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
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:
- 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;
- 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!
- 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!
- 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.
