’re talking about! Bridget Parker decides she’d rather have a crutch, and discharges herself from hospital after one session of physiotherapy, which was actually more like hydrotherapy, but anyway… So I had to satisfy myself with that significantly milder form of disability.
And… I was satisfied. Until today, when Bridget Parker’s understandably worried parents were discussing adaptations to their home and her life. Overhearing their conversation, Bridget walked in to the room as fast as her crutch would allow her to and firmly informed them that she’s not a cripple and she didn’t need handframes, velcro shoes or toilet rails, because they were for disabled people! She then told her closest female friend on Ramsay Street that she just wanted to get back to ‘normal.’ Whatever that means, because I’ve never seen it.
So every disabled character we ever see on Ramsay Street is either insulted by Monster-in-Law or in denial. Most of them end up miraculously cured, the rest mysteriously disappear after an episode or ten. (Think Anne Baxter, the swapped, biological, blind Timmins daughter) The real question is still the same. What kind of message are the scriptwriters of Neighbours trying to send out to their mainstream viewers? It seems like they think that insulting disabled people is a ‘normal’ part of being a ‘normal’ person. Those viewers of Neighbours who are DisAbled had better all hope that we find friends, husbands or wives like Rosie, because unfortunately for us, we can’t be cured as easily as their characters can. That is if they even want disabled viewers in the first place, which it doesn’t look like they do, because we are totally under-represented and, when they do try to represent us, they always find some way to insult us in the process.
I would like to tell the scriptwriters of Neighbours that while, like it or not, they will have this disabled viewer forever (as much as they do make me want to break my TV screen in frustration at times when they try to represent disability) I do wish that they would remember that the attitudes to disability that they show very often belong in 1988 more than they do in 2008. But since I just can’t stop myself from watching Neighbours, I’ll just have to limit my rants to this blog. Thanks for reading. Rant over. Roll on, Bridget Parker’s miraculous recovery. Meanwhile, I’m off to make sure that tomorrow’s episode is saved in Sky+…
Wheelchair Tennis Results
DisAbility or what?! I’m really happy to see that wheelchair tennis exists, and I’d just like to thank BBC Ouch for publishing the results. All the best to all professional DisAbled sportspeople!
Abilitynet, a charity which brings the benefits of computer technology to people with disabilities, has accused Yahoo, Facebook. Bebo, Youtube and MySpace of locking out disabled visitors and breaching the Disability Discrimination Act by not making “reasonable adjustments” for people with special needs. I have one thing to say about this report. I think it is political correctness gone mad. They talk about visually impaired people not being able to use the sites because of verification code images. Have they never seen the message saying “If you can not see this image click here.” Which, by the way, I got from yahoo. I “clicked here” and was taken straight to a help page.
Personally, I have always loved yahoo and I need to visit Facebook once a day. I’ve never thought that much of Bebo, but I know that my DisAbled friends use MySpace. As for Facebook, there are loads of DisAbled users there, and loads of support groups for them too! Has Abilitynet ever thought that the DisAbled people who don’t use social networking simply can’t use computers at all? Or that they simply don’t want to be members of the sites? I could be wrong, of course, but one of my DisAbled friends told me that she didn’t see the point of Facebook when all her friends had e-mail. Not that I agree with her. At all. That reminds me… I haven’t been to Facebook all day!
Exercise on wheels…
Leanne Grose sounds to me like a real inspiration to all girls (and guys) on wheels. She and her Wheelchair Workout fitness DVD really have put the Ability back into DisAbility.
The article is very long, because it goes into inclusive sports and gyms as well. Inclusive gyms, I have to say, are really not my thing. But here is my favourite quote from the article:
“My goal is to convince people that they can be physically active and that a disability does not mean you need to be unhealthy. I also hope it will make everybody rethink what being in a wheelchair really means.”
Good luck to her. Maybe I should try it from my sofa… Until I can be bothered, here’s Leanne Grose’s 13 questions from BBC Ouch.
Update 19/3/08: Leanne Grose was featured in this week’s Pick Me Up, in the Happy Endings section.
Asda accessibility
On a trip to Asda in Wembley last night, I was very impressed to find that the store’s new second floor is totally wheelchair accessible. There are no stairs at all, anywhere. Instead, everyone uses a moving conveyor belt. Okay, so it tells people to be careful every five minutes and it made me feel a bit like a human suitcase, but then, wheelchair access to anywhere never was perfect, was it? At least, thank God, they have the decency to put it there and in the process, send out a clear message to their shoppers that they welcome wheelchair users and others with DisAbilities…. which is a lot more than I can say for the ice rink from last week! A big thanks from me to everyone at Asda Wembley for making the store accessible!
Katie Thorpe is back… and her mother’s talking rubbish!
My first reaction to this article was a huge sigh of relief, closely followed by an exclamation of “Thank God!” Then I read the article, and I felt like screaming! Why? Because Mrs Thorpe is still talking rubbish! Here are the quotes from the article that I don’t agree with, and my reactions:
Mrs Thorpe said she had received “overwhelming support” for her case from families with children with disabilities as well as from disabled people.
What rubbish! Most girls, and mothers of girls, with CP don’t agree with or support her. Preethi Manuel, Kate Ansell and me, to name a few!
“We have demonstrated there is a real need for Katie to have this necessary evil taken away,” Mrs Thorpe said.
Necessary evil? Necessary part of being female, you mean. Painful, definitely. Annoying, usually. But evil? Never.
Once again, thank God that Katie was refused the operation. And I have a question for Mrs Thorpe: Would she have liked her mother to have had her operated to stop her going through unnecessary pain and embarrassment? I’d like to think not, but I can’t help wondering if maybe she sometimes thinks that at least that way, she would never have had to ‘deal’ with Katie’s ‘problems.’ Problems that, thank God, my and my friends’ mothers, and countless mothers worldwide before and after them, have dealt and will deal with by simply giving their children the same love, understanding and support that all children deserve…
Wheelchairs are NOT washing machines!
I was told this by a close friend’s mother today. It’s so tragically funny that I felt the need to blog it.
My friend’s mother, being a very sensitive person who believes strongly in inclusive sport, runs a sports club for people with DisAbilities. Our member list includes quite a few wheelchair users.
The club was given some money for an activity of a member’s choice. So the selected member chose ice skating. This started a long mission for my friend’s mum- finding a wheelchair-accessible ice rink is, unfortunately, impossible, as you will see!
So- she thought she’d finally found one. In excitement, she planned a trip for the club. But when she went to the rink, she discovered that their idea of ‘wheelchair accessible’ involved lifting the wheelchairs- with their owners inside- over a big step. When she asked them how they would manage to get wheelchair users over the step, she was told not to worry, because they were used to lifting washing machines!
She rightly told them that dropped washing machines break and can be replaced, but a dropped wheelchair would have a person inside! Of course, the club didn’t get to go ice skating. Wheelchairs- and more importantly, of course, the people inside them- are much, much more valuable than washing machines. The search for an accessible ice-skating rink continues….
RTAID Goes International!
Unfortunately, I don’t mean that my blog has been spotted by a sensitive Chinese millionaire! But this example of DisAbility comes to you, my readers, from Japan. All the best to her. Now, if only I could pronounce her name!
I thought he had a son with CP?
So why on Earth would David Cameron accuse people of faking their DisAbilities? Or wonder about the possibility of DisAbled dancers? And there I’ve been waiting to vote for him, thinking he’ll have decency and do a lot to help the DisAbled population of England! I guess you can take a person out of the mainstream, but you can’t take the mainstream out of a person. It makes me feel sorry for his son- and wonder what he would have done for the boy if the public didn’t watch his every move…
Hearing the silence… loud and clear!
Jodee Mundy sounds like an amazing person. I love this paragraph from her interview in the Guardian :”The fact that most people think talking is the only way to communicate is so narrow-minded because hearing people are the ones who can’t communicate when they are on a bus and there is someone outside waving goodbye. They are the ones who can’t communicate under water if they are scuba diving. They are the ones that can’t communicate across the street or in a loud nightclub. It’s deaf people who can. I wish people would see the richness and the wealth of the deaf world.”
So true. The mainstream needs more people like her.
Stupidity is Sighted…
A slight play on that old favourite… love is blind. Thank God the stupid restaurant owners who refused this blind couple access to their restaurant because they have a guide dog have now sold the restautrant to new people with more decency!
Happy New Year Readers!
Happy New Year, people! My blog and I are back!
A sensitive author…
Because she’s a mum in a million, who quite rightly wants to show her readers that kids on wheels are very much DisAbled. I have spent my whole life looking, usually unsuccessfully, for characters with disabilities in fictional books. So all I can say is: about time too! All the best to her and her son.
Is the Disability Benefit department feeling ok?
Every benefit department in England is forever thinking up schemes to shorten their lists, and the disability benefit department recently joined in the fun when the government announced plans to replace Incapacity Benefit with Employment Support Allowance. So why, now that someone clims to have been miraculously cured of her disabilities, and has the decency to want to stop her disability benefits, did they need her to climb a mountain of paperwork first?
True, “It can’t be often that a government department gets a complaint about unwanted cash,” As her husband sensibly points out, but surely when they do, they can find something useful to spend it on?
My personal list is so endless that it will take up a post in itself! Permanent Disability Living Allowance payrise, anyone? Yes please!
The fact that her husband is a priest and she claims to have been cured by six years of prayer would have made me think twice about the truth of the whole thing if they hadn’t both had so much decency.
I, for one, thank them for their decency. Many others might have kept the money. I’m sure the government secretly agrees, even if they do claim that the computer doesn’t have a button for miracles! I hope they use the money they’ve saved here for at least one of the things on the endless list the country needs done…
Cripples at Christmas
Mat Fraser, BBC Ouch columnist, podcast presenter and DisAbled guy, provides us with a hilarious seasonal reminder that we all have DisAbilities… and some hilarious, DisAbility friendly ways to celebrate Christmas.
Listen here: Cripples at Christmas mp3
Mainstream Madness
Thank God the law at least claims to recognise disability hate crime for what it is- the worst thing since racism. Hopefully the examples of mainstream madness in this article from BBC News will make all DisAbled people who read it realise that somehow, someone has to report these crimes to the police for us. Even if we can’t do it ourselves, we need to tell someone who can.
Convincing the mainstream to get their attitudes to disability out of the year 1900 is a very long, very hard battle that, often, seems very impossible. This, we have realised, is because they think we’re stupid. I know how hard this is to do, but we need to remember that they are the ones with the problems if they can’t accept our DisAbilities, and report them for ANYTHING that makes us feel uncomfortable. If we don’t, the Disability Discrimination Act seems like a waste of time and paper.
Before I go, I have a message for the police officers who told Anne Novis that because she was not physically harmed, it was not a crime, let alone a disability hate crime. I’ve never heard such rubbish.
I’ve always thought, and said, that ‘sticks and stones break bones, but words break hearts.’ Bones forget the pain and heal in time, hearts don’t. I’m sure Anne Novis would agree…. I only wish the police would realise this, but that will be a long, hard, impossible battle. Not that we should EVER give up fighting it.
Traveleyes
This article is about a sensitive, sighted businessman giving a well-deserved prize to a blind travel agent who is yet another brilliant example of DisAbility! Well done and good luck to him.
Six Months!!!!!!
Guess what, Internet? November 2007 marks my sixth month of Remembering The Ability in DisAbility. To celebrate, the blog now has a slogan, and a whole new look, including an About section that provides you with limited information about my lovely self! Your comments, as always, are welcome, so if you have any suggestions for improvement, feel free to register and post them!
Northern Rock and Down’s Syndrome… Yes, you did read that right…
According to this article from today’s Guardian, Northern Rock is three-quarters owned by a trust that was set up to benefit charities, especially a small one for children with Down’s Syndrome. Yet the charity, Down’s Syndrome North East, has only ever seen a one-off donation, organised by staff, SIX YEARS AGO, and never even knew anything about their connection to Northern Rock until Monday. To quote from a very sensitive MP, who I sincerely thank for his sensitivity, this is “unforgivable.”
I have been saying that Northern Rock will close down ever since I saw the million-mile queue of people very sensibly removing their money from the Harrow branch, right at the start of this whole big mess. Now, more than ever, I think it should. Maybe then whoever had the unforgivable idea to steal money from innocent children with Down’s Syndrome will go back and hide under a Rock in Northern England… where, it seems, they should have stayed all along. I hope the Charity Commission investigation helps to close them down.
Thank you, readers. My rant is over.
Sex on Wheels…
Is it a car?
Is it a plane?
Is it a bus?
Is it a train?
No, she actually means a wheelchair…
Give it a read… go on, be fair…
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might change your mind…
Impossible, you say? Don’t be so unkind…
Okay. Enough poetry. Here’s a link to a beautiful and extremely true article. Such a great read that I’m already waiting for the book!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/nov/27/disability.health
Plans for DisAbility in the workplace!
The government is planning to replace Incapacity Benefit with something called Employment Support Allowance. There is a full article about this on BBC News, but here are some of the quotes from it that I agree with, and my comments:
the new system will place greater emphasis on what sick and disabled people can do, rather than what they cannot.
Thank you government, about time too!
Tests such as being able to walk more than 400 metres (437 yards) or being able to climb 12 steps without the aid of a banister would be abolished.
The new test will look at other skills, such as a person’s ability to use a computer keyboard or a mouse, because this type of task is likely to be needed in the workplace.
Again, about time they realised this obvious truth- needing support to climb the stairs DOES NOT mean you can’t type!
And from a sensitive Liberal Democrat: “There are millions of disabled people in this country who want to work, who would be able to work, if they were able to get the sort of personalised, detailed help that they need to help them manage their medical condition. “
I am one of them! As Mainstream teenagers would say, “Enough said!”
What was I saying the other day?
About the BBC improving their coverage of and attitudes towards disability? Well, here we go… more proof. Thank you BBC!
http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/18848/bbc-pledges-to-consider-disabled-actors-for
Dogs on Wheels
And slugs on sticks. It’s all part of a campaign by Leonard Cheshire Disability, with a little help from the creators of Wallace and Gromit, to remind people that people with disabilities are not stupid. Or as I like to say, that we don’t have Disabilities- we have DisAbilities!
All I have left to say about this is about time, too! Oh- and I am very impressed with how much coverage this story is getting, especially from the BBC, who have covered it on everything from Newsround to the net! A big thanks to the BBC from me for showing great sensitivity towards disability in the amount and style of coverage they’ve given to this. While I’m here, they’ve improved their general coverage of disability quite a bit this year…
Anyway, full details of the cartoon characters here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7089595.stm
More information: 19.11- From Society Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/19/mondaymediasection.advertising
DisAbility on Screen
When I was younger, films and CP in the same sentence only meant one thing- a guy who painted with his Left Foot and lived under the stairs. But now here are some links to two amazing females who will soon make you think twice about that!
Here, from BBC Ouch, is the link to a Society Guardian interview with Georgina Studd, a teenager who’s just won an award for her first documentary: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/nov/07/guardiansocietysupplement.disability
And here is Sapna Ramnani’s homepage: http://www.sapnaramnani.com/
Here’s hoping that Georgina is where Sapna is now in 20 years… and that Sapna soon wins every award going!
They truly are exceptional examples of DisAbility… all the best of luck to them both!
Update: Georgina Studd, 13 Questions from BBC Ouch: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/closeup/13questions/georgina_studd.shtml
Too Right!
And so they should be…
Interesting
Well, I think so anyway…
Daniel Kay
He has loving parents and good GCSE results. What more could a teenager want? Try physical health… even £5.5 million can’t buy that! Read on…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7050749.stm
Delicious DisAbility
Dyslexia and chocolate prove to be a winning combination for 15 year old Louis Barnett. Good luck to him!
Katie Thorpe Again
Long but worth a look…
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/columnists/article2685361.ece
CP + Periods = a very funny article…
An article by another female with CP on why she disagrees with Mrs Thorpe. I found parts of it so funny that I couldn’t resist blogging it: http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article3065088.ece
Has anyone asked Katie Thorpe?
Since Monday, countless disability rights campaigners, and a few loving mothers, have been discussing Katie Thorpe’s mother’s decision to ask for her daughter to have a hysterectomy because she has severe CP.
Mrs Thorpe says that she is trying to save her daughter what she calls ‘unnecssary’ pain and discomfort. This, I have to say, is a good point. Pain can be harmful when you have CP as well as just being uncomfortable. But every teenage girl goes through this pain. It is necessary. It is part of life as a girl- even if we hate it, we wouldn’t change it for anything!
I’ve had moments when I’ve agreed with Mrs Thorpe’s thinking- usually when I’ve been in that pain myself! But the rest of the time, I’m glad my mum didn’t do what she is trying to. If I’d never had a period, I wouldn’t be able to take part in conversations with able-bodied females about pain, embarrassment, or anything like that. I’d have to spend thirty years of my life saying “What’s that?” every time anything was mentioned on the subject. That would be more embarrassing and uncomfortable than all the embarrassing, uncomfortable and annoying situations I’ve ever been in with my period!
My question- that the news hasn’t answered yet- is- has anyone asked Katie? If this is her decision, then she has every right to make it. But if her mother has made the decision without asking for Katie’s opinion, then, before anything else, won’t Katie be even more confused when her period suddenly disappears?
Mrs Thorpe thinks she’s helping Katie, but as a girl who can see both sides and is speaking from experience, I say that unless Katie, and all others like us, make this decision for themselves, it’s not a help- it’s exactly the opposite.
I will be following this story closely and blogging about any updates I find.
Update: 15.10- I found this interview with Mrs Thorpe today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2190232,00.html
Asda Sensitivity…
Thank you Asda! This article has made my day.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/motoring/2007/09/26/asda-to-fine-car-park-abusers-89520-19848563/
And a dose of DisAbility…
This has cheered me up after the stupid nightclub bosses and the hospitals who’ve realised their mistakes 25 years too late…
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/sunday/2007/09/23/the-supermodel-who-s-deaf-98487-19833348/
Why are we still living in the last century?
I’m so glad she has so much support from people in power. They are all absolutely right, as any disabled person would tell you.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7007014.stm
To the nightclub bosses- and the idiots on Portugese Airlines (see my post from last week)- The Disability Discrimination Act exists for a very good reason. By denying disabled people access to your services because of their disabilities, you are breaking the law. So get your heads out of the year 1900- or get signing the cheques for your fines. Thank you.
About time too…
It’s just such a shame that it took so many severe cases of CP before the government realised that something needed to be done in maternity wards…
Thank you David Morris!
Whoever he is… he’s absolutely right!
Forgetting the Ability in Disability
After watching a few frustrating scenes in today’s episode of Neighbours, I have another rant to let out today.
For the first time in my life, I have something negative to say about my favourite soap.
When Frazer Yeats had his accident and ended up in his wheelchair, few fans were happier than I was to see disability on Ramsay Street for the first time in too many years. But after today’s episode, in which Frazer’s future mother-in-law told her daughter “If you marry Frazer, you will be making the biggest mistake of your life,” because “He’s disabled,” I don’t think there are many fans who are more frustrated than me! It was reading about idiots exactly like her (in the early 1990s) that convinced me that I didn’t have the right to fall in love… in this century, thank goodness, I realise that they are the ones with the problem.
What kind of message is Neighbours sending out to their mainstream viewers with that reaction? And do they actually want to insult the rest of us?
So I’d like to tell the scriptwriters of Neighbours: 1984 called, people. It wants its’ attitudes to disability back!!
Wondermum
One of those exceptional members of the mainstream who it is a pleasure to meet. It really is a shame there are so few of them around. Read on…
CP at the Circus
A female with a DisAbility takes to the trapeze… or wants to. Read on for the flight of your life!
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/drama/story/0,,2156922,00.html
Seeing is Believing
DisAbility or what?!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/6956954.stm
Accessible Toilets
So- I have a question. If there is no accessible toilet in a restaurant, how on Earth is a wheelchair user expected to go to the toilet?
Why can’t all public places follow the law and become accessible? Or by not becoming accessible, are they sending out a message- that they don’t want wheelchair users in the first place?
Now that’s what I call DisAbility…
There should be more of this, don’t you think?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6937245.stm
REAL Victory!
Did they think about how stiff she would get sitting while she travelled 20 miles to school and back? Of course not, they’re a council!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/6937701.stm
At last!!
A real big thanks from me to these people in Wales. It is about time that someone did something about this, for real. This drives me mad when I see it happen! (see my earlier post: Blue Badge Parking Spaces) Why can’t this happen in London?
Victory?
A hospital steals a dream and makes a mother a millionaire… surprisingly said mother gives a quote to the news that suggests she thinks she is the first person this has ever happened to… she is so wrong! Read on…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6917914.stm
On a more serious note… compensation is great if you can get it but, as any loving mother, or disabled child, would tell you, we would much rather have our health and our children than any amount of money… if hospitals would only take better care of pregnant women, they have no idea how much pain they would save how many people… and how much money they could then spend on , well, taking better care of pregnant women!
Showing the Ability in Disability
Finally people say something nice about CP! Interesting and certainly true…
Blue badge parking spaces
For what feels like the millionth time in my life, today we noticed someone trying to park in a blue badge space without a blue badge, and, as always, I felt like screaming! The police give you points for speeding and fines for crossing red lights, but they don’t even have a camera in blue badge parking sections to check they’re being used properly! ARGH!!!!!
Hello world!
Welcome to this brand new blog, created especially to post news from the wonderful world of DisAbility… and the occasional rant from the wonderful samedifference1! You must register to comment! Thanks!
