Non-Disabled Sales Personnel

Alison and I have ordered a new Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle. We are totally realistic about our impairments and how our medical conditions might develop over the foreseeable future. It will have to last us five years so it has to accommodate both our access needs. We've spend the past year researching which vehicle suits us best. We've had a number of demonstrations and looked at a number of lifts, hoists etc. We are both professional disabled people and have in the past worked as advisors on disability related issues. We really are the experts on our own situations.

Why therefore do non-disabled sales people still persist in telling us what they think we need?

It is totally annoying and I comprehend how we constantly come across disabled people who are less aware or empowered than we are who are sold expensive gear that does not meet their needs.

I first met a guy called Michael Jeewa in the early 1990s who was a refugee from the Burmese regime and he told me some of the things that the regime were doing.  The imprisonment of Suu Kyi was one thing, but that I reproduce below from the Independent  is just evil.

Patients face eviction after Suu Kyi visit

Associated Press

Saturday, 20 November 2010

• SHARE
• PRINT
• EMAIL
• TEXT SIZE
  • NORMAL
  • LARGE
  • EXTRA LARGE

Burma's government ordered more than 80 people at a shelter for patients with HIV and Aids to leave after a visit by newly-freed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the centre's organisers said today.

Suu Kyi, released a week ago from seven years under house arrest, visited the shelter on the outskirts of Rangoon on Wednesday, promising to provide it with badly needed medicines. She also addressed a crowd of more than 600 who came to see her.

A day after her visit, government officials told patients they would have to leave by next week or face legal action because the centre's permit was not being renewed, said Phyu Phyu Thin, a pro-democracy activist who founded the operation.

By law, home owners must seek government permission every two weeks to allow visitors to stay overnight.

"We have been allowed to renew our resident permits in the past. I think authorities want to pressure us because of aunty's (Suu Kyi's) visit to the shelter," said Zeyar, a member of Suu Kyi's officially disbanded political party and one of the organisers of the shelter. Zeyar uses only one name.

The military regime had kept Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, under detention for more than 15 of the last 21 years, and her release last weekend drew thousands of cheering supporters into the streets.

Suu Kyi has since called for a "peaceful revolution" to bring democracy to Burma but has made it clear she is seeking dialogue with the ruling generals.

The shelter, which includes a small wooden house and a two-storey building of wood and thatch walls, currently accommodates 82 patients including young children, offering them housing, food, medicine and educational opportunities. Zeyar said health authorities offered today to move the patients to their own HIV centre.

"The patients have the right to make their own choice. The pressure by local authorities has made our patients very sad, which will adversely affect their health," he said.

In a separate incident, the popular Burma-language sports publication First Eleven was ordered to close down for two weeks, an editor said, as punishment for a front page headline on a football story that read: "Sunderland Freeze Chelsea United Stunned By Villa & Arsenal Advance To Grab Their Hope."

Some letters in the headline were shaded a different colour from the rest, meaning it could have been read as "Su Free, Unite & Advance To Grab The Hope."

New Car

Well guys, it is that time that comes around every 3 to 5 years when it is time to choose our new car on the Motability Scheme.

Whereas I love looking at shiny new broom-brooms I really hate those condescending slimy turds who sell them. 

They can see that you are disabled and assume that you know sweet fuck all about the car in the showroom. 

In reality I have done many months research before I even step foot in the showroom.  I know exactly what the car does and which adaptions I need to install.

“Can I have a test-drive in an automatic model?”  reply is inevitably; “Sorry sir, we only have a manual demonstrator.”  Annoyance.   Why do they bother to be Motability dealers if they cannot give disabled drivers a test drive?

I want a test drive in a Ford Galaxy, can I get an automatic one to test.  No!  Why?  I went across the road to the Vauxahll dealer.  Can I get a demonstration in an Insignia automatic.  No!

I’ve got money to spend, for fucks sake and Alison and I have to live with the car for at least the next 3 to 5 years.  We want to make sure it is right for us.  Is that unreasonable?  No.

We decided that were going to go for another wheelchair accessible vehicle.  A VW Caravelle with a Underfloor Side-Entry lift. 

Bloody Motability change the rules on couples buying vehicles using both our Mobility Allowances. Consequently we are forced to lease using one and apply for financial assistance to fund the massive five-figure deposit.  We fill in the form and send it off.

Then we get this phone call from some chinless wonder from Motability suggesting that we look at something cheaper that is totally useless to us and our lifestyle.  We would not need to go for something cheaper if they hadn’t changed the fucking rules.

I spent months researching which vehicle suits us best.   The most appropriate layout, the type of wheelchair restraint that I can operate, etc.  When are these people going to realise that we are the experts in our own situation.

They make me sick!
I feel better now that I have got that off my chest.

Hearing aid moulds

I hate my hearing aid moulds!  There I’ve said it.  They really are the most uncomfortable lumps of plastic in the entire universe.

So what have two lumps of plastic done to become so offensive and become the object of total inane hatred, I hear you ask?  (Well, actually I cannot coz I’ve taken the hearing aids off).

The answers are:

They are made from hard plastic and they have never fitted properly and they cause my hearing aids to whistle constantly, which is annoying in the extreme!

They don’t let your ears breathe and therefore they become sweaty and itchy all the time.  Because of this bacteria love residing in my nice, sweaty, warm lug holes and this produces the most disgusting smell.

Lastly, to crown their anti-social nature, I’ve now become allergic to the plastic that the damn things are made from. As a result I now have this burning itch in my ears all the time.  If they were people they would be given an ASBO!

I understand that I can get new Hypoallergenic (gosh that’s a big word) moulds from my local audiology clinic and have been waiting 6 months for an appointment.

I cannot wait for the day when I can take a 5lb hammer to my current ones!

Don’t you just HATE your friends when you are skint and they send you a photograph by SMS of their holiday and to make things even worse, they’ve gone to somewhere you really love.

Another policy shot from the hip.  I really wish the ConDems would engage their brains before they engage their mouths. 

My grandparents moved into their new council house in 1924, which was on an estate (or scheme as it was called in Scotland) was built as part of the “Homes fit for Heroes” campaign after the First World War.  Tenants were mainly ex-service men, like my grandfather, and their new families.  My grandparents were very proud of their new home, as were their neighbours and looked after their houses and their estate.

The estate was still well looked after when my Grandfather died in 1988.

How does Camoron expect to maintain the same level of social cohesion in areas of social housing as in the example stated above, unless we continue to give social housing tenants life-long tenure over their homes? 

This new proposal will only create more social problems in these areas as tenants will not develop pride in their communities.

Dignity in Dying (aka The Voluntary Euthanasia Society)

Dignity in Dying (aka The Voluntary Euthanasia Society) are at trying to find a new angle to bump off terminally ill and disabled people.  They obviously regard our lives as being unworthy of life.  The BBC News film has been carefully manipulated to portray Tony Nicklinson’s impairments to be as devastating as possible, which suits Dignity in Dying’s aim of legalising assisted suicide for all terminally ill and disabled people.  I for one will continue to resist.