Posted on

Accessibility Stories 05.17

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

Thank you to all the linker uppers from last month!

Round Up:

Starting the round up with a couple of neurodiversity posts (access isn’t only about ramps and lifts!)…

Rainbows are too Beautiful wrote about an experience a friend had had at an entertainment venue which prompted her to say, yes! Yes He is Perfect… AND he has a Disability!

The World of Gorgeous Grace speaks about the need for better advice and access to services around learning disability, as she reflects on GG’s Learning Disability Journey.

Picture of a rusty key saying: Share your accessibility stories #AccessLinky

Wheelchair Chic Home joined the linky with a fantastic Top 10 House Buying Tips When You Have Mobility Issues! This is definitely one to share with anyone looking to rent or buy an accessible or adaptable home!  If only the agents & developers understood the value in these features and marketed accessible homes properly so people could find them (and people might build more of them!)!

Another 10 was shared by the Firefly Community: Accessible Toilet Campaigners: 10 famous faces! So lovely to learn more about the people behind the campaigns, bringing a huge variety of experience and expertise to the table (or the bench?)! Really honoured to be included in the list myself!

And a fellow Firefly famous face, Rachel George of Ordinary Hopes linked a couple of her fab posts last month too.  The first, questioning how horrified people might be if non-disabled children (or adults!) were forced to wear nappies/pads! in her post: Some Things Are Just Wrong.

In contrast, Ordinary Hopes, also shared a most fabulous accessibility story, One Perfect Day, made possible by Cornwall Accessible Activities Programme in conjunction with Mobiloo (a charity providing mobile Changing Places Toilet facilities) – real inclusion! Just how it should be!

I hope you’ll check in again next month to catch up with the blog posts in the round up, and bloggers I hope to see lots of you again this month and *meet* some new people too!
Info on how to join in below:

Linky Info:

This linky will be open for 2 weeks, please do share your posts about ideas and experiences (good and bad!) around physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces and products below…. And do check in again next month to read the round up!

Guidelines:

    1. Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! It would be lovely if you could add my badge (cut and paste the code in the box under the badge image below and add it into your blog post while in ‘text’ mode of your blog editor) or add a text link back to my site so that people can find the linky and read the other blog entries;
    2. Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences (use the hashtag #AccessLinky in your comment)!
    3. It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessLinky) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility!  I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!
    4. I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators (so pretty much everyone then!). I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.
Our Inclusive Home



Posted on

Accessibility Stories 04.17

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

What a fantastic range of blog posts linked up last month!

Picture of a rusty key saying: Share your accessibility stories #AccessLinky

 Round Up from last Month

There were a number of posts on one of my regular (and favourite!) themes, changing places toilets. Ordinary Hopes linked this very powerful post “When this is the best option you have“, i.e. the toilet floor or don’t go out at all.  Clos-o-Mat and Ordinary Hopes also commented on the lack of understanding of the need for assisted toilet provision until it’s something you need yourself, in “I’d never even thought about it” a key reason many are campaigning that it’s “Time for change” for the building standards, to be made clearer and more comprehensive!

I’m very excited to *meet* a new blogger friend, Wheelchair Chic Home, joining in this month with her fab “5 tips for styling your house to accommodate a disability” and with some more specific ideas on “Storage Ideas to hold crutches or walking sticks” in a stylish way!  I love this blog, it’s totally up my street and I’ll definitely be following for more inclusive design ideas!

My daughter EJ has sensory processing issues which affect her in all different ways (touch, vision, hearing that we know about).  Sensory processing seems to be being more and more widely acknowledged as a challenge in accessing our world for set up for the ‘average person’ and of course can vary greatly from individual to individual and vary in intensity. Rainbows are too Beautiful linked this post about how something as seemingly simple as a particular welly boot (considered a staple in every child’s wardrobe!) can enable inclusion in outdoor family activities in “We’ve got to get our kids outside!”

Access isn’t all about ramps and grab rails, and I had two posts this month, telling of the frustrations faced trying to access childcare and education for their children with very different needs. Rainbows are too Beautiful’s “30 hours free childcare” and The Long Chain’s “Benjamin doesn’t tick boxes” illustrating the catch 22 of local authority juggling of services and funding between education, social care and health care.

I hope you’ll check in again next month to catch up with the blog posts in the round up, and bloggers I hope to see lots of you again this month and *meet* some new people too!  
Info on how to join in below:

Linky Info

This linky will be open for 2 weeks, please do share your posts about ideas and experiences (good and bad!) around physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces and products below…. And do check in again next month to read the round up!

Guidelines:

    1. Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! It would be lovely if you could add my badge (cut and paste the code in the box under the badge image below and add it into your blog post while in ‘text’ mode of your blog editor) or add a text link back to my site so that people can find the linky and read the other blog entries;
    2. Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences!
    3. It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessibilityStories and/or the shorter #AccessStories) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility!  I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!
    4. I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators (so pretty much everyone then!). I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.
Our Inclusive Home



Posted on

Accessibility Stories 03.17

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

Thank you so much to all those who linked up last month, loads of great posts!

This month I’ve decided to change the hashtag, for sharing on social media, to something a little shorter and easier to spell! ….#accesslinky

Picture of a rusty key saying: Share your accessibility stories #AccessLinky

 Round Up from last Month

The 1st March was International Wheelchair Day! Ordinary Hopes wrote this lovely post, Wheelchairs Are Awesome, about the massive difference a wheelchair makes and the independence they enable.  Brody, Me and GDD also wrote a more reflective post about coming to terms with your child needing a wheelchair and, more so, coming to terms with the Reactions To my Son’s Wheelchair from other people.

It was also Disabled Access Day on 11th March, which saw a lots of events throughout the UK over that weekend and disabled people and their families and friends were encouraged to try getting out to somewhere new!  I have to say we fall into exactly the category of sticking to tried and tested places, or places relatively close to home, as we have the same issues as Brody, Me and GDD discusses in this post… Raising Awareness of Changing Places Toilets this Disabled Access Day!

Challenges in getting out and about are not only, or always, physical as Rainbows are Too Beautiful’s post The disassembled abandoned cake – autism eating out and about illustrates.  Sensory barriers to access, or sensory overloads, can be extra problematic when there’s no visual cue, people around you don’t often understand or react in a helpful way.

I also linked up a post myself from a local project I’m involved with for a new unique playground, a playscape! I’m really excited about it as one of the core aims is to create an inclusive play space that people of all ages and all abilities will be able to enjoy! By designing unique elements, there’s no prescriptive way to use them, so we are hoping people will access them in the ways that they can!  Perhaps this can be a destination for some in future Disabled Access Days!? …..we have yet to solve the access to a loo problem, although no equality issues here, there’s no public toilet for anyone at the moment!

The lovely Little Mama Murphy linked up a very exciting update in the #BigBuild4Hugh!  Their adaptations project is almost complete and the family were able to have a proper inclusive family christmas due to the new layout!  Loving the enthusiasm for good storage… you can’t beat a good cupboard!

Finally I’d like to mention this poignant post by The World of Gorgeous Grace, My Learning Disabled Child is not a Burden on Society.  Attitudes to disability are changing, and when you look back we have come a long way in a relatively short period of time, but we still have a long way to go before we are ‘there’.

Linky Info

This linky will be open for 2 weeks, please do share your posts about ideas and experiences (good and bad!) around physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces and products below…. And do check in again next month to read the round up! Guidelines:

    1. Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! It would be lovely if you could add my badge (cut and paste the code in the box under the badge image below and add it into your blog post while in ‘text’ mode of your blog editor) or add a text link back to my site so that people can find the linky and read the other blog entries;
    2. Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences!
    3. It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessibilityStories and/or the shorter #AccessStories) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility!  I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!
    4. I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators (so pretty much everyone then!). I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.
Our Inclusive Home

Posted on

Accessibility Stories 02.17

A rusty key with title "Accessibility Stories 2017 Linky"

Thank you so much to all those who linked up last month!

Round Up from last Month

At this time of year many of us are thinking about booking our summer holidays, however for families with physical and sensory access needs, staying away from  home can be stressful! It was lovely to read this positive holiday experience by Rainbows Are Too Beautiful.  Particularly interesting for us as both my kids love being outside, especially EJ who thrives on the immersive sensory experience nature provides (the light and shade, the feel of wind and rain, the differences in sounds, smells and even tastes) so a forest holiday would be ideal for us, and a holiday home with a safe outside space would be perfect!

A rusty key with title "Accessibility Stories 2017 Linky"A few of the posts last month were about how just getting out of the house can be a mission, never mind going on holiday!  In this aptly named post, Project Get Out of the House, Orange This Way determines to start a new #wheelygood resource for Devon and Cornwall to help visitors and locals alike to find wheel friendly places & activities!  In Where Were the Good People, Ordinary Hopes asks why people stand by and allow others to struggle, and even become victims of bullying behaviour, sometimes in circumstances where a little thoughtfulness or a kind gesture could easily make all the difference.  While on the other hand, Raising a Superhero tells of a lovely Christmas outing where inclusion was at the heart of the experience and is definitely an Afternoon Tea with Father Christmas I’ll be looking up next festive season!

Accessible toilets is a favourite theme, well, when I say favourite theme I agree with Ordinary hopes in her post Petitioning for What?, in that we shouldn’t even need it to be a theme for discussion (…please do sign the petition though!)!  However on reading this update by Mum on a Mission about her an ongoing correspondence with Cineworld it’s pretty clear that we do need to continue to lobby for greater clarity of standards, as the big service providers still seem to believe the guidance doesn’t apply to them!

On the positive side for loos, it was great to read this fantastic guest post by Brody, Me and GDD about changing places toilets on Mumsnet, with loads of fantastic comments, many from people who hadn’t heard of the campaign before – it’s always brilliant to reach and gain support from people not directly affected by the issues!

Linky Info

This linky will be open for 2 weeks, please do share your posts about ideas and experiences (good and bad!) around physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces and products below…. And do check in again next month to read the round up! Guidelines:

  1. Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! It would be lovely if you could add my badge (cut and paste the code in the box under the badge image below and add it into your blog post while in ‘text’ mode of your blog editor) or add a text link back to my site so that people can find the linky and read the other blog entries;
  2. Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences!
  3. It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessibilityStories and/or the shorter #AccessStories) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility!  I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!
  4. I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators (so pretty much everyone then!). I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.
AccessibilityStories

Posted on

Accessibility Stories 01.17

A rusty key with title "Accessibility Stories 2017 Linky"

Happy New Year!

A rusty key with title "Accessibility Stories 2017 Linky"

Welcome to the first #AccessibilityStories of 2017!

Apologies for the lack of linky last month, too much going on at Christmas I’m afraid!

My lovely campaigner friend at Ordinary Hopes linked up a couple of posts to my last linky, in November, which are particularly topical as this year has begun with quite a flurry of media interest in accessible toilets!

The first is a Christmas post, The C Word, highlighting how the lack of suitable toilet facilities, meant that her family couldn’t participate in many of the festive activities that many others take for granted.

The second, Struggling to Care, a poignant post setting out what really makes caring for a loved one difficult.

This linky will be open for 2 weeks, please do share your posts about ideas and experiences (good and bad!) around physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces and products below….

And do check in again next month to read the round up!

Guidelines:

  1. Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! It would be lovely if you could add my badge (cut and paste the code in the box below and add it into your blog post while in ‘text’ mode of your blog editor) or a text link back to my site so people can find the linky and read the other blog entries;
  2. Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences!
  3. It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessibilityStories) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility!  I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!
  4. I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators (so pretty much everyone then!). I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.
AccessibilityStories



Posted on

Accessibility Stories (Nov 16)

Rusty old key in a door lock

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up with #AccessibilityStories last month!

Collage of pictures of smiling children how need changing places toiletsThere has been much discussion within our campaign group about why the need for Changing Places toilets has not really reached the conscious of the general public and, when it does, it’s often misunderstood as Brody Me and GDD describes in Sorry for the Inconvenience.  Of course the official Changing Places campaign has made huge headway (from zero provision!) in it’s 10 years, but at still less than 900 toilets in the whole UK, we felt that perhaps us independent campaigner bloggers could shake things up a bit more if we got together!

So at the end of last month Brody Me & GDD rallied a group of bloggers to publish a wave of posts about the lack of fully accessible toilets, in the hope that a surge of posts, coming from a range of perspectives, might break through the social media noise and reach new people.  And I think we succeeded, at least to some extent!

The name ‘Changing Places’ can be a bit confusing and abstract from peoples lives.  Having a mix of parent bloggers, who don’t normally write about toilets (well some of them do, but maybe not always about changing places!), might make the story more relatable to people who don’t need them.

We decided on Halloween as a date to publish and decided on the theme of #phantomloos (as standard accessible WCs just being an illusion of accessibility to many of us!).

Many of the bloggers hooked up to last month’s #accessibilitystories and there are so many amazing posts I figure it’s just better if you hop over there and have a browse!  I’ll just pick out this storyboard style post by Little Mama Murphy which gives such a clear description of what we are talking about and why, that surely it’s just obvious there should be more changing places!  You can also check out this #PhantomLoos storify a try to capture the mood around the hashtag on twitter.

The most exciting thing to come of the flurry of activity was that a BBC journalist contacted a number of us who had taken part as she was writing up this fantastic article, When does accessible not mean accessible?, published last weekend, on #worldtoiletday!

The linky wasn’t only about toilets though!

Rainbows Are Too Beautiful linked up this beautiful, balanced and heartfelt open letter to Tess Stimson in response to an article she wrote about ‘disruptive’ behaviour in public places.  Rainbows Are Too Beautiful explains how precarious it can be as a family trying to walk that line between tolerance and intolerance and how the limitations society places on what is acceptable can deny people access to typical family life. Have a scroll through the comments to see a thoughtful response from Tess Stimson herself.

And finally A Hunter’s Life posted a great list of their families favourite products! I’m always excited to share great inclusive product ideas, especially those (usually the mainstream products) that don’t come with the higher ‘special needs’ or ‘disability’ price tag!

The linky for November is now open and I’m really looking forward to reading some fab posts from friends old and new!

Please read the guidelines and then get linking below (the linky will be open for 2 weeks)!

Rusty old key in a door lock

Guidelines:

  1. Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! I don’t have a badge, but it would be lovely if you could add a text link back to my site so people can find the linky and read the other blog entries;
  2. Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences!
  3. It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessibilityStories) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility!  I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!
  4. I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators (so pretty much everyone then!). I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.



Posted on

Accessibility Stories (Oct 16)

Rusty old key in a door lock

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up with my first ever #AccessibilityStories linky last month!

Perhaps it’s a reflection on the circles I move in (the toilet obsessed!), that several of the blogs linked were posts about changing places toilets.  A lack of true accessibility and inclusion, affecting so many families (including ours) being able to take part in ‘normal’ activities across the whole country!

Brody, Me & GDD beautifully describes the grim realisation as her boy grows that there is very little toilet provision for older children and adults who need assistance in the loo, and comes to the conclusion that she must do something about it! “We can choose to be affected by the world. Or we can choose to affect it”

Mum On a Mission describes so eloquently the heartbreak of her and her son having to ‘make do’ in an unsuitable ‘accessible’ toilet in The future I’m trying to Change and, on the Selfish Mother, she talks of the struggle of feeling unheard and unvalued, when explaining to business’ how excluded our families are made to feel, in Why are Some Customers More Valued than Others

Ordinary Hopes has written so many amazing posts about how the lack of changing places toilets limits her son’s independence and opportunities. A crucial point she makes is that her son IS continent.  Changing places toilets are not only necessary for those who need to change nappies or pads.  For her son it’s not an issue of waiting until he gets home to change a pad, or grinning and bearing a pad change in an unsuitable space – he needs the use of a hoist to be able to use the loo.  To be able to use the loo like his friends and stay out and have fun, rather than being ruled by his bladder. He is very much aware of this inequality in provision and illustrates this with his lego character Tina. However, some venues do really live up to their inclusive image and this lovely positive post about the Eden Project describes just what a difference that makes!

Little Mama Murphy linked up two posts this month about her amazing home adaptations project! Another issue so close to my heart! ‘Disabled adaptations’ can be such a confusing, limited and expensive process. Many of us watch programmes like DIY SOS and wish the team would miraculously appear and perform an amazing inclusive family transformation of our home.  Well Little Mama Murphy has managed just that! With a team of the most brilliant friends and family members, donating their time and skill to carry out the #BigBuild4Hugh! True community spirit!

Rainbows Are Too Beautiful (I love the title of this blog!) reminds us that not all accessibility needs are physical.  Sensory issues can make a place inaccessible to many people too, and she describes how her family often have to reccy a venue in advance of visiting as a whole family in Caution at the Aquarium

You can read all the posts linked so far on my Accessibility Stories Pinterest board.

Rusty old key in a door lock as an analogy for difficult access

The linky for October is now open and I’m really looking forward to reading some fab posts from friends old and new!

Please read the guidelines and then get linking below (the linky will be open for 2 weeks)!

Guidelines:

  1. Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! I don’t have a badge, but it would be lovely if you could add a text link back to my site so people can find the linky and read the other blog entries
  2. Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences!
  3. It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessibilityStories) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility!  I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!
  4. I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators (so pretty much everyone then!). I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.



Posted on

Accessibility Stories (sept 16)

I am very excited to be launching my shiny new linky today!

I’m hoping this will turn into a helpful informal tool to allow an exchange of ideas and experiences (good and bad!) of the accessibility of buildings, places, spaces and products, and to spread the message much further than our lone voices can!

Rusty old key in a door lock

I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators – so pretty much everyone then!

I intend for this to be a regular monthly thing, on the last Thursday of the month, so a round up of the month’s posts of sorts (however posts don’t have to be written that month, or indeed new!).  Depending on the number of posts linked, I’ll write up a little summary or pick out a few highlights at of the previous month’s entries when I post the next link.

I’m really looking forward to reading some fab posts from friends old and new!

Please read the guidelines and then get linking below (the link will be open for a week)!

Guidelines:

1. Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! I don’t have a badge, but it would be lovely if you could add a text link back to my site so people can find the linky and read the other blog entries.

2. Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences!

3. It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessibilityStories) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility!  I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!

4. I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.