Your Letters - June 2010

High heels for wheelchair-users

I always enjoy reading Lara Masters’ pieces in Disability Now. She has such an entertaining and thought-provoking style, and always looks great in fashion photos. But I was especially interested in her article featuring Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson in the April issue (“Tanni on track for The Lords”).

In the article, Tanni commented that she can’t wear high-heeled shoes, because when she does, her feet roll over sideways. I know what she means, because for a long time I found myself in a similar situation. I’ve asked wheelchair companies about supports for heels and they’ve never had any ideas. But recently, with the help of a friend with some practical skills, I found a solution.

The answer we’ve come up with is a two-part system. The first part consists of a wedge-shaped cushion made out of firm foam, which I insert underneath the front part of my normal chair cushion. With this in place, my knees are lifted about three inches or so higher than normal, so my legs are in a suitable position for wearing heels.

The second part consists of a support for the shoes. This is essentially a vertical plate, firmly attached to the footrest and positioned so the heels of my shoes drop down behind it while the front part sits in front of it. This stops the shoes (and feet) from moving forwards or backwards. By making the outer ends of the support plate higher than the middle part, it also holds my shoes in place in the middle of the footplate, and stops them either moving or rolling sideways.

The support system is a rather crude home-made affair, built from wood, but when painted black to match my chair, I think it looks smart, and I don’t think anybody can tell that it isn’t a “proper” wheelchair component.

Since I started using it a year or so ago, I’ve had great fun getting all my old favourite shoes out of the cupboard (I never could throw them away!) and wearing them anew.

And trips to the shops now always include the continuing quest for the perfect shoes.

If anybody wants to try copying the design, I’d be happy to supply details, sketches and photographs.

Penny Thomas, Aberdeenshire

Disabled legend Churchill “traitor”

I’m disabled and a disability equality trainer, and I was shocked to see Winston Churchill being championed as a “disabled legend” in your last edition of Disability Now.

Churchill was committed to promoting racial purity and eugenics, and was very active (for example, in 1916) in trying to get Parliament to force disabled people with mental health issues and learning or cognitive difficulties to be locked up or sterilised. He therefore hardly qualifies as a disability legend.

How on earth did he get nominated and what credibility does Disability Now have when carrying an article recommending its readers vote for him? Surely you should be expanding our understanding of disability equality history not glossing over it. Shame on you!

Laura Welti, by email

Tesco goes stale on home delivery...

I’m disabled and I’ve been a customer of Tesco all my life. I depend on home delivery of my groceries but for the past few months my frozen food has arrived defrosted and my fresh food has arrived unfresh. I’ve complained about this and had assurances from the store manager that it wouldn’t happen again but it continues every single week. Trading Standards say my only choice is to shop elsewhere, despite the fact that I pay £300 a year for a service that promises to deliver fresh food. I feel demoralised. Have other readers experienced anything similar?

Catherine Davies, by email

... and demands pin number disclosure

Tesco in Redditch offers a service call for people in a wheelchair, but doesn’t have a mobile chip-and-pin reader. That means you have to tell the assistant your pin number. I think that’s wrong. If you offer a service, surely it shouldn’t discriminate against people with disabilities.

In the evening, Tesco rang me to explain that none of its garages carry mobile chip-and-pin machines and asked why I couldn’t get out of the car to pay. I had to explain that it took too long to get the wheelchair out and that I didn’t use cash as I was once mugged.

All I got was an “oh dear”. So come on Tesco: get mobile machines or, if you can’t, put out a sign to say so.

John Warren, by email

Scooters: the debate continues

Why don’t we demand compulsory training for cyclists, and call for more action against the one in five car drivers who use the roads without insurance?

The legal speed limit for mobility scooter-users using pavements is two miles an hour, and many scooters can’t go any faster.

Compare this to the speed of a runner or cyclist on the pavement, and think about how many collisions they have with pedestrians each year. Think also about how many pedestrians collide with other pedestrians on the pavements, sometimes causing serious injuries.

Newspapers demonise scooters and are quite opposed to the regulation of cyclists. Of course it would be great if scooter training was freely available, as it is for cyclists, and if specialist insurance companies offered monthly payments to make their products affordable to all.

But before we provide more support for the stereotype of disabled people as too dangerous and unsafe to be allowed out on our own, thereby robbing many of their right to get to the shops and cashpoints, let's get our priorities in order.

Dr Ju Gosling, London E16

Mrs Findlay-Judge (“Four wheels good”, Letters, Disability Now, May 2010) accuses me of “slagging off” mobility scooter-users. Not at all. I’m the Director of Policy and Campaigns for Mobilise, the charity that promotes mobility for all disabled people.

Many of our members use mobility scooters and we campaign constantly on their behalf, from lobbying transport companies to improve their policy on transporting scooters to ensuring that “shared surface” schemes take scooter-users into account.

Mrs Findlay-Judge’s remarks suggest she thinks I’m non-disabled. In fact I am a quadruple amputee, which I reckon probably does qualify me as disabled!

Expecting users of mobility aids to behave in a way that’s safe for them and for others isn’t “slagging off”, as she says: it’s plain sense, and any responsible scooter-user would agree. It’s your duty to keep the scooter under control because not everyone can hear or see you coming.

The writer asks what my mother and I were doing when a scooter-user ran into us. Well, we were standing in a queue and it’s not always possible for me to leap athletically out of some­one’s way if they don’t brake in time! By the way, scooters do have brakes: the fact that some are operated “positively” (as in a car, where force is applied to the brake) or “negatively” (where the controls are released) is irrelevant. Saying scooters “don’t have brakes” shows a dangerous lack of understanding.

Mrs Findlay-Judge adds that “disabled people can’t answer back”. Well, here I am. My job involves me in “answering back” every day to government, media and companies.

I’m also happy to answer any further questions that Mrs Findlay-Judge or other scooter-users would like to ask about safe scooter use. You can reach me via the Mobilise website www.mobilise.info or write to me at Mobilise National Office, Ashwellthorpe, Norwich, NR16 1EX.

Helen Smith, Director of Policy and Campaigns, Mobilise