Disability Wales have recently published a toolkit regarding the Social Model of Disability. An interesting read, and certainly something we already strive to aim for.
Reading it brought back a memory from just over a decade ago ago, when an Occupational Therapist told me they couldn’t assess a potential new house for accessibility with a ramp outside. They wanted to assess the property with my husband inside. But he couldn’t actually get in without a ramp. And they very seriously told us that having a ramp in place would mean they could not assess it at all.
Several years later, we had a similar situation of a step in the way when looking around a property, except my husband had his FourX- which of course is designed to make kerbs and steps a non-issue. The site manager and the OT (not the same one from before!) were worried about it, felt they’d dropped the ball as the other entrances weren’t ready yet. But he just went in, and then it wasn’t a problem anymore for them- I don’t think they realised, until they saw it, that a solution was available, and it didn’t involve a lot of fuss. The right items, the right aids, the right adaptations etc, remove the restrictions.
It’s not bad to use an aid that makes your life better.
Toolkits and policies are all very good on paper- but it’s important that common sense is also practiced alongside.
Also not everyone identifies as disabled, even if they might be considered disabled by others.
I personally have found some health professionals don’t have a good grasp of that concept- they cannot understand that someone using a wheelchair because it gives them freedom to get around, might not consider themselves ‘sick’ or ‘unwell’.
There is a huge amount of bias and negativity towards disability in the UK, and in our past experience, a lot of it came from people who should know better.
Any step forward to change this is good.
