Accessible Travel

Accessible travel is one thing that is getting better, but is still really poor throughout the world. Some countries much worse than others as some don’t seem to care much about their disabled residents, and in the countries that do have accessibility, some cities much worse than others.

I have had bad experiences throughout the world. Some experiences so bad I was told to take them to court by a lawyer, but I just didn’t have the health or funds to do so.

Here in the UK, accessibility is very mixed, and although we do have the equality act which is a law requires certain standards from companies, but, even though it is a law, most companies still ignore the equality act, even if you quote it back to them!
I have had some horrific experiences through the years.
The only way you could do anything about it if a company breaks the equality act, is to take them to court which costs money and is very hard when you are chronically ill! You probably would win as it is a law, so if they break it, your chances are very high, but lots of us either don’t have the health or money for that, plus we shouldn’t have to! They should want to improve if they offer accessibility, not lie and cover up their mistakes like they do!

Many other countries have similar laws to the equality act, although it seems they have the same issues with companies just ignoring it…

Sadly most countries that have accessibility, still are quite poor and many countries have almost no accessibility!

In the near future I am going to be writing about my experience with specific companies, but for now, this is about accessibility travelling in general.

When you are not disabled you don’t realise how bad it really is to get accessibility. I didn’t!
I wasn’t born disabled, I gained chronic illnesses over the years and they got worse and worse to the point I became disabled and unable to walk far, stand long, as well as severe fatigue issues.
I didn’t realise how bad it was as we do have accessibility here and the equality act law.
When I became disabled, I saw how bad it really is and how badly you are treated sometimes.

Here is a brief overview of some of the issues I have had in the last two months alone!
(I will be blogging about some of these in more detail)

• Twice I had major issues with Heathrow assistance, on both legs of the journey.
  Booked wheelchair and luggage help at Heathrow (twice) which was supposed to wheel me from departures, through to a different terminal, through security, and to the gate. Instead I was forced to walk such a long distance that I ended up bedbound for a week and in hospital!
  I had prebooked assistance around 2 months before.
  Each staff member told me different lies, and seemed to make things up so they didn’t have to do things.
  I was told I can’t have any help with luggage, told I can’t get wheeled between terminals, told I can’t get help with luggage, told I would have to pay for a taxi to get between terminals (which was shocking), told they can’t wheel me even after booking a wheelchair, and many more LIES.
  
• TFL assistance is none existent and they won’t really help you at all.
  They claim to have it and have lots of points in the underground where you can call for help, BUT they have no wheelchairs so can’t wheel you and won’t help with luggage!
  So what on earth is the accessibility? Walking with someone is NOT accessibility!

Companies need to start being more clear and training staff on what they can and cannot do as it seems many of them make up their own rules on the spot and others are given these in-accessible rules that they have to follow, leaving disabled people struggling! It seems they don’t even care.

If you complain about bad service, they don’t seem to improve it from my experience. They just state buzz words such as “sorry” “we will speak to the staff involved” “it won’t happen again” and things like that, and then leave it.
Nothing gets done as it is just for disabled people and we are a minority so they just hope we will go away.

Well I won’t go away or be quiet and I will be blogging more about bad accessibility with travel over time!

They need to stop ignoring us and take this seriously.