you certainly don’t throw you Tuesday morning
A woman living with a terminal cancer diagnosis was told she would have to wait 12 weeks to receive a blue badge to park in accessible spaces.
Sarah Jackson, from Whitchurch in Shropshire, struggles to walk and said the delay affected her independence.
“If I can’t park in a disabled spot I’m having to get to my appointments two-three hours early to get a space near to where I need to be,” she said.
Shropshire Council said it was training staff to speed up the process.
After the BBC contacted the local authority about Mrs Jackson’s case, it confirmed her blue badge had been ordered.
Mrs Jackson, 51, was first diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago, but last year was told the disease had spread.
After applying for personal independence payments, she said she was told she would automatically qualify for disabled parking.
Government figures show the average wait is 17 days for a blue badge, however when her case was passed to her local council, Mrs Jackson was told she would need to wait for 12 weeks.
‘Like tempting fate’
“It seems ridiculous,” she said, adding that not being able to park in accessible spaces was making getting to her hospital appointments “really difficult”.
“It makes something that’s not a great experience anyway 10 times worse.”
It is possible to fast-track applications for people with a terminal diagnosis, but life-expectancy needs to be a year or less.
“I’m very much hoping I don’t have less than a year” said Mrs Jackson. “It feels very much like tempting fate.”
Shropshire Council said it understood the impact on people waiting for their applications to be processed.
“We have a responsibility to ensure our assessment is fair and robust for each applicant, which does take time,” a spokesperson said.
“Nevertheless, we want to make the application process as efficient as possible and we are investing new staff in the Blue Badge Team who are currently being trained to undertake the assessments and to develop how we can streamline the application process.”
afternoon summer, same for everybody to love summer in the community postcode who has worked for me Prime is coming
call positivity 👩🏾🦽💕
sign of this Monday morning
you’re flying of the day for Monday morning
With many thanks to Benefits And Work.
A media hate campaign against support group claimants has begun, as the government moves to abolish the work capability assessment (WCA) and allow unqualified jobcentre work coaches to decide whether claimants are capable of work. Sick and disabled claimants are even being blamed for the rise in immigration into the UK.
The lead article in the Telegraph of 24 May revealed “Millions on benefits do not have to seek work”.
The sub-headline added “Taxpayers face bankrolling payments indefinitely for 3.7 million given exemption from having to find a job.”
The article highlighted the number of people claiming ESA and UC because of conditions such as anxiety and depression, back pain, wrist and hand disorders and carpal tunnel syndrome.
It went on to say that “Britain’s growing worklessness crisis comes as official figures on Thursday are expected to show net migration has soared to record levels of between 700,000 and 1 million.”
Iain Duncan Smith was cited as saying that the UK needs to concentrate less on bringing in workers from abroad and more on getting British people on sickness benefits back into the labour market.
He said “Companies should now be ending their addiction to cheap labour. They should be focusing on improving productivity by a greater increase in technology, and by training and getting back into work these people on sickness benefits.
“There is no reason why many of these people on these benefits should not be in work. We’ve got a real problem”
Elsewhere in the paper IDS was quoted as saying:
“Sadly, by being exempt from welfare rules designed to help people into work, they are bound to suffer further – for being in work is acknowledged as a strong health treatment, particularly for those with depression or anxiety.”
Meanwhile, the Jeremy Vine on 5 show last week put out a tweet seen by millions of people which said
“Is it time to crack down on jobless benefits?
“Nearly four million people in the UK are being supported by the state without ever having to look for a job.
“That’s because they’ve been deemed too sick to work.
“Is it wrong for taxpayers to fund them indefinitely?”
After arousing considerable outrage the tweet was deleted, but a programme on the subject went ahead all the same.
Clearly the DWP are expecting considerable resistance to their project to abolish the WCA. That they are determined to go ahead with it is clear from the announcement that the combined PIP and WCA assessment contracts have now been awarded. Attacking support group claimants in the media as workshy and responsible for record levels of immigration is one way of convincing the public that the DWP are on the right track.
more selfies of me and my make up yesterday xx
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loitering at one of my contacts this weekend
salpi in the concert with 23 year old #SarahBecauseHeDoesn’tMatter #HaveDone #EnjoyLiveMusic
Open like him one of my concert this weekend. #ConcertHasTextPaigeLikeMe #LivePerformance
is there like to walk three years ago when I had one of my best to disco house type this code has +10 #ThankGodForT%
your Sunday evening saying cute illustrations #SundayEveningInsteadCerebralPalsy #LikeToday
👩🏾🦽😄😄🥰 how are you doing in the movie last night before going out attack, wheelchair user hesitate
#LovePaintingAsAHobby #MyHobby #LoveAbroad 🖌️
A artist, indulging in one of her most messy hobbies of painting. #CerebralPalsy #Hobby #Painting #VeryMessy
😂🖌️😆
😀😀
😃😘
😄😃
😊
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Already to go and see
ready to see a Floyd
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😂♥️
🤣🤣💕
-an🥰
Peppa Pig help me write pounds #ATimer
more pictures from last night thank you for all the pictures of mary and I are out a 12 second concept of the weekend
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Sophie ready to go out tonight for a concert
help me get, but I don’t know do you do this plane has text Sarah call
😆😘🤗
A man with cerebral palsy who was told not to “play the disability card” in his job at Home Bargains has received £25,000 after alleging discrimination.
Ryan Walker, who worked as a sales assistant at its Armagh shop, took the case after his duties were changed.
He had informed the firm that he needed to be physically active to manage his disability but he was later moved from stacking shelves to working on tills.
Home Bargains settled the case without admitting liability.
The company told BBC News NI: “We consider this to be a private matter and out of respect for the individual’s privacy we will not be providing any comment or further information on this case.”
Mr Walker said his experience had been awful and he had gone from “enjoying a job for three years to dreading going into work”.
He began working for Home Bargains in July 2017 and had informed the company of his disability and his needs during his job interview.
He said that being in an active role in which he could keep moving would help him to manage the effect of his cerebral palsy.
‘I have to be active’
He was given duties based in the warehouse as well as stock filling on the shop floor.
“I loved it at the start and then coming to about three-and-a-half years into my job it started to go downhill,” he said.
In late 2020 he was asked by the company to cover the tills and to work extra hours.
Mr Walker said that he was happy to help on the tills but could only do so for short periods of time due to his disability.
“I can’t sit down for more than about 20 minutes because I will start to stiffen up, I’ll start to have cramps, I’ll get really tired,” he said.
“I just have to be active, walking around, doing things.”
He said that when he tried to explain his needs to his employer he was told not to “play the disability card”.
“It made me really upset hearing that from someone in a management team who had a duty of care over me – it made me feel not wanted,” said Mr Walker.
“It made me very uncomfortable with working in the workplace because I don’t have that trust in the management team.”
‘Damaging my health’
He said he contacted the company’s wellbeing team to lodge a formal complaint about the failure to provide reasonable adjustments and the effect that was having on him.
It was agreed that he would only work in the warehouse and fill shelves but he alleged that he was subsequently ordered to work on the tills.
He wrote to his employer to express his frustration that it had not dealt with his reasonable adjustments appropriately but later resigned from the job.
He said: “I was honest with my employer about my disability from the start.
“I was eager to work. I wanted to do a good job.
“In the end I felt I had no option but to resign as I felt it was damaging my health.”
Mr Walker took his case with the support of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.
Mary Kitson from the commission said: “Employers must operate within our equality laws.
“No employee with a disability should feel that their needs are not understood or valued by their employer.”
A woman who suffered a life-changing head injury while on duty as a police officer has launched an adaptive clothing line for disabled children.
Helen Hignett-Clawson from Middlewich, Cheshire, was forced to retire in 2016 due to seizures, paralysis and blackouts.
She has since launched Adaptive Clothing UK to make it easier for disabled children to get dressed.
“No matter what life throws at you, you can be happy,” she said.
In 2010, Mrs Hignett-Clawson was attacked by a suspect she was arresting, causing her to hit her head on a police vehicle.
“It was a life-changing day for me,” she said.
However, Mrs Hignett-Clawson was determined to show her daughters that “you can make anything happen for yourself”.
This mentality led to the clothing line which was inspired by Mrs Hignett-Clawson’s own difficulty getting changed and also that of her niece Lilly, who has autism.
The clothing is designed with less catches and buttons and is to assist parents.
She said of the line “it is adaptive for children with physical limitations and disabilities and it is also brilliant for sensory processing disorders and autism”.
“I’m really proud,” she said.
#College #MeetingUpWithYourCollegeBesty
my friend and I more pictures of Rosa in French together today #CerebralPalsy #OutForLunch #CollegeBesty
Lia oh, how fun to get there today?
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/maya-richards?utm_term=AM2AyWexp sofa and rising, if anybody wants to donate
Returning To Holland
A disabled woman’s experience of ‘coming back’ to the world of disability- this time as a member of staff.
I was born in Holland. My parents, like most parents, wanted me to be born in Italy. But their plane landed in Holland, and there they had to stay, with me. And they loved it. Mostly.
I loved it too, mostly. But, as soon as I was old enough, I looked for work.
In those days, there wasn’t much work in Holland. People in Holland worked the way they lived, slowly and carefully.
I wanted to work just a little faster than most of my friends in Holland. So the first job I applied for was in Italy.
I loved working in Italy. But I soon found out that there wasn’t much work in Italy, either.
Finally, I decided to look for work in Holland.
I returned home, taking with me some things I had learnt in Italy. I was sad to find that most of my friends had left Holland. There were new people in Holland now. Some had come from Italy.
I wanted to tell them about the way Holland used to be. I found that they enjoyed hearing about the Holland I had left behind, the place of windmills, tulips, and paintings better than the Mona Lisa. I found that they had come to love Holland and were trying hard to call it their home.
I soon realised that I didn’t miss Italy at all. The slower, friendlier pace of Holland suited me perfectly, as always.
There are, of course, things that could change in Holland. My skills from Italy might help me make living and working in Holland a little better than it used to be.
But I’ve returned home to Holland. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
excited for the weekend here is the weekend saying
Word for the week, the theme is on the make
they saying and illustration number one 💜
The company behind AI robots which deliver shopping to your door has said it “constantly” talks to disabled people to ensure safety.
The knee-high machines from Starship Technologies can carry three bags across town.
They use the same pavements as pedestrians and a new panel advises on collision avoidance
Now in Wakefield, the team say “lived experience” and knowledge of disability is at the heart of its operation.
They look like freezer coolers on wheels, Lisa Johnson head of public affairs at Starship Technologies says. “It trundles along on its six little wheels and it can climb up and down the kerbs as well.”
But as a robot designed to use pavements, it could have become another frustrating obstacle for disabled people to navigate, such as abandoned bikes, e-scooters and street furniture.
But Lisa told the BBC’s Access All podcast that some safety solutions have already been put in place and the robots had been programmed to be “cautious pedestrians”.
They use obstacle avoidance technology – sensors and a camera – to track what is moving towards it, and how quickly.
“Its job is to stay out of your way,” she adds.
https://emp.bbc.co.uk/emp/SMPj/2.49.3/iframe.htmlMedia caption,
A BBC reporter finds out what the community thinks about the new delivery robots in Leeds
One of the scenarios the company has focused on is what happens when a wheelchair-user and robot come across each other on a narrow path.
A similar problem made headlines in America in 2019 when a student at the University of Pittsburgh tweeted she had been trapped on a road as traffic approached because a Starship Technologies robot was blocking the only accessible entrance to the sidewalk.
At the time, she told the local radio station, 90.5 WESA: “It was really bizarre to realize that a non-sentient thing was putting me in danger and making me feel I was helpless. I think I was just laughing at it like, ‘Oh cool, this is my life right now’.”
The robots were removed for several days. And after reviewing the footage of the incident, the company released a statement saying it disputed the student had been impeded from getting on the sidewalk, but it did update its mapping system.
Lisa says, since that incident “we spent a lot of time having the robots learn what mobility devices look like” and the robots now know to get out of the way.
If it can’t get out of the way on its own, human back-up will always be nearby to step-in to assist.
One mobility aid it currently struggles to recognise is a white cane, used by blind and visually impaired people.
“Canes are really thin,” Lisa says. “And the robots don’t encounter canes very often. So we’ve got to make sure we keep having these interactions so the robots can understand what canes are.”
After more on-the-job learning, it is hoped the robots will detect a cane and make its presence known with a spoken message: “Hi, I’m a Starship robot, I’m just letting you know that I’m here.”
Steve Tyler, director of assistive technology at the charity, Leonard Cheshire, is one of those who signed up to Starship Technologies’ Disability Advisory Panel. He is blind himself.
“There are lots of opportunities, [but] there are also lots of threats,” Steve says of the rapidly-developing technology. “We need to be involved from the outset as a disability community to ensure that we drive some of what is delivered.”
One element Steve is keen to see improved is the arrival of the device at someone’s home. Currently, once you lift the lid to retrieve your shopping it plays a song of your choice.
But how would a blind person know it was there?
“You might want a signal before that happens, so you know where it is,” he advises.
Although this technology might seem futuristic, Steve says it is essential everyone is involved in the conversation around such technology, as it has the potential to quickly become the norm and impact how we all live in the future.
“These technologies not only bring accessibility closer to clients that need it, but it also has an impact on, potentially, how we develop cities and towns, how we lay out pavements, how we lay out shared spaces.”
As for the song it sings as you open its lid to retrieve your shopping, that’s also become a contentious issue, according to Lisa.
“One of our most popular songs at the moment is Baby Shark. Is that a plus or a minus? I don’t know at this point.”
