Access Linky: January 2019
Access Linky: June 2018
Helloooo! Huge apologies to my regular readers and linker uppers…. I’m a whole week late!
I shall blame half term for throwing me out of sync, but it’s really more down to my own disorganisation!
Anyhoo…. 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!
Linky Round Up:
There were three main themes to the posts linked up last time:
TRAVEL
Life of an Ambitious Turtle shared her family’s (very positive!) experience of Getting Around Costa Almeria. Finding a wheelchair accessible coach was definitely a surprise!
And also a much less positive account of travelling on UK buses. Fi is a mum of two and a wheelchair user, so the buggy ‘v’ wheelchair debate on buses impacts her family from both angles!
(My own feeling – as usual! – is that better design could definitely help here! If there was more flexible space on regular buses, like there is on airport buses/buses at the NEC etc, more people with different access needs could be accommodated more easily!)
ACTIVITIES
Parties can be tricky for autistic kids, kids with sensory sensitivities and other disabilities, Rainbow’s Are Too Beautiful shares some brilliant ideas for planning an inclusive birthday party for her daughter that her autistic boys were also able to enjoy!
How do you participate in that big day in a Brownies’ calendar, making a promise, if you aren’t able to recite the promise? A Wheelie Great Adventure’s little girl did!
I talk a lot about toilet access in my blog, but needing access to toilets is not really about the toilets, it’s about the activities they enable you to participate in! Have a look at all the great stuff Ordinary Hopes and her son have been up to when there’s been a Mobiloo on location!
AWARENESS
And finally, Bryony – Perfectly Imperfect Mama, linked up her really informative post for Cleft Lip and Palate Awareness week, inspired by her two nephews with the condition.
The linky will be open for 3 weeks (and as I’m late posting, that will take us to Thursday 28th – almost to the beginning of next month’s linky!)!
- 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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!
Access Linky: May 2018
Hello! Isn’t it lovely to finally see Spring arrive!
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!
I’ve had a hectic few months and I feel like I’m neglecting my own poor blog, so I’m extra happy to be able to read through and share the fab posts linked up to #AccessLinky!
Linky Round Up:
There were two snow themed posts linked up last month! That may seem a bit out of season, but it’s not so long ago we saw the ‘beast from the east’ despite the lovely warm weather we’ve seen since!
The first by Rainbows Are Two Beautiful is a genius idea! Helping her autistic son to enjoy playing in the snow without triggering his sensory sensitivities by making ‘warm snowballs!’
The second by Life of an Ambitious Turtle, describes her daughter’s experience of Accessible Skiing with a Visual Impairment! It sounded brilliant, and look out for her second instalment, accessible skiing for a wheelchair user!
Ordinary Hopes shares her disillusionment with the response, and The Offer, from one of our well known Supermarkets about their attitude to installing changing places toilets (although this particular supermarket is not the only one to disappoint on this issue!).
And finally, two posts both relevant to my own obsession over the last few weeks!
I attended Naidex last week for the first time to give a talk on inclusive home design… I’m more of a keyboard campaigner and sketcher, so it’s something pretty much out of my comfort zone… but reading this post from Life of an Ambitious Turtle on the lack of accessible homes and Senseless Social Housing Policies affecting working age disabled people, it reinforces to me how important it is to keep talking about this!
While Wheelscapades wrote up this brilliant review of her visit to Naidex in 2017! It’s a great (and unique!) opportunity to see and compare accessible and inclusive products, see lots of design innovation and to meet loads of like minded people! It’s certainly going into my diary for next year!
The linky will be open for 3 weeks!
- 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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!
The lengths this architect will go to
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?
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.
In 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.
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!
Access Linky: April 2018
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!
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.
The linky will be open for 3 weeks!
- 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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!
Access Linky: March 2018
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!
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!?
The linky will be open for 3 weeks!
- 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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!
Access Linky: Feb 2018
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!
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!?
The linky will be open for 3 weeks!
- 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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!
2017 positivity
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 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.
This 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!
I 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!
Another 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!
Access Linky Dec 2017
Hello and welcome to the last Access Linky of 2017!
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!
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 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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.
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!
Access Linky Nov 2017
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!
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!
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 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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.
Access Linky Oct 2017
Huge apologies for the lack of linky last month!
Those pesky school holidays messed up my schedule so I decided I would wait and have a relaunch today on the 1st anniversary of the linky and to change the linky date to the (much easier to remember!) 1st of the month!
Thank you so much to everyone for joining in last time, there was a fab variety of posts!
Round Up:
A number of the posts linked last time addressed the wider aspects of inclusion, and what that means for their families. The Long Chain picked out the Five Things I’d Change to enable greater inclusion for her family and Ordinary Hopes gives a heartfelt picture of how the environment & society impacts her son’s life in Children Should Not be Scared to go Out.
Things are changing and businesses are beginning to show greater awareness of access issues but this can sometimes feel like tokenism as Mum on a Mission points out in her post Are Physically Disabled Children Invisible?
Little Mama Murphy shared a lovely post about How to Talk to A Disabled Child! Yes! This is all it takes!
As part of her #SEND30DayChallenge (which I am attempting to complete too… albeit VERY slowly!), Mum on a Mission highlighted 10 Things You Don’t Know about Changing Places Toilets – although many readers of this series will know some of these as Changing Places Toilets is one of my regular topics!
It was brilliant to see a number of reviews focussing on the accessibility of places and venues! Wheelescapades reviewed on of our own family favourite places Wimpole Estate – Down on the Farm. Really interesting to read someone else’s perspective on somewhere we know so well!
A Wheelie Great Adventure reviews their experiences of a family trip to the coast in Tales of Birds, A Beach and A Bomber and Life and Other Stories’ shared a fab post written by her daughter, My Day Out by Cerys Giles. Great to hear from the next generation of access advocates!
Finally Rainbows are Too Beautiful gives some really helpful tips for those who find it a challenge to eat out with younger children and/or people with neurodivergent conditions in Tips to Take our Autistic Kids to Dinner
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!
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 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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.
Accessibility Stories 07.17
Thank you so much to all the linker uppers last month!
Apologies for running a bit late this month. The end of term and start of the school summer holidays have made their impact on my time to blog! I suspect many of you will be in a similar boat!?
Round Up:
Talking of holidays, last month Rainbows Are Too Beautiful shared an absolutely lovely little movie by @bobscartoons in her regular Wonderful Wednesday feature. Family holidays can be daunting at the best of times, but when you have access and sensory considerations to make too, it can become a mission and a half!
There were also a number of posts on inclusion last time. Both good and bad examples!
Rainbows are Too Beautiful writes a lovely message to say Thank You Little Girls after glimpsing some natural moments of acceptance and inclusion between her little boy and his classmates at his school assembly.
Raising My Autistic Son shared a post about her son’s experiences of trying to Access After School Activities and The World of Gorgeous Grace enthuses about the contrast she’s experienced in the holistic approach to inclusion after moving to a new area in her post: This is how to do Inclusion
However The Sensory Seeker speaks of a disappointing approach to inclusion at her son’s school in Not Being Different
Disabled parking, or blue badge parking, is a topic I keep meaning to write about myself, because there still seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about why it’s needed and what impact the lack of parking can have. The Long Chain explains just what this means for her and her family in This is A Disabled Parking Bay
And finally, my fantastic campaigner friend Lorna has decided to dabble in the world of blogging! Her first post about changing places toilets Even our Hospital Doesn’t Have a Toilet That We Can Safely Use was published in the #HPEveryBody series on HuffPost UK! Please read and sign her petition for #ChangingPlaces Toilets at the end of the post!
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:
I’ve switched over to Inlinkz for the linky this month as I think it’s a bit more user friendly, hope you think so too!
The 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, products and/or activities 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 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;
- 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)!
- 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!
- 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.