The big society should be an open access society and accessibility becomes even more important when you rely on a wheelchair for mobility.
Travelling by public transport is difficult at the best of times. getting the luggage to the train/and or airport, boarding the plane and then the 'onward' journey and always fraught by delays and missed connections.
I much prefer travelling by car, door to door without changes, although that has it problems with traffic jams and what the Italians call 'Traffico Intenso'.
We met Allessi at a cafe in Genova, he is a wheelchair user and he told us that he backpacked to South America alone in his wheelchair. That must have been a fantastic trip but also a physically demanding one getting yourself onto and off trains and buses and airplanes and just getting around, cobbles, high kerbs, traffic and other pavement users.
We detect various responses to the wheelchair, Pity, Oh you poor dear, followed by lots of Scusi's, Prego's, and Can I assist's? along with, to other pedestrians, Please stand back, make way, let the lady past.
It can be, at times, embarrassing and occasionally seem patronising, but essentially it is just a way of empathising with the predicament you are dealing with, and it makes it clear that you have a mobility problem.
The service at the airport has by now, in our experience, become exemplary, with assistance on and off the airplane, and escorts through the airport to ensure a pleasant and comfortable journey, trains are better too, although they have a bit of catching up to do, the weak link we find is Bus and Metro.
Buses are often inaccesible, although the newer buses are better, in Paris we used the buses because the Metro was effectively out of bounds, in Genova the new Metro is accessible as are many of the buses, but passengers and drivers can be a bit impatient.
But in our own City because the rural bus services use older coaches hand me downs from other companies and areas that have upgraded we simply cannot access the local bus and so rarely use our subsidised bus passes.
Barcelona was the most accessible place we have stayed, a legacy of the Olympics.
But once there.
Whatever your destination, it is evident on peoples faces as you try to get around that apart from pity, there is the nuisance factor, usually as a direct result of the individual in question talking on a mobile, staring into shop windows and with his/her mind completely in Neutral and then looking down to see first the wheelchair and then the pusher of said wheelchair and trying to get out of the way before impact.
And the testy, OK so you are in a wheelchair, doesn't that mean that you shouldn't go out? What are you doing cluttering up the streets and slowing me down and reminding me ... of what?
And there is the, Oh my gosh, I hope whatever it is it's not catching reaction. Ensuring that children steer a wide birth around you, the wheelchair and whoever is pushing it, making you wonder if you need a bell?
Finally, children themselves, it is amazing seeing a young child, wide eyed, in his/her pushchair, staring and obviously thinking: I hope they don't keep me in this blooming thing until I'm old.
I want to get out and run off as soon as I can.
And finally of course, the cracks in the pavements, the cobbles, the high kerbs and the dog poo, all to be avoided.
But saving the best to last, the Liguria via Mare boat service to Portofino runs on Saturday and Sunday in April and May, last week we took the boat,somewhat anxious about boarding and disembarking.
Enquiring at the ticket office we were assured that the Signora would be helped to get on and off the boat and she was, the inaccessible was made accessible with a mix of ingenuity and human kindness. The Crew were exceptionally helpful and kind and courteous and helped us on and off by opening an access route at the stern.
They also made us coffee, that expression of kindness probably made that our best day in Genova, and as Allessi had recommended, we sat on the harbour side in Portofino and enjoyed an ice cream.
Travelling by public transport is difficult at the best of times. getting the luggage to the train/and or airport, boarding the plane and then the 'onward' journey and always fraught by delays and missed connections.
I much prefer travelling by car, door to door without changes, although that has it problems with traffic jams and what the Italians call 'Traffico Intenso'.
We met Allessi at a cafe in Genova, he is a wheelchair user and he told us that he backpacked to South America alone in his wheelchair. That must have been a fantastic trip but also a physically demanding one getting yourself onto and off trains and buses and airplanes and just getting around, cobbles, high kerbs, traffic and other pavement users.
We detect various responses to the wheelchair, Pity, Oh you poor dear, followed by lots of Scusi's, Prego's, and Can I assist's? along with, to other pedestrians, Please stand back, make way, let the lady past.
It can be, at times, embarrassing and occasionally seem patronising, but essentially it is just a way of empathising with the predicament you are dealing with, and it makes it clear that you have a mobility problem.
The service at the airport has by now, in our experience, become exemplary, with assistance on and off the airplane, and escorts through the airport to ensure a pleasant and comfortable journey, trains are better too, although they have a bit of catching up to do, the weak link we find is Bus and Metro.
Buses are often inaccesible, although the newer buses are better, in Paris we used the buses because the Metro was effectively out of bounds, in Genova the new Metro is accessible as are many of the buses, but passengers and drivers can be a bit impatient.
But in our own City because the rural bus services use older coaches hand me downs from other companies and areas that have upgraded we simply cannot access the local bus and so rarely use our subsidised bus passes.
Barcelona was the most accessible place we have stayed, a legacy of the Olympics.
But once there.
Whatever your destination, it is evident on peoples faces as you try to get around that apart from pity, there is the nuisance factor, usually as a direct result of the individual in question talking on a mobile, staring into shop windows and with his/her mind completely in Neutral and then looking down to see first the wheelchair and then the pusher of said wheelchair and trying to get out of the way before impact.
And the testy, OK so you are in a wheelchair, doesn't that mean that you shouldn't go out? What are you doing cluttering up the streets and slowing me down and reminding me ... of what?
And there is the, Oh my gosh, I hope whatever it is it's not catching reaction. Ensuring that children steer a wide birth around you, the wheelchair and whoever is pushing it, making you wonder if you need a bell?
Finally, children themselves, it is amazing seeing a young child, wide eyed, in his/her pushchair, staring and obviously thinking: I hope they don't keep me in this blooming thing until I'm old.
I want to get out and run off as soon as I can.
And finally of course, the cracks in the pavements, the cobbles, the high kerbs and the dog poo, all to be avoided.
But saving the best to last, the Liguria via Mare boat service to Portofino runs on Saturday and Sunday in April and May, last week we took the boat,somewhat anxious about boarding and disembarking.
Enquiring at the ticket office we were assured that the Signora would be helped to get on and off the boat and she was, the inaccessible was made accessible with a mix of ingenuity and human kindness. The Crew were exceptionally helpful and kind and courteous and helped us on and off by opening an access route at the stern.
They also made us coffee, that expression of kindness probably made that our best day in Genova, and as Allessi had recommended, we sat on the harbour side in Portofino and enjoyed an ice cream.
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