to suggest we have a new 'national service' where everyone has to spend one month a year with a disability

[StrangeAndUnusual]

Your disability is assigned randomly and is different every time. You live with all the social/access restrictions that disability entails, while carrying on with your life.

I think it would create a sea-change in disability access provision. Might even make people more pleasant to people who actually have disaiblities, too.

Just a thought ...

I reckon it would backfire, a bit like when some men parents look after their own kids for just one day then declare that being a SAHP is a piece of piss. Or it'd be like that politician years ago who lived on benefits for a week or whatever (not Portillo, this was a different guy) and declared it to be more than doable (I paraphrase). Most people can cope with hardships if they know there's an end date to it, it would give some people a sense of "well if I can cope so can they." The people who would have more compassion at the end of such an experiment are the ones who "get it" already.

Its not day to day normal people that need to have this awareness- i know i cant go to work if im in a wheelchair-im on the first floor and only stairs.

Its those in charge of rules and regulations about stuff that need this knowledge

You only need people in charge of deciding and implementing the rules about accessibility etc to have a better understanding.

Or - even at a stretch - a disability themselves ?

Just over 20 years ago, one local hospital spunked £10million on a refurbishment. We were very concerned about accessibility for when my wife was to give birth. (Bearing in mind we had to overcome the view of some people that less able women should have abortions as a matter of course - they couldn't possibly be parents).

We were assured all had been done "in consultation with leading (but unnamed) disability organisations".

Come 3:00am, just after our son was born, we discovered that none of the shower rooms could accommodate a wheelchair. I had to carry my wife in, and help her stand upright to try and wash her down. Blood everywhere. We were back home at midday - the facilities were better there.

In some ways, we've gone backwards from there, too.

@TempusEejit - sadly you are almost certainly correct ...

@araiwa - I think that day-to-day people need this too. Because often lower ranking staff can make an impact too (e.g. most hearing loops in most places are broken or the staff don't know how to work them, and the local manager never thinks it's worth flagging up to head office to get sorted).

*You could replicate that experiment on other life experiences too:

Everyone has to be on NMW for a month*

That's not the problem, though, is it? The problem is living on NMW when you need to buy a new pair of shoes or winter coat, when one of your white goods has packed up, your central heating no longer works and you can't afford to replace it, etc.

Its those in charge of rules and regulations about stuff that need this knowledge
I don't know if it even needs to be that - I'd say it needs to be the ones actually building stuff or physically implementing stuff that need the knowledge. That's where the common sense needs to be applied. It's all well and good to say that all buildings, for instance, must have access for wheelchairs, if the builder then creates an access ramp so steep that you'd have more chance scaling Everest. It ticks the boxes legally but doesn't work practically. Maybe that's where awareness training is required?

If I didn't make it clear, it's not the disability itself that you'd have to live with in my new world order.
It's the SOCIAL/ACCESS RESTRICTIONS. That's very different

But it's the social/access restrictions that make a large contribution towards a disability being a disability. Having to live with them for a whole month of every year would negatively affect everybody's lives and the country as a whole. I can see there might be a possible benefit for those living with disabilities full time but it could just as easily go the other way for them too.

And no, I didn't pick up that it was a thought experiment only so apologies for being so blunt if you weren't actually serious. But your OP reads perfectly seriously to me (ie I obviously didn't think you were advocating blinding people or breaking their legs but it did seem like you wanted people to live in wheelchairs, without being able to use their sight etc.)

It's all well and good to say that all buildings, for instance, must have access for wheelchairs, if the builder then creates an access ramp so steep that you'd have more chance scaling Everest. It ticks the boxes legally but doesn't work practically. Does it tick the box legally? I thought there were gradient standards for wheelchair ramps? Building Regulations Part M?

Or you could just be mindful and empathetic of others feelings. Instead of being selfish and only considering it when it effects your lifestyle.

@manicinsomniac Why do you think living in a wheelchair for a month would be detrimental?

Or you could just be mindful and empathetic of others feelings. Instead of being selfish and only considering it when it effects your lifestyle

Wouldn't it be lovely if people could do that. Not many can, though.

Mered There are exceptions if it's an existing building. Local planning officers will often let things slide to bring a building back into use. Building regs only work if planning officers have the desire to enforce them.

A dentist has opened a few doors away from me in a Victorian building. As they are up three flights of stairs, I will contine incurring a £25 round trip taxi bill to use an accessible dentist.

Mered that was an extreme example to show a point - I have no idea about building regulations in detail. I was trying to show that it's possible to meet legal standards in a way that is still difficult to cope with in reality, and having those doing the practical implementation being required to have more knowledge / experience of the conditions they're supposed to be helping would be a better idea.

StangeAndUnusual

To me personally?

• I wouldn't be able to do my job
• I wouldn't be able to care for my children
• I wouldn't have enough money to look after my family
• I wouldn't be able to do the activities I love and that help keep me out of a psychiatric ward.

I understand that people who use wheelchairs full time can and do do all of the above. But that's either because they are wheelchair users as their live develops or because they know a full time adaptation is needed and can make it. It's not possible to translate those life adjustments (for just one month!) to a struggling single parent of three active healthy children living in a rural area with a full time job that requires physical activity.

Or do you mean a more general 'you'? In which case my answer would be:
everything becomes so much harder for no reason.

I can observe how difficult it is to live in our society as a wheelchair user. Wheelchair users can talk to me about it. I can read about it. I don't need to live it, no (imo) do wheelchair users need me to live it. Just as I don't need others to live with my own difficulties.

Being able to plan for and anticipate a disability is very different to having it thrust upon you. And sitting there, however bad your assigned disability is, knowing it ends on x date..... very different to living with it. As much as it would be nice to think it would change attitudes to accessibility and empathy for those with issues, and even a greater understanding of what it can entail- the 'I didn't think of that issue!' moment, the simple knowledge of an end date would make the idea moot. I know I need to see an optician soon, so I'll wait until my time ends before going, rather than find an accessible optician, sort out help to get me there, sort out funding issues or whatever a disabled person has to deal with in their own circumstance.

And yes I feel you would get a lot of 'well I coped with....' when dealing with your own stuff. Just because someone dealt with something for a defined period of time doesn't mean they know my life. They also wouldn't need to deal with the biggest issues I feel I have to deal with outside of the physical, the endless dealing with ESA, PIP, UC, the torture of finding landlords that would even consider someone on disability benefits, the certain knowledge I will never be allowed to own a home and must live on the whim of people who know my options are so limited they could take advantage. A month or 3 or a year even could show how difficult it is to find and use a toilet while out and about for certain people, or difficulties using public transport say, but can never show the true fear when seeing a letter from your landlord knowing if they decide to give you notice, you have the immense task of finding a new home when the majority of landlords won't even consider you for a second. Or a letter from the govt saying your disability benefits are stopping, affecting every single part of your life. While I know this thought exercise is to cover day-to-day accessibility, pain, daily needs etc experience- you would end up with millions of people who think they know how it is, based on a short term experience, yet actually know very little and would cause life for disabled people to actually become much harder.

Being able to plan for and anticipate a disability is very different to having it thrust upon you. And sitting there, however bad your assigned disability is, knowing it ends on x date..... very different to living with it.

On that basis alone the entire UK benefits system is a crock o'shite. Many many conditions (I am thinking of Multiple Sclerosis now, as I've 20 plus years of witnessing it second hand) can be up and down (or in MS case "relapsing-remitting").

Someone with MS can be functionally 100% today, and wake up blind tomorrow (which has happened to my wife).

It was bad enough 20 years ago, but with UC has only got 1000 times worse. Try and figure out how you would manage that condition benefits wise ? Of course, todays employers would be totally sympathetic and happily take on someone in that position. I'm sure they wouldn't behave like the cunts that my wife worked for* (as a PA) when she was diagnosed, and unplug their phones to force her to walk up two flights of stairs when a message was taken. Or arrange her parking space to be on a lower level with (again) 2 flights of stairs to climb to get to work.

*Went spectacularly bust and Finance Director went to jail.

Nope, stupid idea - even as a concept it stinks.

The thing is just because you have insight into one disabillity doesnt mean you do with others ,my son has severe autism and learning disabilities I know how it affects him and us I have No idea what it would be like to be in a wheelchair though or have a child in a wheelchair.

@StrangeAndUnusual are you disabled yourself at all?

I would find it quite patronising really. And it's very different having it for a month than having it for the rest of your life. I think you'd find a vast majority did nothing much for a month then said life a disabled person was easy and restful.

Apologies - I missed the line where you talked about your blindness. I’m procrastinating from doing my tax spreadsheets, I would really rather stab myself in the face with a SPOON.

(I’m disabled but not sure this would work very well). I would be happy to be proved wrong though.

@BattleCuntGalactica (great name!) I agree, this wouldn't work at all in practice. But I think actually experiencing the frustration of completely fixable access barriers would change (some) people's attitudes. But perhaps not unless they actually identified with the group being discriminated against.

But I think actually experiencing the frustration of completely fixable access barriers would change (some) people's attitudes

getting rid of stupid needless steps would be a major start. I can't begin to list journeys that have had to be abandoned, or rerouted because of one step in the way (looks at Brindleyplace in Brum).

DG - I agree, I don't like needless steps either (blind). Bloody stupid things.

If you have a few minutes, have a read of Harrison Bergeron

YABU