Sir, – Just over 10 years ago I joined the ranks of amputees when I lost my right leg above the knee due to illness. In 2012 I contributed an article to your paper’s health supplement detailing my experience.
At that point, my experience of adapting to my changed situation had been largely positive. This is still generally the case. People are always offering help when I have difficulties in public places. I experience the kindness of strangers in shops, on the street and at public functions and sporting events. However, there are exceptions to these positive experiences.
Interactions with officialdom in both the private and public sectors are highly negative. For people with restricted mobility, as with older people (I am 70) organisations that refuse to answer the phone or are even uncontactable by phone cause massive inconvenience.
However the greatest barrier to full participation in society is access.
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The legislation regarding access to food and drink establishments is outdated and must put Ireland in conflict with international obligations. As I understand it, the law states that only premises that came into existence after the legislation was passed are obliged to be fully accessible. The rest can carry on in their own sweet way. This seriously needs to be changed.
In this context your paper can make a contribution. You have a proud record in taking a stand on equal treatment for every citizen. Yet when I read the restaurant review in your Saturday edition, I often wonder if the interpretation of equality is the Orwellian one viz “some are more equal than others”.Your reviewer frequently, in a panel accompanying the article, mentions that a restaurant is inaccessible and then awards it a high mark and an excellent review not mentioning the accessibility issue in the main text.
Sometimes, in the panel she describes an establishment as “accessible but no accessible toilet”. Unless she thinks disabled people have amazing continence, these places are not accessible .
Attitudes to disability by Government and business needs to change. We should not have to depend on the kindness of strangers indefinitely.
– Yours, etc,
SEAN O’DONNELL,
Ardee, Co Louth.