J – Journeys

Apologies for the delay in writing this post, I aim to write one or two posts a month but sometimes this does not work out! I’m either feeling quite tired or things keep cropping up. Anyway, welcome to a long-awaited post looking at Journeys. There are all sorts of journeys which we go on and for this post I am going to look at journeys on public transport, including taxis.

I have lots of experience of taxis, especially as this is my form of transport when I go to work (before home working became more of a norm!)  I am therefore sure that most of my ‘informal’ disability awareness work has been with taxi drivers! I’ve had countless of experiences when drivers just assume that due to my physical disability, I also have a learning disability. For example, a friend was waiting with me to see me off once and the driver said to my friend ‘Does she know where she is going’, I often reply ‘well, seeing I’ve lived there all my life, I think I have got a pretty good idea!’ For me, one of the worst parts about being disabled is when people patronize me and rather than sitting back letting them think that I do have a learning disability I will make it my mission to make them realise otherwise. For example, I have been known to get papers out of my bag and start reading them just to make the point that I can read. Or if the radio is on then I will try to make an intelligent comment about the news bulletin.  If is therefore a huge relief when the driver has got to know me and I can just sit back and let them take me wherever I need to go – even having a sensible conversation en route.

I really enjoy being able to use buses to meet friends and/or to go on shopping trips further afield than my town centre. I just love to be totally independent sometimes. Getting my bus pass seemed to give me even more enjoyment in using buses as I no longer needed to worry about getting the driver to understand exactly where I was going. Out of politeness I do always say where I am going but I know as they do not need to work out the fare, then this information is not crucial. Unless of course I get on the wrong bus and it doesn’t go where I think it goes – but this has not happened yet.

A couple of times a year I will also use trains, using a train feels more challenging than a bus with going into London being the most challenging. At the most I only go into London once or twice a year and this is mostly for a work meeting. As I now work as a Disability Champion, I feel it is easier for me to say ‘no’ to going to places where a trip on the underground is needed. I don’t mind too much going to Euston or somewhere near Euston – although even then I am still very happy to get home! The only other time I use trains is if I want to go away for a few nights independent of Mum and Dad – obviously avoiding London at all costs!

When using trains, I usually do so without getting assistance although on one of my train trips I had very painful feet so I felt like I really did need help. The experience was both good and bad. It wasn’t until the morning I decided that I really did need assistance (Mum and Dad were away themselves so I couldn’t really call on them and I did not want to let my friend down by not going at all.) I had heard that you need to book assistance at least 24 hours before so I did not hold out much hope seeing that it was only 2 hours in advance.  (I’ve heard other disabled people rightly moan that just because you need assistance then you cannot make a spontaneous journey.) To my surprise however, they said ‘yes, someone will be waiting for you at the station’ true to their word they were waiting, took my luggage and saw me onto the train. It then went a little bit down hill as although I had told them where I needed to change trains when I came to change, there was no one there to help. I wasn’t quite sure what to do as I did not want to get off myself, if someone was coming to help but neither did, I want to end up going somewhere completely different. Fortunately, I did manage to get off myself, but because I’d left it to the last minute, I ended up falling onto the platform – luckily only sustaining a few small bruises!  However, that experience made me realise how difficult it is for people who use wheel chairs and do not have the ability to get off. When I made my return journey luckily my feet were better so I did not book assistance and I did it solo! There were always other people around who would help me with my case, if needs be.  My conclusion therefore is like what I say about technology, railway assistance is brilliant when it works but useless when it doesn’t!