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The lengths this architect will go to

Photo of Vaila on the loo (camera positioned discreetly!)

Dear Architects of the UK (and the rest of the world),

I want to talk to you about toilets.

I know the loos are not the most glamorous aspect of building design, but they are kind of fundamental aren’t they?

Would you ever dream of designing a publicly accessible building or place of work without one?

And of course any new building or refurb would have accessible toilets wherever there are toilets too?

But did you know that regular ‘wheelchair accessible toilets’ (doc M style toilets) are NOT accessible to all wheelchair users or even all mobile disabled people?

Photo of Vaila on the loo, with text: I'm getting my pants down 4 equality, Looathon, 11 May, Bathstore, Bathstore, Baker St London

My daughter is one of those wheelchair users, which means our whole family’s movements are dictated by access to the most elusive type of toilet in the country.

In my home city of Cambridge (a vibrant, tourist destination) there is only one, registered changing places toilet in the city centre. Yes, just one toilet in the whole of Cambridge that my daughter can use, other than the toilets at her school and a toilet at the hospital on the edge of town.

Playmobil family, to represent our family, on a woodland pathIn London you can count on one hand the number of changing places toilets in the West End.

Therefore my family cannot visit the West End together.

We CAN visit the 2014 Stirling Prize winning Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, but we CAN’T visit the most recent Stirling Prize winning buildings (judged to be the best buildings of those years!?), or at least our visit would be hugely compromised, compared to other visitors, as we would need to leave as soon as it was time to use the toilet.

I carried out a survey monkey last year aimed at architects and building designers.  Unfortunately (despite many regional RIBA chapters sharing it for me in their newsletters) I didn’t get a huge take up, perhaps because it’s not a very attention grabbing topic.

However, I think the results I did get gave some insight into why we still only have just over 1000 changing places in the whole UK.

Extract from survey showing bar chart of responses illustrating 54% of architects said no the question about having installed a changing places toilet

Of the…

…71 ARCHITECTS SURVEYED, AS MANY AS 54% HAD NOT INSTALLED A CHANGING PLACES TOILET…

…and those that had were mostly in community, care or educational settings (which are obviously very necessary), but very few in commercial installations at all, places where families like mine would like to be able to ‘go’ like other families (museums, cinemas, bowling alleys, theatres, department stores etc).

Personally I would love to see better guidance and I think there is mileage in there being more flexibility in the design of toilet standards in general, and that seemed to be echoed in many of the comments I received in my survey.

(I want to see some formal research on this topic, so if anyone can help in that department do get in touch!)

Following on from the success of her fantastic #LooAdvent campaign at christmas, amazing changing places champion, Sarah Brisdion, has organised a #Looathon with the great people of Bathstore in Baker Street on 11th May!

I deliberated about joining in, I am not an exhibitionist!  However my first blog post on this topic was over 2 years ago, I’ve spoken to anyone who will listen! Yet still we have only one toilet in my home city and a handful in central London. And so, I have decided to join Sarah and a whole host of other amazing accessibility champions, volunteering to put ourselves in an undignified position because our built environment robs our friends and relatives of their dignity daily…

…AND SO I FIND MYSELF GOING TO THESE LENGTHS TO TRY TO RAISE AWARENESS, WITHIN MY OWN PROFESSION, ABOUT THE EXCLUSION MY FAMILY FACES IN MOST OF OUR PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE BUILDINGS…

I would like to extend an invitation to any architects, the RIBA, the building design media & building professional bodies to come along and meet us to get a first hand view of why we need this change in attitude to toilet design!  Also there will be a mobile changing places toilet at the event, a Mobiloo, so you will be able to see what is possible, even in the back of a van!

 

Letters to my Daughter

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Introducing the CamperWAV

Camper WAV

At the beginning of last year it came time for us to reassess what we needed from our car, as the poor old ‘blue car’ (our 10 year old Renault Scenic) was beginning to feel a bit of a squeeze! Two kids with car seats, two dogs, and also a variety of wheely equipment (day-to-day wheelchair, off-road wheelchair, toddler scooter, bike etc) to transport at various times left us little breathing space. Not to mention that the blue car needed a fair bit of TLC (money thrown at it!) the electric windows had been broken all winter!

Picture of the Camper set up on a campsite with text "introducing the CamperWAV"The first question was, should we upgrade our accessibility to a WAV (a wheelchair accessible vehicle)?

J is still small enough to lift in and out of the car, so we considered just getting a slightly bigger, regular family car.  Perhaps investing in a turny chair (they look fab!) as J is now pretty good at assisted standing transfers from her wheelchair.

Simultaneously, and perhaps seemingly unrelated, we’ve also been finding holidays can be really tricky for us as J needs a safe bed to sleep in.  We have to take an inflatable bed with raised sides and always have to run around hotel rooms or holiday homes making everything J safe (which is a similar concept to ‘toddler safe’, but for someone much taller and with a very long reach!)!  It can be pretty stressful, and so we dabbled with a bit of camping last year, as we are more control of our own environment that way, and we all really enjoyed it.

We (I say we, but I think it was really just me) had had a slightly mad idea that we could do with a small caravan (again limted by access to our driveway, it would have to be the smallest of small caravans like this cutey here)!  We even went to the caravan and campervan show last year and checked some out!

The other thing (which won’t come as a surprise if you read my blog regularly!) which we struggle with on a day to day basis, is a lack of toilet facilities that J can use (changing places type toilets).  The older J gets, the more it’s really beginning to limit family days out.  It turns my stomach to think of changing J on the floor of a public loo, so we’d been changing her in the car, but that was getting too awkward for space & lack of privacy.

It then dawned on me (I say me, as I think Mr M had this in mind all along!) that we could look for a vehicle that could multitask! A WAV, a camper and a day to day base camp for toileting J (like a super basic Mobiloo of our own!)!?

Having noticed that many of our friends had WAVs that looked incredibly like the modern version of the VW camper van (because essentially the VW transporter & caravelle are the same base model as the camper!), we decided to have a serious look at the VW campervans!

Volkswagen California brochureSo off we trotted to the VW van dealership to have a look at what they had, the pros and cons of new v old, buying or leasing via Motability,  Caravelle v California, Campervan v WAV (and more than a little bit of scrutiny over the dimensions for getting down our lane, and out again!)….. and in the end we decided to invest in a VW California Beach!

Thus our CamperWAV was born!

This Beach is the most basic factory built VW campervan.  It has no kitchen or fitted cabinets, so it has the maximum space inside.  It’s pretty much the same interior as a Caravelle, but the main differences being it has a rear bench seat that folds into a bed, a pop up roof which creates a 2nd double bed, in built electric hook up point & sockets throughout plus a table and camping chairs that slot neatly into the sliding door and tailgate!  It also has integrated blinds, which sounds a bit superficial but they are a winner when it comes to privacy! Essential for when camping, but they enable us to create privacy day to day if needed for a micro changing places on wheels!

We got the wheelchair access conversion done via our VW dealer and again we went for the simplest option to start with – a side ramp with fixings for the wheelchair clamps positioned in the middle section, between the front seats and bench, so that they don’t interfere with the operation of the bench seat/bed.

J standing leaning on the table in the CamperWhen the rear bench is pushed to the back of the van, it leaves a good amount of space to enable for a camping toilet tucked in the corner and space for changing J…. we don’t tend to use the bedspace on day trips as it’s a bit of a faff taking out car seats etc.

We are still getting used to it and assessing if the adaptations are quite right for us and what improvements we can make for day to day living and refining our holiday set up!

The only hitches we have had so far are that the seatbelt fixing is not ideal for J’s wheelchair as they are only floor mounted (due to issues finding a good fixing a high level). We’re looking at other options for getting a ceiling fixing at the mo and meantime J is continuing to travel in her specialist car seat.

The wheelchair ramps we have are pretty long, and will limit where can park so I’m planning to look into alternatives for this for the future too!  Perhaps an underslung lift, or steeper ramps with winch….?

Also, in a non-adaptations related issue, we’ve found that lots of car parks have a height restriction that a small van can’t fit underneath!  So this again affects where we can park.  (This includes the city council car park in Cambridge where the shopmobility office and only registered city centre changing places toilet is located!!! So frustrating that a car park that is meant to enable disabled people excludes people with van style WAVs!)

In terms of funding.  We ended up opting to buy our own vehicle (with some financial help!) because we wanted to go down this multi-tasking route and we see this as a very long term investment (and there’s a pretty great re-sale return on camper vans too).
We did investigate motability, and if we had decided on a family style car again, I think that would have been the best option, but we found that the larger WAV options required a large deposit and of course they wouldn’t have been up for us making left field camper adaptations to one of their vehicles!
We also did look at a whole load of interesting conversions and did consider having something bespoke done using a 2nd hand caravelle or transporter base model, but by the time you add the cost of adding pop-up roof etc, the basic California Beach wasn’t so different in cost, especially as the new vehicle was bought as a wheelchair adapted vehicle, it meant we qualified for VAT relief.
So far we LOVE it! It didn’t take long at all to get used to the size and the higher driving position and it’s been liberating having the space inside!
Watch out for more CamperWAV posts coming soon!

 

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Access Linky: April 2018

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

Happy Easter all!

Welcome to my blog link-up for sharing posts with ideas and experiences (good and bad!) of physical or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces, products and/or activities!

Access Linky social media graphic

I don’t know where this year is going!? A whole school term gone and it’s April Already!

Linky Round Up:

In the round up from last time, Cerys writes about her fun day out Visiting Birmingham Art Gallery on Life and Other Stories Blog! Love the idea of the rainbow show!

Rainbow’s Are Too Beautiful shared a couple of her posts.  The first was a great summary of options for Moving up in Education for autistic young adults.  The next, particularly apt with it being World Autism Awareness Day tomorrow, she explains why she considers even just A few Autism Friendly Events very welcome!

Ordinary Hopes says Be Like Bob and support the Changing Places Toilet campaign! The campaign that many of us wonder why it has to exist at all? Shouldn’t equality legislation mean that everyone should have reasonable access to a suitable toilet in buildings that have toilets?

The Long Chain explains how It Ain’t Easy Being Green and that, despite all the best intentions in the world, there are many reasons some people can’t just ‘go plastic free’ as easily as others.

Inclusive Home

The linky will be open for 3 weeks!

  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 above 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.

….and don’t forget to check in again next month (1st of the month) to read the round up, and link up again!


Posted on

Access Linky: March 2018

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

Welcome to the March 2018 #AccessLinky!

A blog link-up for sharing posts with ideas and experiences (good and bad!) about physical or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces, products and/or activities!

Access Linky social media graphic

I hope everyone is managing in this cold snap!

Hoping the ‘Beast from the East’ will soon be off back to it’s lair until next winter!

Linky Round Up:

The first in the round up is very appropriate for this week’s snow (and the inevitable springtime showers yet to come!), Rainbow’s Are Too Beautiful linked up these top tips for autistic kids in wet weather!

It was great to hear from some new linker uppers, and still on the theme of getting out and about, Sensational Learning with Penguin wrote about their visit to a National Trust property and gardens at Scotney Castle in Kent.  The NT is a big favourite of our family too, especially those with large grounds to explore and somewhere to buy cake! (The old houses are not usually so wheelchair accessible!).

Another great set of tips for families was Starlight and Stories’ ideas to help autistic kids to navigate the sea of homework.

Perhaps seemingly a bit off-piste for this linky, is an issue that’s been a big focus in the news, is the rising momentum to reduce plastic waste.  Great! I’m all for reducing our environmental impact, but it seems the poor plastic straw is getting the brunt of the blame for this!  Wheelscapades wrote this great piece, The Last Straw, explaining the wider context of the calls to #banthestraw and it’s impact on disabled people, which inspired me also to write don’t vilify all the plastic.

World of Gorgeous Grace joined the linky highlighting the current Blue Badge scheme government consultation, with some examples of her own families experiences, and urges anyone with experience of the need for greater access to parking to take part!

Also on the theme of government services, The Long Chain writes of the Postcode Lottery that seems to exist when it comes to accessing appropriate advice, services and equipment.  Is a more effective centralised code of practice required to make sure all children receive what they need regardless of location within the UK?

Finally, Life and Other Stories Blog, writes To Know Me is to Understand Me in surprise at some statistics about how many people don’t believe they know someone with a disability! How is disability to be accepted, and access and inclusion become the standard, if people don’t even see it!?

Inclusive Home

The linky will be open for 3 weeks!

  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 above 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.

….and don’t forget to check in again next month (1st of the month) to read the round up, and link up again!


Posted on

Access Linky: Feb 2018

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

Welcome to the February 2018 #AccessLinky!

A blog link-up for sharing posts with ideas and experiences (good and bad!) about physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces, products and/or activities!

Access Linky social media graphic

I’m not sure quite what’s happened to January, it seems that half term is almost upon us and I’m only just getting back into my routine after Christmas!

Linky Round Up:

Last month’s linky was brilliant for the wide variety of posts linked up!

Starting with one after my own heart… making accessible design stylish! Wheel Chic Home shared this review of a great new company with a mission to improve the choice of handrails and customiseable grab rails for people to be able to match their own home style.

Provision of accessible toilets and the lack of awareness of the need for changing places toilets were a focus for this (you wouldn’t think you would have to state the obvious titled) post, My 7 year old disabled child is not a baby, by A Wheelie Great Adventure, and raising awareness in more light hearted way, Ordinary Hopes parodies the toddler book series by Usborne with That’s Not My Toilet!

School provision is a huge challenge generally, but can be more of a battle for children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities), and Rainbows are too Beautiful shared this enlightening (and saddening) post outlining why the Huge rise in SEND appeals is not a surprise.

But on a happier note, Rainbows are too Beautiful also shared this lovely post about Getting our family out for activities, with focus on a fun family cycle ride in the forest!

And finally, Wheelscapades gave a round up of her #WheelOfFact hashtag series! I somehow managed to miss this last year, but sounds like a brilliant series to join in with…..

“Every Friday I would tweet a fact that was based on my blogging subjects. Many of these were disability related facts however I lightened it up a little by interspersing the gritty with facts about tea or cats or the festive period.”

… are you in!?

 

Inclusive Home

The linky will be open for 3 weeks!

  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 above 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.

….and don’t forget to check in again next month (1st of the month) to read the round up, and link up again!


Posted on

Access Linky: Jan 2018

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

Happy New Year access friends! Welcome to the first #AccessLinky of 2018!

Access Linky social media graphic

The linky was a little bit quiet last month, what with that little thing called Christmas taking over our lives!  It does mean I get to do a more thorough round up of all the posts linked up though… yay!

Round Up:

If you have starting school age kids, it’s that time of year when you are making the final adjustments on that statement on their application (something we’re doing for our youngest!), however when your child has special educational needs (SEN) it can be an even more stressful and complicated process to find and secure the right setting! Rainbows Are Too Beautiful sets out a really handy summary of the options in her her post Six School Possibilities for SEND kids.

This post (The Long Haul) by The Long Chain strikes so many chords for me, and is the reason I campaign! Please please read it all, but I had to share this quote from the post:

“Any problems we might face over the coming years are not because of Benjamin and his disabilities, but because we live in a world that values profit and popularity over people, that pays lip-service to equality but neglects to make reasonable adjustments towards inclusion, that celebrates diversity but assumes the only purpose of prenatal testing is to facilitate the eradication of ‘diseases’ such as Downs Syndrome”

We need society to embrace the social model of disability and create an inclusive environment, so that children such as Benjamin and his family (and our family!) don’t become excluded as they grow older (and bigger) and can live their lives freely!

A Modern Christmas Carol by A Wheelie Great Adventure is a brilliant analogy for the issues around trying to get big business to engage with the changing places toilets campaign!  Let’s hope the Christmas future brings those changes!

And finally, imagine if people were pleasant and courteous (and not impatient!) all the time!?  A little glimpse from Wheelscapades into how an everyday experience can make for A Jolly Good Day if people make a little effort to treat each other kindly and with respect!

Please do check in again next month and catch up with the linked blog posts and the round up!

Linky Info:

The linky will be open for 3 weeks! Share your posts about ideas and experiences (good and bad!) around physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces, products and/or activities below…. and don’t forget to check in again next month to read the round up and link up again!

Inclusive Home





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 above 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. 

  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. 

  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. 

  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.
    5. 










	


	





		

		
Posted on 
2017 positivity
	


			

			
				2017 best nine			
		

	
	

		
It’s so easy to get so absorbed in the nitty gritty of the day to day, that you can miss seeing all the little achievements and milestones that you’ve reached.  2017 was not all cupcakes and rainbows of course, but I thought I’d take a look back at some of the big the positives from the past year, and I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I wanted to try and fit into this post!


2017 best nine
My own choices for instagram #2017bestnine


2017 started with a lot of talk about accessible toilets, thanks in the main to the amazing Anne Wafula Strike for speaking out about a horrible experience she had on the train.


changing places selfie with BBC Look East reporter & cameramanThis media attention lead to our family being featured in a little film with our local BBC new channel, which I wrote about here, and throughout the year changing places toilets were in the news on various occasions, thanks to the clever ideas of fellow campaigners! Most recently Hadley’s Hero’s amazing #LooAdvent making The Last Leg and being featured on the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2!


This year I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about the origins of the changing places toilet standards, the research they’re based on, meeting various (official & unofficial!) campaigners and the processes for contributing to legislation changes.


This included contributing to a number of different government consultations, something I’ve never done before, but really interesting to have potential to help influence policy & standards!   The main ones this year being an inquiry by the Women & Equalities Committee which enabled me to contribute to the discussion on both accessible housing and changing places toilets (my two favourite themes!) – I even got a little mention in both those sections of the Disability and the Built Environment Inquiry Report, so it was definitely worth doing!


The other main accessibility consultation of the year being on the draft of BS 8300, the British Standard document which deals with accessibility of the built environment.  I’m afraid I was a little underwhelmed by the accessible toilets section and still feel that it reads as though some disabled people are Slightly Invisible when it comes to inclusion.


2017 saw us also actually encountering our first 3 (!) real life changing places toilets!: Grand Arcade multi-storey car park in Cambridge, Mid-Suffolk Leisure Centre in Stowmarket and Kirroughtree Visitor Centre in Galloway Forest Park – We actually travelled over an hour off our route home from Ayrshire to Cambridgeshire to visit Kirroughtree, as we wanted a family friendly car break, with facilities we could ALL use!  Very exciting and liberating for us, but when I try and put it into context with how many toilets (that other people can use) that we may have encountered in all the other places we visited throughout the year (can’t even begin to count!?) it’s a little soul destroying that we are still where we are.


Another exciting dabble in how legislation works, was to find that my MP (Heidi Allen)’s amendment to the Neighbourhood Planning Bill regarding accessible housing had been adopted into the legislation! I had popped along to her surgery at the end of last year to ask about ways we could improve accessible housing provision and she had been really interested and pursued the idea, having previously met with Papworth Trust, and the following week was meeting Habinteg (both influential in accessible housing research and standards) – it was really interesting to see how these things unfold and although things could always be further reaching – I want to give a huge thanks to Heidi Allen for pushing accessible housing up the agenda in housing legislation!


Cambridge Home Show programmeI also want to give a huge thanks to Jennifer of the Cambridge Home and Garden Show for being so supportive of the concept of inclusive design and featuring it within the first show of it’s kind in Cambridge! I’m not sure how good I job I managed to do (speaking is not really in my comfort zone!) but I gave a little talk about the benefits of inclusive design for everyone! I would love to be involved in the show again in the future, and may look towards taking a stand at this or other similar events to give advice to householders on how they could maximise the potential accessibility of their homes to make them welcoming to all of their family and friends!


Badge with DFG Champion graphicAnother housing thing I went along to this year was a DFG Champions Roadshow, run by Foundations HIA, to help link up professionals keen to improve the DFG (Disabled Facilities Grant) process.  It was interesting to see all the work going on behind the scenes and the efforts going on to improve things all the time.  As someone slightly on the edge of the process it was really nice to be welcomed into the Champions, and my ideas and experiences welcome in the debate.  Some of the info from the roadshow I attended, and the others that have been held can be viewed on the Foundations website.


A massive surprise early last year was that I was nominated in the inaugural BAPs Awards, in the Campaigning For Change category! The awards ceremony (hosted by the fabulous Sally Phillips!) was a fantastic night and it was so lovely to meet so many amazing people all out there making the world a more understanding and inclusive place!


 


At the end of the summer, as a family, we attended Parallel London for the first time! It was awesome! A properly inclusive event and family festival! The motto for taking part in the races was, “start together, finish whenever”! We took part in the sensory 1K designed by the brilliant Joanna Grace (@jo3grace) and J and I walked the last 50m!  It was extra touching that Joanna welcomed J over the finish line (see the bottom left image in best nine pic above)!  Parallel London is definitely on our ‘things to do list’ again in 2018, I couldn’t recommend it enough!


In the summer we finally bit the bullet and decided to invest in a new car.  A Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (a WAV), but if we were going to buy get a bigger vehicle we decided to go the whole way and make it work for us in as many ways as possible…. so not just a WAV, but a CamperWAV!  We’ve only managed to stay away one weekend in it so far, but have lots of adventures planned for this year, and it’s been invaluable for other reasons too! (Check out the CamperWAV tab above to find out more!)


And finally we had some amazing family experiences over the year, from lovely days out and holidays to milestones reached by my little lovelies! The biggest being J mastering pulling herself up to stand all by herself and the biggest for her little bro was finally braving putting his face in the water at swimming lessons!


So as we step into 2018, I’m looking forward to progress with my campaigning and lobbying for better accessible toilet standards & to reaching a wider audience with the concept of inclusive home design!  We have finally had some concerted time to get our own ‘inclusive home’ plans back on track and hope to be able to get on with the actual construction work to our house in the Spring/Summer!


Here’s to a more inclusive and accessible 2018!


Happy New Year!


 

	


	





		

		
Posted on 
Access Linky Dec 2017
	


			

			
				a rusty key with #accesslinky written below			
		

	
	

		
Hello and welcome to the last Access Linky of 2017!


Access Linky social media graphic


Thank you so much to everyone who’s joined me over the last year! It’s been great to share posts from familiar blogs and brilliant to be introduced to new bloggers too!


Round Up:


It was World Toilet Day on 19th November and a number of great posts raising awareness of changing places toilets were linked up! Ordinary Hopes expresses dismay about the imbalance of media interest between able and disabled people being forced into degrading situations in One bad day for you is Groundhog Day for us, Rainbows Are Too Beautiful links with Makaton Charity’s sign of the day, Toilet, and A Wheelie Great Adventure points out the shocking fact that Even our Hospital doesn’t have a toilet we can safely use (this goes for the majority of hospitals & clinics!)!


Sparked by some comments by Chris Packam in his fantastic documentary “Aspergers and Me”, A Blog About Raising My Autistic Son asks Are Schools Autism Friendly? in terms of the building and interior design? This is an aspect of design that the building industry is just beginning to address so has a long way to go!


Also on the note of inclusive design, this time products, Millie’s Movement asks why toy companies don’t Design with Disability in Mind, particularly ride on toys in larger sizes for disabled children?  As soon as your child is just a little larger than the average toddler, products become ‘specialist’ and come with a massive price hike!


Life and other Stories’ daughter Cerys writes a lovely review of her visit to Brockhampton National Trust over the half term, which involved some Broomstick making!


Wheelscapades post, Just a Little Respect, gave us a little insight into hiring a PA, the hidden, time consuming and often frustrating administrative side of maintaining independence.


And finally Rainbows Are Too Beautiful linked up a really useful set of Fireworks Dos and Don’ts for Our Autistic Kids – useful tips to help deal with the sensory overload of Christmas and fireworks at New Year!


Please do check in again next month for the first linky of 2018 and catch up with the linked blog posts in the round up!


Linky Info:


The linky will be open for 3 weeks! Share your posts about ideas and experiences (good and bad!) around physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces, products and/or activities below…. and don’t forget to check in again next month to read the round up and link up again!


Inclusive Home







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 above 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. 

  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. 

  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. 

  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.
    5. 










	


	





		

		
Posted on 
Sensory Advent
	


	
	

		
#sensoryadvent list: music, pine, story, lights, gingerbread, sparkle, tree, spices, chocolate, tinsel, reindeer, pants, bells, cinnamon, wrapping, bauble, stockings, snow, crackers, carols, mince pies, santa, nativity, familyAlthough she would never say no to a bit of chocolate, the whole advent calendar thing is just not on J’s radar!


So this year I thought I might try a more open approach to the big Christmas countdown and have put together a list of themes with a sensory flavour.


I thought it might be fun if anyone fancies joining me in this little advent challenge on social media too!


It could be a mostly photo based Instachallenge or could be blogs, Facebook posts, tweets or a mixture of all!?


There’s absolutely no pressure about how many days you join in (I’m not sure I’ll manage every day myself!)…. but if you do join in then it would be brilliant if you could use the hashtag #sensoryadvent so we can see what each other are up to, and share some festive sensory fun!

	


	





		

		
Posted on 
All I Want For Christmas Is A Loo
	


			

			
							
		

	
	

		
As it already appears to be Christmas advert and Christmas song season, it seems fitting to re-release this brilliant video from last year!


The amazing Sarah of Hadley’s Heroes came up with the idea to raise some awareness of the lack of changing places toilets whilst spreading some festive cheer, she rallied her brilliant friends and the collective of parent carers at My Changing Place and pulled this together just before the big day last year!


This year we’d like to try and spread the message for greater inclusion even further, in what better way, in the festive season, than in the medium of song!? Please watch and share and encourage all venues with customer and visitor toilets to have a think about exactly how accessible they really are!


(If you keep a lookout you’ll see J’s wee face appear a couple of times 😀 )




(Unfortunately the My Changing Places website is no longer active, but if you want to find out some more about the need for changing places toilets you can have a read of some of my earlier posts, for example check out the toilets illustrates why ‘disabled toilets’ are not for all disabled people and some other earlier posts here.)


You can also sign this petition to lobby government to make changing places legislation more definitive!


Keep Calm and Carry On Linking Sunday

	


	





		

		
Posted on 
Access Linky Nov 2017
	


			

			
				a rusty key with #accesslinky written below			
		

	
	

		
Hello and welcome to the November Access Linky!


Only 1 day late this time!…. Sorry everyone… excuses, excuses but it’s been a hectic couple of weeks between half term, several important birthdays, anniversaries (including the blog!) and halloween!


Access Linky social media graphic


Thank you so much to all the joiner uppers last time, there was a fab variety of posts and from a great range of bloggers too!


Too many to highlight individually in the round up this time (which is amazing!), but you can see all the posts that have been  linked up previously here on my #AccessLinky Pinterest Board – Do hop over and take a look!


Round Up:


To start the round up is a fantastic post by A Blog About Raising My Autistic Son about accessibility in general terms, and how good strategies can impact much more than just the intended user group, as she looks back at the phenomenon of the curb cut effect in Accessibility – It’s Good For Everyone


The fab Wheelchair Chic Home linked a couple of posts, and I’ve picked out this one about How to make your home more accessible for your guests (since being about home design it’s right up my street!)! Some great tips here if you have any elderly or disabled friends or family coming to visit, especially over the festive period (it is November now, it is ok to mention Christmas, isn’t it!?)!


Also on the theme of home, I found this post by The Sun Will Come Up really moving. Home is Where the Heart Is and moving home can be stressful and emotional at any time, particularly from a family home, but even more so with the added restriction that your new home needs to be more accessible.  Finding an accessible home is not easy anyway, and family sized ones are the hardest to come by! We need more choice in inclusive housing! Have I mentioned this before? 😉


Ordinary Hopes discusses a topic that I’ve been wondering a lot about myself recently, about the narrow perception of what a wheelchair user can and can’t do.  In the context of legislation for example, I really wonder how much consideration is given to the fact that Some Wheelchair Users Do and Some Don’t self transfer!?


And to finish my summary, a super heartwarming post by The Long Chain about What a Difference a Drug Makes.  Not on the face of it a blog about accessibility perhaps, but actually embodying very fundamentals of access! Access to the right treatment and medication is access to living life you your fullest! Loving that gorgeous photo of Benjamin smiley and wide awake!


Please do 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!


Linky Info:


The linky will be open for 3 weeks! Share your posts about ideas and experiences (good and bad!) around physical and/or sensory accessibility of buildings, places, spaces, products and/or activities below…. and don’t forget to check in again next month to read the round up and link up again!


Inclusive Home







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 above 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. 

  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. 

  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. 

  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.
    5.