BORDERS THE BOOK SHOP LETS DOWN ITS DISABLED READERS!

[salsmum]

I TOOK MY 18 YEAR OLD DD INTO BORDERS HUGE BOOKSHOP IN LAKESIDE THURROCK YESTODAY AND THOUGHT THE CHOICE FOR BOOKLOVERS WAS AMAZING.
EVERTHING FROM 'GETTING A GAY DEVORCE' TO WAVEFINDING IN TUNISIA. I THEN APPROACHED THE SALESPERSON AND ASKED IF THEY HAD BOOKS WRITTEN BY PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES FOR MY DAUGHTER TO READ AND MAYBE DRAW INSPIRATION FROM. [MY DD HAS CEREBRAL PALSY AND IS WHEELCHAIR BOUND]. DD THOUGHT THAT MAYBE 1 OF CHRISTIE BROWNS BOOKS WOULD BE AMONGST THE MILLIONS THEY HAD. [SHE HAS ALISON LAPPER'S BOOK. THE ASSISTANT LOOKED freaked PUZZLED AND TOOK US TO THE FURTHEST CORNER OF SHOP AND POINTED OUT 2 BOOKS BOTH OF WHICH WERE FOR PARENTS WHEN THEY DISCOVER THEIR CHILD HAS SN THAT WAS ALL THEY HAD. I STARTED RANTING THAT MY DAUGHTER SHOULD HAVE THE SAME READING CHOICES AS ANYONE ELSE AND HALF HOUR LATER WHEN MY DAUGHTER WENT OUT THE SHOP WITH SHEER FRUSTRATION THE ASSISTANT CAME TO ME WITH 20 PAGES OF PRINTOFFS THE MANAGER HAD DONE BUT NEARLY ALL WERE LIBRARY REFERENCE BOOKS FOR £40- £85 ...only available online!WHAT IS GOING ON? ARE THERE NO DISABLED AUTHURS OR DO THE SHOPS NOT WANT TO STOCK????

I have recently read an autobiographical book called 'four fingers and thirteen toes' written by a wheelchair bound disabled lady affected by thalidomide. This is an inspirational book about an amazing lady who has not been held back by her disability. It is available from amazon for around £10-14.

I know you were specifically ranting about BORDERS but I thought this may be of interest to your daughter.

Hope you find a better selection elsewhere!

I'm sure there but maybe they're just not categorised or tagged by the disability (eg the author might not want to be). I guess you'll need to research your own authors online then compare store prices. Or browsing the biography section, although that could take years somewhere that big. The staff obviously have no idea how to search their own stock though, that's just daft.
Good luck.

GREAT STUFF BLUEFAIRY22 I'LL CERTAINLY LOOK THAT ONE UP.
I JUST THINK THAT IT WAS SOOO DISHEARENING FOR MY DD TO SEE A SHOP SOOO BIG BUT NOT ABLE TO BUY 1 BOOK.

I agree with Bucket - that it's a case of a useless shop assistant more than anything else (though of course you could argue they should train their staff better). a small independent leftwing bookshop would probably have offered better service in this instance (but obviously you may not have one nearby)

Is this an example of letting down disabled readers? Is it valid to have a category of books written by and for disabled people? I don't think so but maybe I'm wrong.

What sort of thing did you want? An autobiography about living with cerebral palsy? Practical information book about coping with cerebral palsy? Fiction where the inspirational main character happens to have cp?

If you knew of two such authors already, did you mention these authors to the assistant so you could see if there were any others mentioned on their book covers?

And your daughter does have the same reading choice as everyone else.

pointydog - say I am looking for books on OCD or ASD - Borders will most likely have small sections on each under the health section - which usually combine medicalised books with autobiographical type books. So I guess Sal and Salsmum were expecting to be steered to a similar section with books of interest to people with physical disabilities.

Rather than ranting at people who sound as if they wanted to be helpful but were not able to be, a polite conversation or email or letter with/to the manager and perhaps Borders HQ would go further in enabling willing people to improve their service.

Found this on amazon.

POINTYDOG I WAS NOT BEING PARTICULARLY AKWARD NOR INDEED WAS I TRYING TO MAKE SOME POLITICAL STATEMENT ABOUT DISABILITY RIGHTS/DISCRIMINATION. WHAT I WAS TRYING TO DO WAS GO TO A BOOKSHOP WITH MY DAUGHTER SO SHE COULD SELECT THE TYPE OF READING MATERIAL THAT SHE PREFFERS I.E. BOOKS ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE DISABLED AND THE OBSTACLES THEY'VE HAD TO OVERCOME IN LIFE, I.E. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY/BIOGRAPHY NOT A PARENTS GUIDE! IF I -have-HAD WEIGHT PROBLEMS I COULD FIND A MILLION DIET BOOKS . IF I WANTED TO BE REALLY PICKY I COULD HAVE ASKED FOR LARGE PRINT AS MY DD HAS SEVERE VISUAL IMPAIREM3ENT BUT THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN UNREASONABLE!
IF MY DAUGHTER HAS THE SAME READING CHOICE AS YOU SEEM TO THINK THEN I WOULD CHALLENGE YOU TO FIND ME SOME SUCH READING MATERIAL...I THINK YOU'LL FIND IT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE!.
AS FOR ME MENTIONING THE 2 AUTHORS I'D ALREADY STATED I DID...AND GUESS WHAT? THEY DID'NT HAVE ANY OF THEIR BOOKS.
PLEASE FORGIVE CAPITAL LETTERS I'M NOT SHOUTING BUT I CAN'T SEE WITH CAPS OFF.

It's about catagories isn't it. The books might be there, but they'll be spread out all over the shop, and the assistants never seem to be able to find them.

I can never figure out if it's the assistants or the computer system that's to blame.

Ok. From your op it sounded like you were being rather unpleasant.

WELL THE LIST OF BOOKS THEY GAVE ME WAS 1 FEMALE MASTURBATION 2. MALE MASTERBATION???
POINTYDOG I DID STATE THAT I HAD A 'RANT' BUT I DID'NT SHOUT AND HOLLER I JUST POINTED OUT THAT IN A SHOP THAT SIZE I WAS V DISSAPOINTED THERE WAS NO BOOKS ON THIS SUBJECT.
I HAVE WORKED WITH GENERAL PUBLIC AND I AM QUITE PATIENT AND POLITE WHEN COMPLAINING.
[WRONG CHOICE OF WORDS]

your DD might also be interested in this:-

www.amazon.co.uk/Diving-bell-Butterfly-Jean-Dominique-Bauby/dp/0007139845/ref=pd_si m_b?ie=UTF8&qid=1209403787&sr=8-2

and if she's into crime fiction, Jeffrey Deaver
has written a crime series, where hero is a police officer who is a quadraplegic (first book though the officer is feeling rather sorry for himself and suicidal, so probably later books in series would be better)

This is a link to buy 'My Left Foot' in large print. It's a second hand library copy.

fair enough, I had the wrong picture in my mind. You could get some exapmles from mnetters of well-stocked Borders shops re Health and suggest Thurrock takes a look and learns from them.

this looks good

as does this

cerebal palsy

again

RIVEN I'D LOVE THE WEB ADDRESS THANX THANK YOU ALL FOR THE LINKS I'M REALLY GRATEFUL IF ANYONE HAS ANY MORE PLZ KEEP EM COMING.
I'TL BE LOVELY TO SEE MY DAUGHTERS FACE WHEN SHE SEES HOW MANY BOOKS SHE'LL HAVE . it'll also be nice that she can 'relate' to the authers.
THANX EVERYONE X

thanx again books all ordered ...purse empty= 1 happy teen x

Shocked that the shop didn't stock more books!

(please turn off caps lock, it's very shouty )

SORRY WHIZZ BUT I'M AS BLIND AS BAT SHOUTY OR JIBBERISH COZ CAN'T SEE WORDS? AGE OR DROP SPC SLAVERS PUT IN MY EYES LOL X

Sorry you had a frustrating experience Salsmum. I used to work in bookshops and its really hard in a very large bookshop to be on top of the stock all the time. And the computer doesn't always help. In fact I worked in shops well before computerised stock inventories and that was even more of a challenge. I bet the staff will now be on top of more titles of interest to disabled customers as a result of your visit, but TC and pointydog are right - there probably isn't a 'category' as such (and plenty of arguments re. ghettos etc. to be had there) and therefore its hard to locate these items if its not your area of specialty.
Glad you got so many suggestions from others. Another really interesting book is 'Planet of the Blind' (I think) by Stephen Kuusisto - written from Blind person's point of view. Published by Faber.

I see you've had some great suggestions, salsmum. I tend to use Amazon a lot to research what books are out there, even if I'm not planning on buying form them.

Just to explain the netiquette a bit further, ALLCAPS is often used to emphasise words online and using it exclusively is taken as shouting by many people. Some people don't like it because they actually find it harder to read because letters and words don't have their usual shape.

If you're having trouble reading your posts as you write them, you're probably struggling with everything else you see, too. One way around this is to click on the "View" menu at the top of your Internet browser window and change the text size. Windows also has accessibility options which include ways of making all text larger and clearer and provide ways of magnifying small parts.

I hope this has been helpful to you

www.amazon.co.uk/Aim-High-Quick-Reads/dp/1905170890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209459507&sr=8-1

www.amazon.co.uk/Seize-Day-Autobiography-Tanni-Grey-Thompson/dp/0340819723/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=book s&qid=1209459507&sr=8-2

These may be of interest both books are by Tanni Grey Thompson.