Category: Blog

It’s the only place I get to be me.

On By Katy DalyIn Blog, My Disability Truth, Writing Prompts3 Comments

Why do you blog?

While, I started this blog with the more specific topic of accessibility, it has become more about my life generally. I thought that I started it initially as a place to share inaccessibilities that I experience in my life, starting with this more specific topic, hoping it would keep me writing. I did this specifically as I have tried and failed at blogging for a continued period of time. But for some reason, this blog stuck, and it’s still going.

I think it leant itself towards my life experiences generally and some other bits of writing. And trying to post daily blog posts, though I have had to backdate a few became a clear motivator in keeping me writing. As well as giving me something in the day that felt like my own, and if I’m really honest with myself something that it didn’t feel like my disability prevented me from completing.

My blog has become my space to write about the things I feel in a more free way. And though I don’t feel completely free to share everything openly here, it is one of the places I feel most free on all of the internet.

And now because I haven’t slept, I’m going for a nap. Have a good Saturday.

I miss swimming

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I used to do a lot of hydrotherapy as a child but of course it’s only paid for when you’re a child so I haven’t been able to go in 10 years. But I loved being in the water, and I miss it so much.

Swimming or simply being in the water is something everyone should get to enjoy and pools being accessible is a big part of this. All pools should be as accessible as possible to everyone. And it should be common sense that any equipment needed to make them this way should also be functioning.

Image Description: A Facebook Screenshot from a post by Misa On Wheels. The post shows a picture of a pool hoist over a pool. The text above the picture reads “Accessibility PSA – Having a pool lift is only useful if it is not perpetually out of order.”

Busy bus days 

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This Tiktok explains the situation I had to deal with on Sunday 25th August while getting the bus to travel home.

So after long days which really tested the battery of my chair, I had to get specific routes home which meant I wouldn’t have to travel long distances in my chair. The video above shows me doing so on one evening to be blocked at the bus stop by a vehicle parking where it shouldn’t.

Family was in the hospital.

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So obviously while someone was in the hospital I wasn’t focused on this blog. I basically came home and slept then went out very quickly again. So I’m going to do some backdated posts to get me back on track.

Image Description: The image is a figure in a wheelchair with their leg in a cast, the text reads: “Disabled  people deserve the same access that non-disabled people currently have.”

Open housing

On By Katy DalyIn Blog, Writing PromptsLeave a comment

How would you design the city of the future?

Obviously, if I were to design a city of the future I would design an accessible city, as accessibility benefits everyone not just disabled people. 

The best way to design accessible housing I believe would be to design open housing, then give those living in them an allowance to design things which can easily be changed in the person’s home.

Completely accessible public transport systems would also be a must. And all businesses must be accessible as well. I am also a big fan of 15 minute cities, so would design something like that.

People who misunderstand 15-minute cities think that they would be trapped in them, but in reality, it would just mean that the necessities are close enough for people to easily travel on foot (or by wheels) or via public transport. You can still travel to other areas if you wish.

Accessibility for all would be my biggest priority in the future if that wasn’t very clear. But I would also focus on building a tech-focused city, as this is the way society seems to be going anyway. As well as this technology can also help to make a city more accessible. Think of lights at the crossing as a good example, and how much easier and safer this makes things. 

I could go into a lot more detail about the way I would design an open city, and I may do at some point in the future. But right now I’m really struggling to write more than this, due to energy and everything else going on right now.

It’s been a crazy few days.

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So I’m back dating some posts.

Image Description: Bella, my brown and white caviler king charles dog looking at the camera with an impatient look on her face.

Life happens sometimes and there just isn’t time for you to do everything in the day that you want to. So I’m backdating some posts, writing this on Friday the 23rd August, that’s the beauty of the internet.

The Social Model of Disability.

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All credit to the original creator. You can also find the video here. 

Now I was using this as a point in a tiktok video. And though I decided not to use it I did share the video after.

It got me thinking about how much easier the world would be for me, for a lot of people, if they were just thought about when things were created. How much easier we could make the world now if we thought about people and what they need when things were upgraded.

People don’t want to do that though, and many have convinced themselves it’s impossible to even try. We still have a long way to go to have a truly accessible world, and that’s a little sad sometimes.

The little things matter.

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Tonight I went to go see Noah Kahan and it was at a venue that was so much more accessible than last time I went to see him, and that made all the difference.

Of course if I’m honest I still wanted to be in the crowd. But at least this way I could see and I could still feel part of it all.

Disabled people deserve to have fun in environments where there disability doesn’t have a negative impact.

I have included a video below which shows the difference between the two views I had, so you can see what the difference is.

Please please please design and choose your venues with disabled people in mind. We like to have fun too!

Two wheelchair users, one bus.

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It always surprises me, but it probably shouldn’t anymore, that public transport is generally only designed for one person in a wheelchair to use at a time. We don’t in fact all know each other and coordinate when we need to do things together, contrary to popular belief.

As I write this I’m on a bus on the way to pick up some medication for a family member, I like to be useful and it’s not often I can do that without actually being in the way, but today happens to be one of those days.

There was someone else that wanted to get on the bus in a wheelchair, but they couldn’t because I’m already on it. I feel bad as if somewhere it’s my fault, even though logically I know that it isn’t because I didn’t design the buses. But can you imagine if the roles were reversed?

If public transport was only designed to take one non- disabled person at a time? How annoyed would they be at having to wait for a bus with a space on all the time?

But it doesn’t matter that disabled people have to wait. It doesn’t matter that wheelchair users can never go out with other friends in wheelchairs when they need to use public transport. We almost always have to meet them at the place we’re going. We don’t get the full experince.

This is made even worse when you realise that society actually pushes disabled people together. They think it would be easier for us all to be friends at a young age, because no one who isn’t disabled should have to be friends with someone who is. But then don’t create a society where you’re actually able to do things as friends. It’s just weird to me.