Seriously, in 2021?

[davidgillon]

Managers and security guards at the Glasgow count in the Scottish Election refused to believe the Labour candidate was a candidate despite her having the right ID (and her name on the ballot!) because she was a wheelchair user.

And when she finally got in she couldn't sit with the other candidates because they were seated in a tiered area.

https://t.co/IuDLxG9gJ1

For god's sake, she'll have been in the local news for months and no one thought to make sure they put the candidates where a wheelchair user could get to and ensure everyone knew the accessible routes she'd need to use?

And if I have the right building, it was built in 2014 for the Commonwealth Games, so is supposed to have had access built in from the start, so why was she being directed to a separate accessible entrance in the first place?

But now she's Pam Duncan Glancy, MSP, and hopefully in a position to influence changes to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Comments

[lilysea]

Did you hear the news story a while ago about an elected British MP with a Disability that meant he couldn't put a tie on/off independently

and the other MPs complained bitterly that it was unfair that he wanted an exemption from the ties-must-be-worn-in-the-Parliamentary-chamber rule?

Jared O'Mara MP has cerebral palsy and is unable to do up a tie so asked for an exemption and other MPs went ITS NOT FAIR TO GIVE HIM AN EXEMPTION.

[davidgillon]

He did get the exemption, and very quickly, so I was reasonably impressed with how the Speaker handled that, but I'm not really surprised at other MPs whining. There's still a lot of foot-dragging WRT related issues such as maternity leave, which only started making progress last year when it was a Tory Minister who needed it, and Jacob Rees-Mogg in his role as Leader of the House tried to force MPs isolating due to health issues back to the Commons last autumn, even though they'd been using a perfectly functional remote video-link system.

Unfortunately O'Mara himself then turned out to have a rather sordid past when racist, homophobic and misogynistic behavior came to light. He threw a strop when disciplined by Labour over it, pretty much stopped working as the local MP, and finally stood down at the 2019 election.