Yesterday we got to see first hand what it was like for someone to have a disability and to try and get around London. Due to eldests joint hypermobility syndrome and the increasing difficulty she is having walking we would hire a wheel chair from shopmobility. This is because we were going to London showing our Australian friend around! ( Though pretty sure we spent more time on the tube/ traveling then doing stuff in London! )
Hiring from shopmobility was easy! i don't think £15 (£40 refundable deposit) for the weekend was a bad price at all, it is a narrow framed one so not to big for her to sit in and seemed alright and a bit lighter then i thought it would be! We had fun getting it into the car esp with the push chair too but we all seemed to fit!
We knew that going on the tube was going to be interesting with the wheelchair, after all its not easy with a push chair but seeing as we visit London atleast once a year we were use to a plan! Wheel chair was a bit harder, thankfully eldest can still walk and so we had to get her out to walk up and down the steps/ escalators whilst, daddy had the pram with the youngest and I carried the foldable wheelchair. Note do not do this whilst the tubes are busy as every man and his dog is quite happy to sweep the 7 year old along in their waves whilst you are trying to get everything folded at the last stage so as to minimalise the walk /steps. Stressed out isn't the word and I do apologise to my friend and husband if i ended up ratty! There just isn't enough accessability to use the tubes and only a handful of stations that are disability friendly! Also when there are lifts ( not covent garden as that is lift only unless you are mad going up those stairs!) It annoys me on a normal basis when people use lifts who don't need to but here we had people who could walk and there were escalators like 2 feet away to use and yet they took up space in the lifts! seriously? i would rather the escalator any day!
Ok so tube was a new experience and most people did move to make room for it. I won't go on about those that didn't! The buses weren't to bad and though we let one bus past the one we did get on did make room for the pushchair and wheel chair! ( good job as mr fell asleep!)
What fustraited me most about our time in London was people cutting in between me and hubby and then streaming between us it got so much at one point in a shop i actually said that people were being very rude. It was like because she was in a wheel chair we could wait and they could just barge past us. It makes me wonder how people do it generally, we really struggled with peoples rudeness and not paying attention, i'm not sure how i didn't run over more feet or that people didn't fall into the wheelchair! It felt like we were being blanked it could just be the general rudeness of people and possibly might have happened with her walking but it felt like every person was just determined to move infront barge in or get between the people i was with. No i'm in a group for a reason. Suppose expecting London to be hectic i should have expected the rudeness, i actually thought more people would be accommodating due to her being in a wheelchair. I was very wrong!
It hasn't stopped me from going to London and we might possibly be going back to do the things we missed. This trip has made me think of those who have to use a wheel chair permanently, and how difficult it must be for them to get around, esp with the new rules on pushchairs/ wheelchairs on buses and then having it so difficult on the underground. It's not right. I think i have learned a new perspective and i will be more respectful to those in wheelchairs and not grumble if i have to move even with sleeping children! I do hope as our daughter grows this trouble we are having walking gets a little easier so we just have to manage pain relief rather then wheelchair options. But i know now we could cope, even if i do want to run over peoples feet!
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