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Almost Denied My Vote follow-up
Jun. 9th, 2019 07:30 pmI got a very quick response to my letter that basically says "Whoops, sorry, can you help give us a clue?"
I'll be in touch with them this week.
I'll be in touch with them this week.
(no subject)
Nov. 16th, 2017 10:42 pm2 hour meeting with the Rochester High Street Traders forum and the councillor for the high street ward this morning. It actually went well, and we got our point across that they just hadn't understood what is an issue for wheelchair users. I'm not 100% happy with their idea of putting ramps down as a solution to stalls blocking the pavement. They'll let wheelchairs have access, but they'll be a horrendous trip hazard, particularly for the VI community. I'm not convinced "well, all the stalllholders have £5m insurance" is the ideal response to a safety risk, but the councillor agreed it needs to be discussed with the Highways department.
But it's just as well I took my friend Sue along, both for the powerchair perspective, and because otherwise I might have punched someone. Every time I tried to explain why something was an issue for manual wheelchair users, one of the traders jumped in to cut me off and say "No, it isn't". You can imagine how well that went down with me. Apparently it isn't entirely his fault, it's an aspect of his vascular dementia, but it was making it almost impossible to get our message across. Fortunately Sue recognised what was going on and dragged him off into a side-discussion.
Best moment:
Sue to Cllr: We've not met, but you may know my name.
Cllr: Hmm?
Sue: Sue G
Cllr: {Goes white}
Big Wheelchair is Watching You
Mar. 22nd, 2017 11:45 pm
The other day I received a letter letting me know that Kent and Medway Wheelchair Services is being privatised (they were worried about this happening when I went through the system last summer). Now in theory it shouldn't make any difference to the service I receive, but, as I noted on Twitter, it does mean someone now expects to make a profit out of my needs/my wheels.
Today the new franchise holder followed my twitter account. Now admittedly it's a new account, but they're following a grand total of 7 accounts, only two of which are individuals, and the other one is Tanni, aka Baroness Tanni Grey-Thomson, parliamentarian, multiple paralympian and the most famous wheelie in the country.
The scary thing is I didn't mention where I lived. They must have pulled it out of the #wheelchair stream from a week ago, figured out I was talking about them and made a note to follow me once their account was up.
Of course that's not remotely likely to intimidate someone from freely discussing the service they depend on.
Nope, not one bit.
(Well, not if you know me, but other people...)
