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Access Linky: May 2018

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

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!

Access Linky social media graphic

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!

 

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: 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 Oct 2017

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

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!

Share your accessibility stories on Access Linky. Open from 1st of the month for 3 weeks

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!

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. 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.

Posted on

Accessibility Stories 07.17

a rusty key with #accesslinky written below

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!

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

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!

Inclusive Home

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:

  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.


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