An “absolutely awful” mobile phone app that helps the #Motability scheme monitor the driving behaviour of increasing numbers of disabled people is securing overwhelmingly poor reviews from its customers.
#DriveSmart
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/intrusive-mo...
Uninsured driving isn’t victimless. Offenders are 6–7x more likely to be in a fatal crash, and over half are linked to wider criminality—reflecting risk-taking, disregard for the law, or deception. It pushes up costs for honest drivers. Tackling it protects communities.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Highway Code rule 91 recommends a break at least every *two* hours. So why are Motability giving literal red marks to people who drive for more than 1 hour without a break?
&, scheme seems to exclude drivers with no smartphone - many potential users & assistants?
www.gov.uk/guidance/the...
I’m strongly pro measures that improve safety around driving- one of the most dangerous things to others that most of us will ever do.
What Motability are doing here sounds like pure discrimination, not fair safety improvement. Really unreasonable, excessively restrictive & intrusive. Just not OK.
I’d love to see more formal promotion of long-term supported riding eg with an assistant alongside (especially on busy roads), for many people - including maybe this child? It’s what lots of children & adults, including my Disabled kids/teens need/have needed- for a whole range of different reasons.
I want to talk to you about cycling and hip arthritis
It surprises a lot of people, and needs to be more widely understood
I have a hip replacement next month, this thread is my experience, but I know others have found the same
🧵
Bunches of parsley tied in string hanging from a metal rack against a bright patterned wall with sheet music and bikes all over it. There are also trays of thyme drying on the rack.
Passivhaus & heat recovery ventilation bonuses nobody mentions: Really easy herb drying. Clothes drying also, & no mould. But this week, celebrating the bonus parsley!
Earthsea - hard to get into, great if you can.
My kids loved all the Rick Riordan myth-based series, when HP demographic ages. And the How To Train Your Dragon series - which pretty much share only a name with the films…
What, a short document on key points about mobility aid regulations, with references and case studies?
Just the thing to read on a tea break or lunch break. Or any other time, really!
Go on, have a look:
Parsley looking very green and happy, A big mature lavender looking grumpy poking through parsley
Ginormous amounts of flat leaf parsley on a pretty aluminium table in our greenhouse
Nice gardening problem:The self-seeded parsley is crowding out the lavender (under the fig). Looks like I need to dry lots of parsley!
Letty’s done a huge amount of work and endured injury and isolation to achieve… being allowed to charge a flight-safe mobility aid in her accommodation.
We need to be able to charge our mobility aids in our homes, or we can’t get around!
Think the general message from at least 2 if not all 3 of us presenting was that if we don’t address motonormativity as a priority, nothing much else is going to work as well as it should in terms of strategies involving public spaces
You too- thank you!
It was really hard to decide what angle to approach with just 10 minutes so I was pleased we’d all chosen very different but interlinking areas to cover.
Oo looks nice!
Today is #LongCovidAwarenessDay
Long Covid changed my life beyond recognition. I got ill. I never recovered. Lost my job. Became housebound. I rely on others to do things for me. I lie on my bed most of the day.
Watch the Guardian's short film about my life with #LongCovid 👇
Yeah, we’ve had that wind today too. It’s graced us with the occasional strong crosswise gust as well, just to mix it up a bit…
Graphic titled “We think people using mobility aids should be allowed to get away from danger at running speed” A young woman using a manual wheelchair with a power attachment is under a streetlight in the dark. There are a group of people standing just outside the light, looking threatening or at least intimidating. The woman’s eyes are wide with fright. At the bottom, hashtag MobilityJustice and the Wheels for Wellbeing logo
All Disabled people should be legally able to speed up to "running" or "cycling"-equivalent speeds to get out of danger, whatever mobility devices we're using, at all times of day and night, and wherever we are travelling.
wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/we-think-peo...
#MobilityJustice
Alt text for image: Graphic titled “All Disabled and non-disabled people must be presumed to have the capacity to make our own decisions” Whether we’re choosing extreme adventures... or simply making everyday trips . Above the “extreme adventures” example on left is a cartoon of a snow-topped mountain with four little stick figures climbing it on a rope. Two of the figures are not visibly Disabled. One is using an off-road wheelchair trike. One has one leg and is using a stick or crutch. Above the “everyday trips” example are lots of people using mobility aids – left to right, an adult walking with an e-assist rollator, with an adult using an e-converted wheelchair who is towing luggage. A child riding a bike is with a child using a powerchair. An adult using a powerchair has a pram clipped to the front. An adult using a mobility scooter is accompanying a young child. At the bottom, the caveat – “for people aged over 16, unless it is established that an individual lacks capacity (Mental Capacity Act 2005)”. Hashtag MobilityJustice and the Wheels for Wellbeing logo.
The right to make decisions about our own lives is fundamental.
Thank you for writing! Lovely to read, and so much that you’ve said that felt very, very familiar!
“Because cycling enabled me to connect to the disability community, my understanding of transportation needs is broader, and I use this knowledge to be a better advocate for transportation infrastructure that better meets everyone’s needs.” Via @bikehfxlobby.bsky.social
Replying for UK context: Tramadol is a prescription-only controlled drug. AFAIK, you can only legally get it here with a prescription, as with most controlled drugs (paracetamol & codeine is one example of an over-the-counter exception)
bnf.nice.org.uk/medicines-gu...
www.gov.uk/government/p...
A reminder that humans in cars - notably omitted from this thanks to motonormativity - kill 1.2m people every year
So, my back issue is quite treatable it seems. But the treatments aren’t permanent, & protocol is you wait until one wears off to go on the waiting list for the next.
Hoping the wait this time is months not years because I hate the candy floss brain feeling when I have to use tramadol for pain!
So, my back issue is quite treatable it seems. But the treatments aren’t permanent, & protocol is you wait until one wears off to go on the waiting list for the next.
Hoping the wait this time is months not years because I hate the candy floss brain feeling when I have to use tramadol for pain!
Two of my kids use hearing aids. One of the old criteria was having a hearing aid battery prescription or something weird like that. They thought it was hilarious that they were eligible for a railcard while I, using a wheelchair, was not!
The changes are national - so hope you can get one soon!
Screenshot of an email telling me my Disabled persons railcard application has been processed and I now have a railcard
Disabled persons railcard rules have changed! Still a huge postcode lottery, but it’s a bit better: Blue badge holders and Disabled bus pass holders can now get Disabled persons railcards- I got mine today - only applied yesterday!
Calvin and Hobbes hits the nail on the head again…
I think the Richmond doc is talking about the little triangle ramps at the sides of the main dropped kerb, not the main slope?
The gradient would depend on the kerb height either way - with a 100-120mm standard kerb 600mm length is too steep- 1:6+, above ramp gradients.
Graphic titled “We think Disabled people should be allowed to make similar trips at similar speeds to non-disabled people” Drawings of: Left, an adult using a powerchair with a pram attached to the front, accompanying a young child riding a balance bike. Centre, a parent riding a cargo trike with four children of various ages in the front section. Right, an older adult sitting on a mobility scooter checking a phone. A toddler and older child are being towed in a cycle-type trailer behind the mobility scooter. All three adults are saying “Nursery drop-off… school… work… prescriptions… pick up kids… visit auntie… home for dinner… swimming… bedtime – (then in bigger writing) no problem!” At the bottom, hashtag MobilityJustice and the Wheels for Wellbeing logo.
Our society expects people to be able to make journeys at certain speeds. When rules force Disabled people to go more slowly than non-disabled people doing comparable trips for no good reason,