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!)
The future Disability Council Pécs want to help the task of the Municipality Pécs in relation to the disabled population. Not criticize this job, but promote it.
To help the council’s creation organised today the Pécs Community Foundation a workshop about the domestic and foreign best practises. There appeared the representative of the Disability Council from Vác, the equality spokesman from Budaörs and a represntative of more similar organization from Germany to talk about their previous experiences.
Unfortunately only the Municipality of Pécs didn’t appear what we don’t quite understand but we hope we can do common work on this topic with them too.
It might be strange that we support straws when every respectable restaurant is withdrawing those environment damaging tubes. Even though they are necessary for most disabled people so because of being barrier-free some cafés will have to keep some in their inventory – in an environment friendly form.
But why do we need straws? I’ll present it for you with an easy example, a personal experience: about six months ago I was at a conference where they didn’t have any glasses for disabled people and I thought that I’m not going to embarrass myself by using a straw, I’ll drink out of the ceramic mug. For the sake of ease I always keep my bag in my lap. Needless to say that after my attempt neither was I nor the stuff in my bag thirsty anymore under the pretext of drying on the radiator.
Inhibited people or people in wheelchairs are not only unable to move their legs but usually they can’t use their hands in all aspects. They’re missing the skill of lifting, squeezing, or they have muscle weakness but there could be many reasons that makes them unable to grip or lift a glass. However, you need to drink.
Nevertheless the mass produced unrecyclable straws are expired. We don’t stand by them either. But there are great alternatives: washable plastic and metal ones, degradable ones. These are not only environmentally conscious – the kind we like – but also appropriate for disabled people as well.
That’s how born at the same time people-, and eco-friendly solutions!
(Thank you Roland Balogh!)
The second transnational meeting was held in our Peer-AcT project on 15-17.05.2019. in Osijek. A lot of important progress has been made.
Maybe the most important edification was for us, that we will use in the future the word INCLUSIVE TOURISM instead of Barrier-free Tourism. It describes much better our goals in this project.
About the project:
http://peoplefirst.hu/…/peer-act-erasmus-ka2-nemzetkozi-pr…/
Able bodied people walk on them easily. They only get bothered by a wall-mounted car or by the pavement being torn up. The sidewalk for people in wheelchairs though is a real obstacle course.
Getting on the footway in the city centres is easier because of the recessed design of the curbs but it’s much more difficult if there is a berm. The most problematic thing is probably the ascension and the descension of electric wheelchairs because they weigh 100kgs.
And we can’t get relief even if we’re on the pavement. We have to face multitude of barriers: the sidewalk being torn up, asphalt fragments, cobbles, stairs formed in steep streets, car exits, ruptured parts from the roots of trees, uncovered drains, protruding steps, outsourced advertising signs, old quarter’s narrow though ‘romantic’ lanes, cars parked on the footway, bus stop on the sidewalk.
So we are sometimes forced to go (slowly) on the roads willy-nilly with our electric mopeds taking in account the risk of accidents, keeping the traffic, the driver’s repatriation.
If it’s already like that what can we – people in wheelchairs do? We plan our routes early, we go on roads with little traffic, and we explore the unknown crossroads with the help of Google Map’s street view function.
(Thanks our member Zoltán Koppány for the experiences!)
Because in wheelchair sitting we need a bit different accommodations: higher bed as the average (58-60 cm) which is a level in the wheelchair that allows of lifting somebody.
The room door is wider, there is no threshold and carpet. The room is so big that the car can turn, the handles, switches are available and if it possible there are sliding doors. The red wire hanging from the wall needed for help request.
In the bathroom are the biggest weirdnesses: there is no shower tray because we couldn’t roll in with wheelchair. We need there a folding seat, and on both sides of the toilet properly equipped clingings. A bigger place is also needed here. Under the sink there must be access to a wheelchair and the mirror has to be lower or adjustable.
Maybe this all sounds like a lot but it’s the only way we can travel. A barrier-free accommodation usually can be created with good intentions without a problem.
It’s good to be on your guard and before booking a room should be consulted the reception if the barrier-free advertised hotel really is!
Thank you for reading this!
And thank you for our members Alexa Dékán and Zoltán Koppány the assistance in the description!
Alexa Dékán: “So I can travel far independently, that’s why I need a bigger place! 😉 Why I want to be self sufficient? Because this is the opposite of vulnerability ;)”
We publish an event organized by Daniel Csángó:
Let’s Celebrate the European Day on Independent Living!
In 2014, the European Network on Independent Living – ENIL, on the 25th anniversary of its existence, announced May 5th as the European Day on Independent Living. On this occasion, we set up a super event. 😀
What is Independent Living?
Independent Living means that persons with disabilities can decide freely on issues that affect their lives, so they are in charge instead of others.
The first and most important thing to achieve an independent lifestyle is that every person can get quality support in everyday life. The service created for this is called Personal Assistance, where an assistant supports a person with disabilities, acting as “extended arms and legs” and, if necessary, also providing support for decisions.
We are working on the introduction of this system with the support of the European Network on Independent Living – ENIL.
European Parliament elections are coming. On this occasion, we will formulate messages for the candidates and members of the European Parliament.
Join us, make your voice be heard, your opinion matters!
Programs:
– short film screening and discussion about Personal Assistance
– Gifie photography and message writing for European Parliament elections
– European Network on Independent Living – ENIL Live streaming
– surprise announcement
– drinks, food, networking
Further details will be sent continuously on Facebook in English too:https://www.facebook.com/events/421531965276947/
Another piece of our WHY? campaign:
Have you ever seen “something” during your city walks, in public institutions or somewhere else, that stands out on the floor and has a different colour? So this is the blind guide lane, that makes access easier for blind people.
The right blind guide lanes are higher than the pavement therefore can be perceived with the white stick and if you step on it. They are marked with distinctive colour for those who can still see a little bit.
Usually they are made for two purposes:
- Indicating direction for those who can’t see in front of them at all, especially the absolutely blind people. The guide lane is followable, provides security when approaching frequently visited objects (e.g. crosswalk, toilets, junctions, tracks at the train station).
- As warning signals, most commonly at junctions and at the end of the sidewalk. This is a well perceivable dotted surface, also with feet and this is even a little higher. Near crosswalk and stairs it can save lives.
Blind guide lanes are very useful but only if they have been made with expertise. Unfortunately there are many negative examples. Sometimes the lane has no end, it disappears after a while or there is nothing to follow after the starting direction. It also happens that the lane brings the person in the wrong direction: to the building’s walls, shop-window or drive-way.
There are very few blind guide lanes in Hungary, they can be found only at the busiest locations of cities.
Thank you to our members Róbert Rauch of sharing experience!
(MIÉRT? = WHY?) 🙂
Disability vehicles are often larger by design, as wheelchairs have to fit in them.
The size of the front passenger door and how wide it can be opened is a crucial aspect: the wider the door opens the easier it is to roll close to the car and get into the front passenger seat. However to do this you need room. This is (only) one of the reasons why disabled parking spots are so wide.
To get into the front passenger seat you need someone to help. The wheelchair needs to be right next to the car and there has to be extra room for the person helping.
Getting into the seat is an art in itself and most of us have developed our own tricks. One thing is for sure though, it requires space, time, lots of patience and calm circumstances. The helper and the disabled person need to coordinate every single movement, and this requires lots of space.
When arriving in a van, a ramp needs to be attached either to the side or the back of the car for the disabled person to get out. This requires space too.
Thank you for reading this!
And thank you for our member Koppány Zoltán the assistance in the description!
We are about to launch a new campaign entitled ‘WHY?’ on Facebook and on our website.
People are helpful and they are curious. They are happy to support us, as long as they know how they can help and understand why certain things need to be in a particular way.
In our new campaign we will explain some basic facts concerning the lives of people living with disabilities, because these fact are very often not obvious to the general public.
Topics will include: Why are disabled parking spaces wider than normal ones? Why and what are guide bars for blind and why do we need them? Why is a hotel room barrier free?
If you would like to help us with ideas to include in the campaign we would love to hear from you. Comment in Facebook or e-mail us at pfpecs@gmail.com
