Riding in Tandem - an unusual sight!

Whilst we were enjoying a lovely family day at Avon Beach in Mudeford, I saw something I have never seen before and it made me look twice - a tandem mobility scooter. It made me think of the amazing broom with seats in Julia Donaldson's book 'Room on the Broom'. It then led me to think about using a tandem scooter, I don't think it's something I would want because I do like to be driving my wheelchair, as would Matthew if he ever needed one! I found a photo of one online .....

This is an image of a tandem mobility scooter.

It was quite big, as you'd imagine, but useful if you don't need to take it into shops and use it to get around in fairly open spaces.  It might be a problem if you need to cross the road from the pavement due to the length of it.

Avon Beach is very accessible, we visit each summer, and we can get my manual wheelchair close to the water because there is a concrete walkway along the length of the entrance to the beach. There is ramped access everywhere and radar operated toilets. It is highly recommended day out, and look out for the tandem scooter!

Traffic and training

It was a big day today because I worked with Wiltshire Sight to present Looking Out for Sight training to staff at a local care home. It was the first time I had done this and it is an exciting new part of my disability consultancy.

The journey to the care home was interesting, I caught my usual bus, however I got off at a different, slightly later stop. This was rather scary because of the unfamiliar surroundings and possible mobility access problems. Once I was on the bus, the driver said that there were steps at the stop that I wanted to use which was a bit concerning! The bus driver was helpful and parked just after the bus stop so that it was feasible for me to get off the bus. The only problem was that to cross the road to the care home, I needed a drop kerb for my wheelchair and this forced me to come off the end of the pavement, onto the road. It was very busy, the bus had caused the traffic to become congested and there was a large lorry too which was causing similar problems. There was so much traffic and it rather unnerving and worrying, I wasn't sure how to get across safely in case a car appeared from an unexpected place. However, one positive result from the congestion was that the cars weren't really moving and one car driver gestured that I could cross so I was able do this safely and arrived at the care home feeling rather relieved.

We delivered two training sessions, both were varied slightly because the participants asked different questions. It was really enjoyable and also very rewarding to know I am helping other visually people through informing their carers about the difficulties their sight loss can cause and how they may be able to assist them.

The journey back home was easier, I had to go from the care home to the high street where I would catch a bus back home. For some unknown reason there was not a bus back home from the bus stop by the care home.It did mean I was again travelling down an unknown road, but it was less eventful than earlier and it was easy to find my way to the high street.

Today's training gave me a confidence boost, I was in completely unfamiliar surroundings with uncertainty about visual and mobility access but I got there independently and I was able to carry out my role effectively. It felt so rewarding and I look forward to future training.

Cash Point Conundrum

I had a real problem when out in town today. There are about three particular cash point machines in the high street that I like to use because many are positioned too high for me to see from my wheelchair or the screen is at the wrong angle causing a lot of glare and reflection. Unfortunately that number has now been reduced to two! One of the most accessible machines, positioned by the market, has been changed and the screen is positioned far too high for me to reach it which proved very frustrating as I then had to travel much further down the high street to get money out.

It is difficult to know what can be done to resolve the problem but it is getting worse not easier and it is really inconvenient!

Update: At the time of writing this post, I was using my old electric wheelchair because my regular electric wheelchair had a broken bearing. My old wheelchair has a lower seat which is why I had problems accessing the cash machine. It was only when my regular electric wheelchair was repaired that I realised it is much higher and that meant I could reach the cash point that I was referring to in my post. However, it is still an important point there were will be many wheelchair users, especially those using manual wheelchairs who would not be able to access the cash point.