To think that society is far more accepting of disability discrimination than it likes to admit?

[WannaBe]

Last week a blind couple from the UK were refused to be allowed to go on the cruise they had booked, even though the company had been previously aware of their visual impairment. They travelled independently to Venice to board the boat, arrived at the boat and were told they wouldn't be allowed to travel.

Since then the company has claimed they had a medical assessment and were deemed unfit to travel (this didn't happen.)

And quite aside from the fact that the company in question (who I won't name here at the moment) have been very quiet on the matter, what has shocked me most is the fact that overwhelmingly the response has been "well, we don't know all the details. There must be more to it. After all, being blind could be a safety risk."

Cruises are recommended as excellent options for people with VI who wish to travel independently.

It seems that we are nowhere near a society which is accepting of disabilities and where people are very quick to justify rather than condemn blatant discrimination.

Companies just don't get it. My relative has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is now in a wheelchair a lot of the time and it's shocking how many shops and cafes in our town are simply not accessible. Some of them for stupid reasons as well - I have a new found hatred for signs in doorways!

Also the social work deparment and various council departments are really bad as well. Zero urgency. my relative has a set of three steps outside her house. They are on council land and she really needs a handrail. there are days where she doesn't need the wheelchair, but has to be lifted up the steps because there's nothing to hold onto to pull herself up. They don't get that because she is getting wheelchair ramps fitted on x date she really needs a handrail now.

Friends had a terrible experience on Cunard recently; husband disabled but had cruised something like 20 times with no problems.

I won't be cruising with Cunard again ...

I'm disabled and VI. The amount of bullshit I have to put up with myself, and know people who do, is appalling. You're still considering very much to be not an equal human being if you are disabled.

judy that's because to them it isn't another human, with a myriad of thoughts, emotions, plans, history, future etc like anyone else who amongst all that also needs a wheelchair. It's just a wheelchair. Not equal, and certainly not entitled to trump their oh so important need as a parent. After all wheelchairs already get loads of great shit that hard done to mummies don't, so least the wheelchair can do is share what's left.

In some ways it was easier when you never expected any access - now I know I'm entitled to reasonable adjustments at work say, and that new buildings should be accessible in an actual useable way, I end up furious way too much of the time - and that's before anyone says "but isn't everything accessible now, because of the DDA?"

Special mentions for the new Travelodge in Balham which couldn't be arsed to ramp up to the front door, so 'access' is provided by a doorbell to get someone to help, only the button is unreachable by anyone in a wheelchair because of the width of the step (wide enough to be made into a ramp...)

And my old work which introduced such onerous rules on getting anything paid for, that urgent items (like replacing a bit of disability equipment every couple years for under £100) ended up taking nearly a year to get replaced, because apparently disability isn't something to take into account when designing payment procedures. I ended up with quite a bit of disability leave on the grounds I couldn't do my job without said item - and a couple times I know a Director ended up paying for it out of their own pocket.

I can tell who real friends are as they are the ones who are willing to leave a noisy poorly-lit pub or restaurant if I can't hear+lipread - as opposed to the 99% of the population who shrug and swear they can't hear either. Once in my last job I was at a leaving do and the pub got loud and dim, people discussed moving but majority wanted to stay. I said to the leaving guy I was going to leave, no, not childcare, but I can't hear anything so no point in being here. He said "well we'd better all go then, is the X across the road better? Ok, let's go there."

I cried. It was the first time a group of people at work had actually got it and put themselves out for 5 minutes so I could be included. That's 20 years of work colleagues.

I've done work on improving diversity at work and in other settings. On the whole we're doing way better than 20 or 40 years ago on including women, ethnic minorities, LGBT people - but mainly, being inclusive of those just means tweaking a few policies and not being an arsehole.

Including disabled people involves actual thinking and possibly doing things differently, all the time. Hardly anyone actually means to discriminate against disabled people - it just happens by default.

I once listened to radio phone about disability and sex it was when undatebles first came out

And the amount of people that felt disabled People shouldn't be allowed to have sex or even date is astounding

Thats why the unbreakables was so good, it showed disabled young people as just that ..young people

Society as a whole has been infantasied due to the suing culture that has crept in. I imagine P & O could see themselves being to blame had they had an accident on board.

Well, I just listened to the "in touch" programme, and P&O have made a brief statement saying that when the passengers got on board there were concerns for their safety. They then went on to lie say that a full safety assessment was done.

I'm guessing that their "full safety assessment" was the orientation these people were given on the pretence that they wanted to do all they can to help them. At no point were they told they would be subjected to an assessment of any kind.

Bearing in mind that P&O were sent the details of their disabilities beforehand so if they had wanted to raise objections they had had ample opportunity to do so. .

pleasemothermay1 yes I remember that phone-in and remember some of the truely hideous comments that some callers made,along the lines of that the disabled having sex was just repulsive and should be banned, etc. never mind that there is an organisation which facilitates people with the most severe disabilities to have sex.

I had a major row with Thomson airlines who said that I had to be a full time wheelchair user to be able to sit in the medical seats at the front of the plane. They refused to listen to why I needed to sit there. It was like banging my head off a brick wall. I was speaking to their Special Assitance team and got no where so asked on Fb and low and behold I was given the seats.

We stayed in a TUI Club Magic Life which was ideal for disabled people with mobility problems. We had a huge wet room in the room, there were ramps everywhere and a hoist into the swimming pool. We were unaware of all this when we booked it because Thomson/First choice don't advertise it!

When I was pregnant in 1992 i wasnt offered a booking into a midwife i was offered a termination right away Gp said it would be for the best

Absolutely agree, the thing I find most frustrating is that people comment on how annoyed the disabled person was and you catch more flies with honey sort of comment, but when you have to fight all the time to just access things that other people take for granted I think it makes you almost militant at times.

Just spend a day of 2 using a wheelchair and you will soon understand!

I have a new found hatred for signs in doorways!

M&S is up there amongst the worst for that sort of thing. Store layout is tricky to negotiate in there at the best of times but from October onwards, even the wider aisles become cluttered with signs and extra shelving. I complained after having to try to get an excitable autistic pre-schooler in his Mac Major plus his bouncy, spinny, autistic older brother past a towering display of bloody champagne glasses right in the middle of the aisle on a busy November Saturday morning (and this was early morning - we steered clear after about 10:30am!) Got pretty much a drippy non answer of, oh well, we always evaluate these things to make sure they comply with the law.

I think the big problem is that laws have tightened up in the past few decades, but attitudes have stayed exactly the same in a large enough critical mass of people to mean that they miss the mark over and over again. I don't think that the people who are so obstructive even stop for one minute to consider that it's not a case of making concessions for the rare few, which makes them not matter in their eyes, but that these facilities and accommodations are likely to be needed by their parents for a few years at least, in the future, if they wish to carry on living independently for as long as possible and that, in the end, they are likely to need them too. And that's assuming that some horrible illness or the number 10 bus doesn't put them in that situation sooner, rather than later.

I've lost hope that anything will improve with time now after encountering a group of scouts on a camping weekend recently who when invited to have a game of football with our SN kids said 'we don't play with disabled children'. I'm still upset about it tbh.

If kids go on like that in this day and age then I can only imagine what their parents think.

I think the whole thing will get worse and nobody will care eventually.

Not the same as physical disability I know it's just shit all round.

That's a disgraceful story it seems the assumption is the couple themselves have difficulties cognitively and can't make decisions for themselves.

I find some areas are very disability aware and others not so much. Last year I flew from gatwick with DS, monarch, and they were fab at allowing DS and I not to queue (he has HFA) and pointing us towards the disability lane.
What gatwick has done though is out the duty free shop as the entrance to departures - nightmare for DS who gags at smells as they assault his senses.

I know a local special needs support group who refused to allow a a childs autism support dog to attend activities with him in case anyone was allergic to dog hairs or scared of dogs. I was horrified.

But on the whole this country is pretty good i reckon. We find travelling on the continent so much harder than the uk

see i can see the problem there. when my dd was little she was terrified of all animals....but that would have been a brilliant way of introducing her to a well trained dog.

"We find travelling on the continent so much harder than the uk"

In Spain last year I found dropped kerbs with wheelchair pictures on them. Great idea to stop people parking over them, except they still had half a foot drop to the road (down from about a foot on the rest of the pavement)!

My son has autism and we get comments and looks when he is having a meltdown. Outwardly he appears 'normal', it is the social isolation that is hardest to deal with, never getiing invoted anywhere or having any friends and lack of tolerance and understanding.
We are trying a holiday to Menorca soon and Thomson airways have been very accommodating - priority boarding (last), free reseved seats next to WC.:)

gamerchick did you complain to the scout leader. I would have

I hired a wheelchair in an attraction in Tenerife 2 years ago the brakes were buggered i pointed this out and the woman just shrugged and said i could come back later in the day to see if another chair had been handed back this attraction was huge with bus loads of tourists yet they couldnt be arsed to maintain the wheelchairs. I also saw a man on a hired scooter who kept breaking down on hills.

The wheelchairs and scooters provided by supermarkets are frequently broken with broken brakes or missing footrests.
And that's without my personal whinge that my hands and wrists are not up to operating the difficult twist-to-go controls on the scooters.

I cant work scooters either my depth perception is rubbish so i cant judge space and will crash