Your Letters - January 2010

Disabled dog-walkers’ freedoms leashed

As a disabled person with a companion dog, not a registered assistance dog, I’m worried about my local borough council’s proposal to bring in dog control orders from central government. This will force people to walk their dog on leads on common land and ban dogs altogether in many open areas.

The Government hasn’t ordered councils to enforce this. It’s just an option. But for some reason a local councillor decided it would be a good idea.

A council officer discriminated against me in front of 200 people and several councillors, by telling me I could walk elsewhere and then saying that assistance dogs would be excluded.

He automatically assumed that people with disabilities have assistance dogs; having a companion dog didn’t even cross his mind.

Why should I and others with disabilities and companion dogs be forced to change where we walk just because orders have been introduced that our disabilities prevent us from complying with?

This council officer lacked basic knowledge about disability discrimination, and that scares me. I asked at a meeting if the people involved had carried out an Equality Impact Assessment, as this is a legal requirement under the Disability Equality Duty for all local authorities when introducing or changing any policies, practices or procedures. Guess what?

They hadn’t and looked perplexed at the very mention of the assessment.

I love the doggie community. We see past most things, we’re friendly to each other (with some exceptions), we have chats in the morning which is a lovely way to start the day, and we know the dogs’ names rather than the owners’.

This is a different world from people you meet in the street who ignore you. For me, this community is a lifesaver. I know these people would assist me if I asked. When my health has been very bad they’ve taken my dog for walks.

If this community goes, my social inclusion and security goes, because nobody enjoys walking with dogs on leads, it’s not good exercise for the dogs and it’s no fun because dogs like to play together.

Why do some local councillors want to destroy us? Having a dog has changed my attitude to my disabilities. My dog needs me, and needs me to get up and walk him even when I feel I can’t move. When my pain is unbearable he looks at me as if to say “Come on, Mum, you need to get up.”

He’s right. I have to get up, I have to exercise him and I have to feed him.

Because of him I don’t give in to my health problems: I fight them. He keeps me going, motivates me, and calms me when I feel I want to scream and shout with frustration.

He’s there when I wake up in the morning and there when I go to bed at night. I owe so much to him yet he expects so little. He’s my assistance dog but he’s not registered and the law states he must be registered to be exempt from dog bylaws and dog control orders. It’s not right.

Sharon Lawrence, Woking, Surrey

Praise deserved for the Apple of my i

Geoff Adams Spink wrote critically about accessibility issues surrounding Apple’s iPhone 3GS in the October edition of Disability Now (“Apple’s forbidden fruit”).

Given that the iPhone was designed for the masses, Apple should at least be complimented for honouring the concept of an accessible mainstream device .

Unlike most mobiles, the iPhone has no physical keyboard. Character input is done via a “virtual” qwerty keyboard displayed on the touchscreen that’s quite large compared to others and one I find easy to use. But because it’s software-based, it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility for disability-specific applications – or “apps”, as they’re known – to be developed that would address some or all of the issues in Geoff Adams Spink’s article.

My experience of owning and using the iPhone 3GS has been an overwhelmingly positive one. For the first time in my life I have access to voicemail and text messages and I’m able to send and receive emails away from my PC.

All this and more from a device I carry in my pocket – something I find totally mind-boggling – especially when one considers that it wasn’t so very long ago that I had to walk to the nearest public phone box each time I needed to make a call!
Chris Channon MBE, Nottingham

Even with public funding, banks still morally bankrupt

The issue raised by Denis Shaw about the way banks discriminate against disabled customers in the insurance cover they offer (“Ask the Experts”, Disability Now, December 2009) wasn’t properly dealt with.

The issue isn’t about how some insurers refuse to insure disabled people but about how banks change the way they provide their services without considering the impact this may have on disabled people.

Custom and practice used to rule. Thus, if an existing insurer offered holiday cover at no extra expense, a bank was bound to make sure a new insurer gave the same quality of service.

We, the great British tax-payers, now own most of the banks, so why not ask your bank’s chairman to explain any public service anomalics? While you’re about it, why not ask him to return your part of the money that bailed him out?

Norman Taylor, Neath, South Wales

How the great and the good are above the law

Ever seen a Deaf or disabled person on the panel or in the audience of Question Time, Bargain Hunt or Cash in the Attic? Ever seen a Deaf or disabled TV presenter, newscaster or weather presenter on the Beeb (apart from occasional appearances by Frank Gardner and Gary O’Donoghue)?

Obviously Deaf and disabled people have no views, don’t collect antiques and aren’t interested in the weather because according to the BBC we don’t exist!

Since February I’ve been challenging the BBC Trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, to do something about this misrepresentation.

Result? Sir Michael isn’t interested in Deaf or disabled people! He told me so when he replied that he thought Deaf and disabled people were adequately represented, and that he wouldn’t undertake disability equality training or ask his board to undertake any either.

Last March I examined all the minutes provided by the Trust for the past two years: the word ‘disability’ wasn’t mentioned once. I asked how many BBC staff had had disability training in the past ten years and they proudly told me 500 out of 20,000! That’s 2.5 per cent!

The BBC has made huge strides in employing black and ethnic minorities and women. Great! But none of them is disabled and disability is common to all excluded groups, so why ignore it? Is it because it’s too costly to provide access or is it because of ignorance? The Trust obviously sees us as “Cast Offs” not suitable for mainstream telly, happy to stay on Disability Island!

Sir Michael Lyons should be ashamed of himself. How are we going to get jobs in broadcasting if Deaf and disabled people aren’t represented on the BBC. Where are the role models? They don’t exist. Do comment, and if you feel as strongly as I do then maybe write an email to Sir Michael at michael.lyons@bbc.co.uk.

Roger Cliffe-Thompson, by email