Great Expectations

“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.”  pip:  Great Expectations,  Dickens

So many things we take for granted... until they are no longer there for us.   Blue skies and sunshine, until the grey days of winter roll in.   The caress of a lover, gone when break up or bereavement separate us.   A fulfilling job snatched away by retirement or redundancy.   The fluid movement of bone, tendon, muscle that enables the lift of a leg, stolen by an accident or the slow corruption of time.   The freedom to enter an establishment to post a letter and purchase a necessity or frippery on a whim, until overnight it becomes inaccessible.

On a low pain, high energy day i spoil myself with a taxi into Hexham (wheelchair safely stowed in boot) in order to roll round the craft shops, drink coffee, find a book or garment in Oxfam and post comics to my beloved granddaughters. Simple pastimes that give inordinate pleasure.   In the centre of this pretty little market town is a pedestrianised area with an array of shops worthy of a city.  Amongst others we have Waterstones, Boots, W H Smiths, Holland and Barrett, Argos, Clarks, Costa.  Most of them have automatic doors and they are all wheelchair negotiable.  The cherry on top is Beales, a four story cornucopia of clothes, kitchenware, toys, with level access, lifts, plenty of disabled parking bays and.... ta da... a fully drivable aroundable, accessible Post Office. I say "is" but from the end of the month it will be "was" as our only department store has succumbed to the national epidemic of high street closures.

We will still have a Post Office, something not to be taken for granted in these days of privatisation, but it will move to an area on the outskirts, with no parking, a very busy main road to cross, no drop kerbs and a steep hill to negotiate.   Difficult for me, impossible for the elderly or those in electric wheelchairs.

There were great expectations in 1995 when the Disability Discrimination Act came into force.   It was hailed as a new dawn of accessibility for those of us with malfunctioning  hardware. We would at last take our place among the physiotypical in a land of opportunity for all.  Employment, education, retail, leisure would open it's doors and welcome us in with our purple pound spending power.  As is usually the case great expectations led to great disappointment and twenty five years later businesses have taken minimal steps to deal with their doorsteps.

It's not all doom and gloom though. Little, listed buildings have limited options in old market towns but the attitude of it's retailers can mitigate a lot of the hurdles.   We have a fab eco-shop who do the whole take an empty bottle and fill it with shampoo thing.  The step into the shop would be easy peasy for a toddler but as insurmountable as the Matterhorn to a chair user. Once aware of the problem the proprietor promptly invested in a portable ramp and posted the fact on their website and Facebook page.   Bless you Matthias Winter, those of us about to roll salute you.   https://www.matthiaswinter.co.uk

What I struggle with is finding the balance between unreasonable expectation and inevitable acceptance. The disability forums seethe with indignation over perceived, personal slights when in reality the problem is usually thoughtlessness or lack of resources.   A poorly dropped kerb is lambasted as a dastardly scheme by the local council to cull the weak by tipping them out of their conveyances into oncoming traffic.   I kid ye not, i have seen this, or similar paranoia, expressed in all seriousness on countless occasions !!   But at what point does a lack of "reasonable adjustment" become apathy on the part of a business that needs to be challenged?  When does my irritation at a lack of access need to be acknowledged with a shrug and resignation at an imperfect world? How do we know when it's appropriate to make demands from those around us for concessions in order to participate as fully as possible in society without becoming unreasonably entitled?  Much as i would love to access every spot in the universe the fact is those with wheels will always meet uncross-able barriers that through geography, architecture, resources cannot be breached.  

There are no easy answers.   My Post Office location will be far from ideal, but I have no insight into the peculiarities of franchising in a town centre, or the realities of rent and rates in the 2020's, it's many years since I was in bizniz. Perhaps it was the only affordable premises on offer.   It's easy to criticise when not carrying any of the responsibility and risk.
   
Our Expectant Pip, though "bent and broken," was able to see beyond his limitations and go on to live a full and productive life, though he was unable to stay with his beloved Estelle, (great insightful book, have a read).  He learned it would never be possible to have all his needs met and by accepting that fact he was free to move on and build a new life in an exotic country.  Us superwheelers can spend our lives chaffing at where we can't go when we could be making the most of where we can, and recognising the lengths some places will go to make their premises as accessible as possible.    I choose the latter, though will be pushing for drop kerbs at the Post Office.