Equal opportunities

After many years of working with the disabled, and having lots of disabled friends, I get more than a little pissed off at all the obstacles thrown in the way, and the same tired excuses that it's too expensive to make something accessible to everyone, even when nothing has been built already, and it would cost the same either way.

Even just the basic things, like not putting doorknobs, light switches, and telephones up too high on the wall, or toilet cubicles too small you can't step in and shut the door without having to squeeze sideways past the pot.

What really peeves me though, is the process that you have to go through to try and support someone with disabilities.  The support services think you'll put up with a two or three year wait in a disadvantaged state while they go through the beaurocratic motions.  I've always found it dead easy myself to accomodate someone with a different need than mine, and get sick of the attitude that everyone must conform to someone elses idea of how things must be done.  It's impossible for there to be one all-purpose way to do things that will be correct for everyone without any changes.


Homepage, personal section, soapbox sub-section.