In this WHY?, we make a small exception, since we are not writing about people with disabilities.
Or is it? Decide for yourselves by the time you get to the end.

You know that accessibility is important for a very wide target group, including the elderly. Thus, we share our lot and share a common goal in many things. This article is therefore about the elderly.

We often hear at bus stops, on buses, trains, on any means of transport: “why do the elderly push so hard when they take off?”, “why do they travel during rush hour, they don’t get there at other times?”.
Let’s think about this a little bit through with a story of my own, following the few days of my 85-year-old lively mother with hip replacement.

Let’s first look at that particular “push”, i.e. why do older people try to get on vehicles first? You wouldn’t think so, but there is a very practical, well-thought-out reason.
As soon as they board, they must sit down immediately – so you don’t sit in the front seats, but to move back in the bus! The bus drivers don’t wait, even if they could, they start immediately, at high throttle, and if the old man hasn’t managed to sit down yet, it will be a big fall. Understandably, at 85, they are no longer blessed with lightning-fast reflexes and rock-hard muscles. And the fall at this age can even be fatal.
The same when getting off the bus. You don’t have to be angry if they get out the front door – where you want to get on – because there’s no time or opportunity getting to the next door with great difficulty. Bus drivers are still ignoring them.
…………there are countries where it does, such as London, which is much busier than Pécs. Now what can I say to that? 🙁

Come the hated “witch-tank”. (Unfortunately, in Hungary this is the common name for the shopping bag on wheels, which is usually used by elderly aunts.) The very name is insulting. Honestly, if it weren’t for this hostile, contemptuous vibe about this handy rolling bag, I’d buy one too. And that’s what I’d be shopping with, not dragging my shoulders with all sorts of amorphous bags.

You wouldn’t think of this either, but the rolling bag has a very important function. It is also a support, a stable stick for the elderly person.
On the one hand, they really couldn’t stand flour and potatoes in a hand-held or shoulder-hanging bag. On the other hand, they take it with them many, many times, as safety. Because of this bus driver style(lessness), this is a reliable support when they need to get up well before the bus stop. On the street, support comes in handy even in case of a swaying or dizziness. The stable and practical rolling bag also serves as an excellent support when climbing stairs.

That’s the secret.

And now a few words about how to help an elderly person correctly?
– The basic rule here is to ask if they need help, e.g. when boarding or getting off the bus, or if they are standing out of breath in the middle of the pavement.

– Let the elderly get on the bus first, now you know why.

– Don’t sit down on one of the front seats, leave them free for those who really need to get to safety as soon as possible. Walk back in the bus and find yourself a seat.

– Do not immerse yourself in your phone sitting on the bus, saying, then everyone will solve their own problem, the main thing is that you are sitting. You can stand a few stops, at 85 years old you can’t do that anymore.

– Please don’t roll your eyes, don’t make faces, and especially don’t speak up, as mentioned at the beginning of this article. The old man feels, sees, hears this. Not only does he have to face the fact that he can no longer do many things in old age, he is deeply offended for it. Tragic social attitude.

Always think: you will also be old and you will get back what you give now!

Written by Veronika Pataki

“I’ll catch a bus and I’m there” – but it’s almost never that easy. Especially if you bring your own chair or are a stroller driver.

So:
you catch a bus. You check the timetable, buy your ticket, go to the bus stop and hop on. If there’s a seat, you sit down, if not, you stand. Sometimes you’ll stand on my spot, which is fine if I don’t need it. You signal, you get off. On a crowded bus, of course, it’s all a bit more difficult.

I figure out where I want to go. I have to look for a stop I can get to with my wheelchair. I check the website/app to see when there’s an accessible bus on that line and hope that there really is one. Not always.

Oops: even when I ask the service provider in advance to send me an accessible bus at such-and-such a time, mistakes can happen: despite all the phone calls, e-mails and confirmations, the right vehicle does not arrive. Then all my plans fail. 

But now there is a good bus stop, the right kind of a bus just arrived, we are ready to go! The bus driver gets out, pushes down the ramp for me, helps me roll up if I need it. I maneuver myself to my place, put on the brakes, buckle myself in or the bus driver will help me. Ramp up, driver behind the wheel. When I get off, same thing in reverse. 

Nice plan, except there’s the ’oops’ factor: 

Oops! The bus is full and you’re in my spot. Then, if possible, the other passengers should move over. If not, or if the number of wheelchairs on that bus is already full, I’m stuck while others can still get on – and squeeze into my designated place as third. 
This can become an extreme adventure in the heat, rain and cold, because my body works differently! 

Oops! The bus driver is not well informed and refuses to let me on because he says my electric wheelchair is a scooter and you are not allowed to get on with a scooter. They might be not aware of my limitations and causing physical injury because they don’t know that I can’t feel, move my legs or hands or have difficulty moving them. 

Oops! My fellow passenger is not paying attention and they cause me injury or damage to my wheelchair. The wheelchair that allows me to get around. Which is not easy or cheap to fix. When was the last time you got stuck between four walls because someone stepped on your foot? 

There are many standing places and seats on a bus, but spots for wheelchairs, if any, are limited to one, rarely two. I can’t move back or in, stand and hold on, while for able-bodied people it’s much easier and it’s easier to move suitcases, trolleys, saplings from the place reserved for me than to put me on the hat rack! 

Much the same applies to prams, the pram is also the safe seat for the small passenger, with its own brakes and seat belt, and staff who, although get on easier, sometimes they need help too! 

Then there are the walker users (a kind of rolling walking frame, with brakes, seat, sometimes a basket), who can’t suddenly put the walker in their pockets or travel standing up and holding on to the handrails. Sometimes they also strap themselves into the wheelchair spot if they have no better option. 

We, wheelies: wheelchair users, walker users, pram drivers, ask you to take care when we come along and help us to get on and off the bus as easily, safely and quickly as possible, to take our seats – so that there are no more “oops”-es!

Written by Hilda Kerekes

And let’s add, they get off last. Moreover, not only wheelchair users, but also the elderly, families with children and people with reduced mobility have the opportunity to get into the plane about 10-15 minutes in front of everyone. Annoying, not understandable? Let’s look at the WHY?: 

Air transportation, contrary to the information of the companies, has never been, and to this day it is not accessible, for the ones in need. The space constraints, which are typical of a passenger plane, significantly limit any full accessibility, but since the companies’ profits would be significantly affected by the creation of possible extra spaces, they were not even interested in it.  

Traveling in a wheelchair is a multi-level challenge. When you get into the plane, you lose control of your most important aid, you don’t know how it’s going to be handled, what’s going to go wrong with it, will it arrive at the next stop at all?! Airlines have only limited liability for checked medical equipment, with the maximum compensation set at the same amount as for other baggage. The price of a complex wheelchair can be up to several million HUF, but if it is lost or damaged, the compensation is only possible up to a maximum of HUF 600,000, of course, this is also only after playing several heavyweight arm-wrestle matches.

How does a boarding happen if you use your own wheelchair? It is not up to the airlines to help with this, airports employ specialized companies to assist passengers in need. Thus, the standard of service varies from airport to airport. Budapest Airport has particularly good reviews in this regard. 

You can’t travel on the plane in your own wheelchair. When boarding, a wheelchair specially adapted to the size of the plane is brought and the passenger must be transferred to it or lifted with assistance. If he or she needs to be lifted, the passenger is fastened with several straps to the chair, similar to Hannibal Lechter from the movie The Silence of the Lambs, in fact, only the muzzle is missing from the whole picture.  

Why are we getting in the first place? Not primarily to protect ourselves from the embarrassment of various awkward postures. But most importantly, the helpers have to pull the special chair that just fits in the corridor of the plane, just as they pushed it in, out of the plane, which is not possible with hundreds of people standing behind them in a narrow space where they, too, can barely fit. Well that’s it!

There are also cases when you travel somewhere with several connections, and due to the tight time at the transfer, you can’t reach the gate at least a quarter of an hour before boarding. In this case, the passenger in a wheelchair is the last to board.  

And when you get off, it plays backwards. The wheelchair passenger is the last to leave the plane, often after long minutes and sometimes up to three-quarters of an hour after everyone else. Unfortunately, the post-Covid labor shortage is also noticeable at airports, so there is not enough staff to serve the suddenly increased number of passengers and you have to wait. 

In summary, you can fly and should fly with disabilities, and anyone who was once struck by the smell of kerosene will travel as long as they can, but we must always be prepared, know the process, as well as our rights if anything happens during the trip. 

Thanks to our highly experienced association member Zoltán Borsodi for the description!

Trolley or wheelchair? Most people think it doesn’t matter, because both are used by people who cannot walk. As a result, the choice of words is inconstant, causing a huge confusion in experts and in the people who use such equipment.

Considering, a trolley is something that needs to be pushed. It is a medical equipment, which cannot be used alone. The person sitting in one needs to be pushed by someone, this way handling certain situations is much easier and faster for the nurse. They are mostly seen in health care institutions, especially in american hospital series, where everyone is being pushed around in these, even if they are able to walk. You could also see trollies at airports, my mother was put in one as well, when she tried to communicate in hungarian in Switzerland. They asked her to sit in a trolley and pushed her to the correct gate, it was much more simple.

A wheelchair however, presumes activity, dare I say, it allows our main goal, independent living. They are used anywhere by the disabled in favor of their transport and access: when working, hiking, doing sports, taking a bus, going to the cinema, anywhere…. It is certainly smaller than a trolley. They could be moved by hand, motorized device can be put in front of it, or it could also be electronic, which however is a very heavy phenomena, approximately 100 kilos. There’s no need to push them by hand though, they have engines and they could be operated by various methods, even by our heads.

There is a separate category for the madcap people, who practice sports actively, so they have a special sports wheelchair. With these they can even play rugby, basketball or ride bikes – at a very high level.

 All in all: a trolley presumes passivity. If you use this expression instead of a wheelchair, it is hurtful for the disabled who don’t live passively at all.

Wheelchairs are necessities for an active life, when due to disabilities you cannot run around on both legs, but you still live your life just like anyone else.

Written by Veronika Pataki

Did you know that the sign languages used by people with hearing loss in England, Germany or Hungary are all different? In other words, deaf people in Japan, Hungary, Finnland, or the US use different signs. In addition, there is an international sign language, called Gestuno language, although, just like Esperanto, it is slow to spread. Moreover, sign languages also have dialects: in Hungary only, we distinguish a total of 7 dialects. There are language families, with different word order and grammar. And most surprisingly, there is sign language slang!

At first glance, all of this makes just about as much sense as having der/die/das in German: people simply chose to complicate their lives. But, in fact, these national sign languages have developed naturally, just like spoken languages and we have no explanation for this Babylonian Chaos.

A common basis for all sign languages is expressing an event through movement, somebody’s characteristic movement, or shape (e.g.: stir, boat, cradle, rock, be born, give birth). You also probably didn’t know that expressions used in sign languages are simplified, for example, a sentence such as ‘Tomorrow I will go to the shops and buy bread and milk.’ would sound something like this: ‘Tomorrow will go shop buy bread milk.’

Let’s not forget though that sign languages have some important rules too: you must be accurate in showing the sign, and gestures, facial expressions as well as posture are important parts of communication.

For better communication, people often articulate silently while signing. But even this needs to be done with care, the speaker needs to articulate more slowly than usual, without over-articulating, and can only use it to accompany signing.

And one more thing to remember: we sign, we do not gesticulate!

Written by Veronika Pataki, professionally supervised by Krisztina Koltai

The so called „quiet hours”, better known as Autism Hours is a movement, to provide autism-friendly shopping experience and promotes the acceptance of autistics. There are also more and more autism-friendly events arranged, like concerts, theater performances, movie screenings. Some of the main appeals are dimmed lights, toned down music and audible warnings (if there are any) in order to reduce sensory input, what is quite desirable for the target audience: autistics, their loved ones, their caretakers.

Many autistics have sensory processing differences: our senses have to take in everything, what is visible, audible, touchable, or can be tasted, smelt, without a filter – we are on a concert of senses with the maximum volume on, each and every day. Moreover, there are also a bunch of unexpected events: someome touches you, comes very close to you, seeking or even forcing eyecontact while talking to you, the annoying music is interrupted with messages to the customers or the employees. A baby starts to cry, than another… some terrifyingly loud phones, bells are ringing beside the beeps of scanners, cash registers. At the self-checkout, someone did something incorrectly, so this machine also goes off with beeps, lights, etc…

Did you ever shop like an autistic? Have a try, here is a great visual thanks to the YouTube user „streamofawareness”: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcS2VUoe12M    

Horrible quality, isn`t it? The hurricane of sounds, the brittled image… All of this is on purpose: it is a very good simulation of what an autistic person has to endure now and then, for example when shopping. To do the usually easy-peasy grocery round with an overloaded nervous system is actually a very hard job, so we often decide to interrupt our shopping/partaking in an event and we flee on our own or with assistance…

For similar reasons, a walk in a zoo, going to a concert, to watch a movie or to wait in different institutions can give a hard time for us. There are other obstacles autistics and their assistance have to overcome in this noisy, confusing non-autistic world: our behaviours, reactions differ from the usual, the typical and at the same time many misconceptions about autism are out there – this is often generating fear, because of this we, our chaperon might get insulted, even assaulted.

Autism Hours make these events, experiences enjoyable or at least less uncomfortable to autistics, and promotes autism acceptance. We won`t get gawked on when we avoid eyecontact or are wearing hearing protection, tinted glasses, or might behave autipycally, for instance when we are rocking, making sounds, flap our hands. With the help of a properly trained staff, even an overload or a meltdown can be easier to deal with: they can call our chaperon or they can walk us to a safe place.

An interesting side effect of Autism Hours is, that not only autistics are enjoying the concept and the opportunity of a silent event.

Want to know more about autism? Check out these links:

www.facebook.com/autisticnotweird/

http://autisticnotweird.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bk0GbW8xgvTgQlheNG5uw

https://www.autism.org.uk

www.autisticadvocacy.org

Thanks to our association member “Anthea Aspie” for the sensual description!

Did you know, that assistance dogs can diverse, they not only guide visually impaired people? They can also help for mobility-impaired in everyday life, indicate sound for hearing impaired, indicate epileptic or other seizures, but it exist personal assistant dog to help in independent living, and therapy dog who is involved in pedagogical or psychiatric rehabilitation. You need to know that not only the dogs, but also their owners have undergone a hard training and even taken an exam.

The owners of these intelligent dogs can enter anywhere with them lawfully. Yes, anywhere. Although some workers of institutions or even disabled people don’t know exactly the relevant legislation. Most of the false complains or even relegations come from catering units, shops, playgrounds or markets. In these cases they either don’t let the disabled person go in with his dog – but he can’t get by without him- or they make him put a muzzle on the dog. As the above list shows, this way the dog wouldn’t be able to help his owner.  How could he warn the owner about danger if it can’t bark? How could he bring it’s owner an important device if it can’t open it’s mouth? 

And it’s something like again that isn’t a potential, a possibility, it is a must to be provided. The Hungarian Equal Rights Authority takes these offenses as discrimination complaints and begins the administrative procedure against the institution, the operator. 

The law enumerates examples of places where people can bring their assistance dogs (e.g. public transport, shops, supermarkets, catering units, malls, markets, accommodations, playgrounds, public institutions, child institutions.) However, people with disabilities can also enter ALL THE OTHER PLACES with his guide dog which aren’t mentioned in the law. He DOESN’T HAVE TO PUT A MUZZLE on the dog, but he needs to show a distinctive sign on the dog and also the logo of the dog’s training organization. The assistance dog can only be banned from the area if it is endangering others physical safety. Although let’s just say it, this would be very rare in the case of a trained guide dog. 

It’s important to know that the assistance dog is working with it’s owner so however cute or pretty it is it cannot be petted and we shouldn’t take it as an insult if the owner doesn’t let it either.  If we did, we would distract the dog and endanger the safety of the disabled owner. The case is the same when it comes to giving food to the dog. It can only be fed by it’s owner, therefore don’t offer food don’t tempt him. 

Relevant Hungarian legislation:

A segítő kutyák gazdáinak jogait és kötelezettségeit a fogyatékos személyek jogairól és esélyegyenlőségük biztosításáról szóló 1998. évi XXVI. törvény. 

A segítő kutya kiképzésének, vizsgáztatásának és alkalmazhatóságának szabályairól szóló 27/2009. (XII. 3.) SZMM rendelet 

Written by Veronika Pataki. Thanks to Evelin Almádi for your additional thoughts!

Many people know about Braille writing, that it is a writing system consisting of point combinations, and it can be read by touch by visually impaired people. It was developed by Louis Braille, based on 6 points just like the dice.

But it is probably not known that there are separate Braille alphabets for German, English etc.. You probably didn’t know either, that we can display not just letters, but numbers and symbols used in maths, physics, and chemistry, IT signs, sheet music etc.

It is also interesting, that we distinguish full writing, where each braille letter is displayed, and brief writing, where we write the text in abbreviated form.

It is clear, that such a smart system is modern and relevant even in the XXI. century. Braille writing is not only a paper based system but Braille is also available on computers, smart phones, etc..  Braille display is still available if the phone or laptop is not there, or if the battery is flat.

It is also important, that the tactile writing system is the only possibility for blind or visually impaired people to experience INDEPENDENT reading, which is in no way equal to a text read by a speech synthesizer or by another person.

Source: https://jovokilatasai.mvgyosz.hu/

Written by Veronika Pataki

We don’t know which ear can hear, how can hear, even if can hear the hearing impaired person, so talk to him/her always frontwise. Maybe touch him/her gently (!) and wait for eye contact. Don’t turn away later, keep the eye contact, moreover it is easier for them you understand if they can see your full body and body language.

It is needless to shout, over-articulate, use too simple sentences, but gabble is also not good.

For many hearing impaired person it is unpleasant ask back if they didn’t understand something. So, do it you, ask sometimes if they understand you. If not, don’t repeat the same word five times, try another synonym.

Don’t talk at the same time in a company, don’t eat, chewing gum, cover your mouth while talking.

Hearing damage means no way intellectual disability, don’t treat so deaf people. Communicate with them is not easy, but with little attention can be solved even as with able bodied people. 

Krisztina Koltai’s thoughts

Do you remember when we were a child and the doctor discussed with our parents first how ill we are, what our symptoms are?

As an adult, wouldn’t a similar scenario hurt bother or even annoy us? Unfortunately disabled

people still face distinction like that. The doctor, the administrator or even the man of the street would contact the healthy person/assistant that escort them. It’s even typical in case of blind people, maybe because a visually impaired person usually can’t make eye contact with the person who wants to talk to them. Because of that people mostly don’t even bother trying to talk to them, they’d rather talk to the accompanying even if their words aren’t meant for them. If people don’t directly talk to a blind person and they can detect it from the context it obviously hurts their feelings.

Though people living with visual, hearing or locomotor disability can perfectly understand and reply to us.

It is important that we don’t take the chance of disabled people to communicate, to share their opinions and to make responsible decisions! We can make huge differences towards equal opportunity with small things, such as address our message to the disabled person instead of their helpers. The helper’s task is not to speak instead of the disabled but assist her/him.

Thank you Róbert Rauch for your thoughts!