I came across this story on the BBC News 24 website and just had to add it to my blog..................

North Carolina pair feud over leg A US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the man who bought it.
John Wood's smoker was sold to Shannon Whisnant last week after he fell behind on payments at the storage facility in North Carolina where it was kept.
He wants his leg back but Mr Whisnant says he has a receipt for the smoker's contents and wants to share ownership.
Mr Wood's leg was amputated above the knee after a plane crash in 2004.
He asked to keep the leg so he could be buried as a whole man when he died, and stored it at the facility in Maiden after losing his home.
But when Mr Wood failed to pay the necessary rental fees, the storage company auctioned the smoker and all its contents.
'Strange incident'
After buying the smoker last Tuesday, Mr Whisnant looked inside and found a man's leg wrapped in a wire screen.
Halloween's just around the corner - the price will go up if I get the leg Shannon Whisnant
He initially gave the leg to the police, who concluded it had not been removed as a result of a crime and sent it to a funeral home until Mr Wood could pick it up.
But after making money by charging adults $3 (£1.47) and children $1 (49p) to look inside the empty smoker, Mr Whisnant asked for it back.
His request was refused by the funeral home, so he decided to try to persuade Mr Wood to share custody and profits.
"I told him I'd share custody of it..." Mr Whisnant said.
"It's a strange incident and Halloween's just around the corner. The price will go up if I get the leg."
'Despicable'
Mr Wood, who now lives in Greenville, South Carolina, has insisted he is not interested in using the leg to make money and plans to travel to Maiden as soon as possible to reclaim it.
"I just think it's despicable," he said.
"I don't mind having the 15 minutes of fame, but I'm not looking to really profit off this thing.
"He's making a freak show out of it."
Having had his offer rejected, Mr Whisnant has threatened to begin legal action if the leg is not returned to him by next week.
He says he has a receipt showing he bought both the smoker and its contents at the auction.
"Everybody knows it's mine, period," he said. "And if anyone tries to take it, I want everything they got."

The only thing that comes to my mind is why?

Nowt as queer as (American) folk!

Non-Disabled People's Unreasonable Expectations

I'm really pissed off with the attitude of non-disabled people.

They expect disabled people to compete with them on an equal bases on terms of their choosing and they call this equality - bollocks! Equality is about creating a level playing field so that everyone can join in the game.

So what has put me in this mood, well it is a company called Permtemps. My partner Alison works for these cretins who's idea of equality is to treat all their employees like shit - equally!

Alison has Cerebral Palsy, she is a wheelchair user, she also has Spacial Difficulties and Dyslexia. She works in a call centre where they handle calls for British Gas, which could not really be any worse! Permtemps are winging at Alison because she is performing at less than 95% of whatever 100% is. Apparently her average is about 84%. Now lets put that into the real world.

If someone gets 84% in a degree course at University, they would get a First Class Honours Degree. If when your on performance related pay you score 84%, you get the top bonus.

Permtemps have not made any adjustment to Alison's workstation to accommodate her impairments.

Instead they are threatening to discipline her for under performing. So much for equality of opportunity.

I think it is time to start looking for a new job Ali darling!

Old Farts with Acquired Disabilities

One group of disabled people who really annoy me, and I have to admit that I am frequently annoyed by other disabled people are, Old Farts with Acquired Disabilities.

Why should this particular group of old farts annoy me in particular, I hear readers asking themselves.

The reason for this is their attitude.

I think that the first time when I really found the old disabled farts irksome was when I was 16 and at Hereward College. There was a group of us, young disabled people from the college, and we had taken ourselves to see a football match at Coventry. The majority of us were wheelchair users and Coventry City Football Club had quite correctly let us in to their wheelchair enclosure - a dugout along the entire length of the touchline. As we were there first, we had chosen to place ourselves in the centre so that we could get a really good view (none of these spaces were reserved for individuals).

About 5 minutes before kickoff this old fart in a wheelchair came along and asked us to move so that he could get to "his" space. This would have meant shunting about a dozen wheelchair users about and there was ample room for his wheelchair elsewhere so we told his to go somewhere else. He called a steward over and the steward also told him to go elsewhere.

The old fart then complained to the steward, "I've fought in the war for that space." The steward looked aghast and, understandably, in unison, we told him to "Fuck off".

I think that it is, the attitude that the world somehow owes them something - just because they are older.

What these old farts fail to realise is that before they became disabled, they had the same advantages at their peers - I'm not saying that their lives were easy or somehow privileged, in many cases their lives were far from easy. The important thing is that they had the same opportunities as everyone else to an education, to get a job, to buy a house, save some money, have a family etc.

Those of us who have been disabled since birth have been denied these opportunities.

I went to a "special" school and I certainly did not find anything very special about the place as we were denied the depth of learning that is offered to non-disabled children and denied the opportunity to take any qualifications.

I was fortunate in that I was able to get a place at Hereward College in 1975 and this enabled me to get some qualifications and thereby get a reasonable career, but it took time to catch up and my knowledge base is still relatively narrow, which has in the past been a disadvantage. However most of the kids that I was at school with ended up attending their local council day centres, which are little more than adult "baby sitting" centres. They certainly have not had the opportunity to get jobs, save some money, buy a house and as for having sex - disabled people are not allowed to do that, did not you know!

Today, I had a situation where I was waiting patiently with my indicator flashing, for another disabled driver to vacate a designated parking space (she was genuinely disabled and was taking rather a long time - that is OK). I have a van-based wheelchair accessible vehicle and it is not as maneuverable as a car. The woman moved out the parking space and this elderly bloke in a Ford Ka just drove straight in from another direction and beat me to the space - Ford Kas are not available with automatic gearboxes and therefore are not usually driven by with lower limb impairments or mobility impairments.

The guy got out the car and he had a slight limp but could walk at a normal pace. How did that old fart qualify for a Blue Badge - it was very suspicious!

I hope he gets four flat tyres!

What a load of crap people listen to

As readers of my blog will have read, I have got a new pair of digital hearing aids last week.

Being deaf from birth, and with my deafness increasing, I did not realise how noisy the world is and what a load of crap people listen to!

I don't want to hear the computer keyboards clicking - what is the point of that! The vacuum cleaner is sheer torture. The washing machine makes this really boring noise - what to I want to listen to that for? The wheelchair lift on the van vibrates constantly, why do I want to hear that? I'd rather sit listening to nothing and concentrate on driving that have than din in the background!

All I want to hear is people talking to me, but even then, people talk such utter drivel that 90% of it is not worth listening to!

Frankly, I'd rather remain deaf and use my hearing aids selectively to hear what I want to hear, rather than this meaningless crescendo of pollution that appears to surround us that non-hearing impaired people call "normal hearing".

That's the answer, turn the bloody things off and wait until people tap me on the shoulder. If they look remotely intelligent and look as though they have something worthwhile to listen to, switch back on.

Just a thought; I wonder if listening to this crap is the reason why most non-hearing impaired people are so stupid?

Doctors Receptionists - Update

Following the difficulty that I had booking an appointment for Alison to see a female doctor at her GP's surgery I thought I'd update this blog with the result:

Apart from the receptionist pulling a funny face, why I really could not comprehend, I am pleased to report that there was not a problem. The doctor had simply relocated herself to a consulting room downstairs.

Why was this reasonable adjustment such an issue for the receptionist last week.

This just proves that the thing that is the real disabling factor is often just in other peoples minds and has nothing to do with our impairments.

Digital Hearing Aids

It has only taken 2 years almost to the date (2nd August 2005) for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to issue me with a pair of digital hearing aids after I lost my analogue one that I had since the beginning of time, well 20 years actually.

I fully expected to be dragged on a hurdle o the main entrance to Richmond House by one of the Secretary of State for Health’s minions. Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead. Disembowelled, emasculated, and my genitalia and entrails burned before my eyes (not nice), before finally being beheaded and my body divided into four parts for this heinous crime.

Instead they have given me a pair of shiny new digital hearing aids.
Are they any better than the old analogue ones people ask? Well, yes they actually are!

The new hearing aids do pick up a wider range of sound and the sound quality is certainly better. Also they do not give me so much feedback (high-pitched squealing should) and I do not get a headache that I used to get when I wore the old one for more than a couple of hours.

Another nice touch is that they appear to automatically switch to the induction coupler on my phone.

Having only had them for 24 hours now they certainly seem to be a vast improvement over the old one, but it is early days.

Watch this space to see how they go…………

Parking a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle

I drove over to Cheltenham and parked our wheelchair accessible vehicle at the rear of a roadside disabled parking bay. I purposely parked at the rear space as we have a wheelchair lift fitted to the rear of our van and this requires a 3 metre gap to allow access (the van has a large sticker on the tailgate informing other motorists that there is a wheelchair lift fitted and that we need 3 metres clearance).

The road behind this disabled parking bay had a double yellow line painted on it and so I thought that no-one would possibly park behind us.

Wrong!

On returning to the van I found that some idiot had parked ½ a metre from my rear bumper, thus completely blocking access to our van.

What is wrong with people, can they not read? Do they not know how long 3 metres is?

Why is there never a traffic warden there when you want one?

We had to wait until this non-disabled idiot returned to his car and when I pointed out to him that he had blocked out access he merely chugged his shoulders. I had great difficulty resisting the urge to rip his door mirror off and beating him with it!

I am often amazed at the mentality of the non-disabled when it comes to parking. I can park in on an empty street where the kerb-side is covered with yellow paint and come back to find a whole line of non-disabled drivers have parked there as though my parking permit somehow covers their cars too.

I cannot understand why they park in clearly designated disabled parking bays and what is so attractive about wheelchair accessible toilets that they prefer to use them to their own?

I have often thought that it would be nice if the Department of Transport would crush cars of non-disabled people who park in designated parking bays in the same way that they crush cars of people who do not have a current tax disc on their windscreen – and deliver the crushed vehicle back to the offending motorist!

Why are Doctor’s Receptionists so rude?

Why are Doctor’s Receptionists so rude? Is this on their Job Description and Personal Specification?

Yesterday my partner, Alison, asked me to phone her Doctor’s Surgery to book an appointment for her to see a specific female doctor (she was at work and was unable to do it herself).

Before I proceed with this posting, I feel that it is important that readers understand that I have both hearing and speech impairments.

The receptionist answered the phone and I asked if it was possible to make an appointment with for Alison to see Dr M. “Is the appointment for you?” she asked,“No it is for Alison” (I have a deep voice and could not really be mistaken for a woman on the phone).

I could not understand what she said next, and I explained that I was deaf and asked her to repeat it and again I could not understand it and repeated my request for to speak slowly and clearly.

This time I understood the question and we agreed a time and date.

Then she said that she had no-one by my partner’s name on the register and she spelled out the name that she had input. Again I did not understand it and asked her to speak slowly and clearly.

She then spelt it out with a condemning slowness. I then realised that she had not heard me correctly, corrected her and she found Alison’s file on the computer system.Then I heard her say, again very condescendingly, “Now we are getting somewhere!”

As the readers of this blog will appreciate, by this time I was getting more than a little pissed off by this time.

The Receptionist then said; “You do realise that Dr M’s office is upstairs”, so I assumed that she had read on her VDU that Alison is a wheelchair user.

I pointed out to this woman that Alison is a wheelchair user and that she has seen Dr M in a downstairs room before.

Reply; “Oh, I don’t know about that!”

We will have to see what happens when Alison goes along to the surgery next Monday.

But why are these Receptionists not trained to communicate effectively and why are they so rude?

Why has the only female doctor in this surgery got an office upstairs?

Finally, why is it so difficult for a female wheelchair user to get an appointment to see a female doctor?

I am certain that non-disabled women would not put up with such treatment.