Tag: Travel

Freedom

On By Katy DalyIn My Disability Truth, Writing PromptsLeave a comment

You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

The freedom people get when they are not disabled will probably never cease to amaze me. The freedom just to answer questions like this, to not be stopped by who they are when they try to do so.

Many of these modes of transport aren’t accessible to me, and those that require planning.

As a full time wheelchair user, an airplane is not accessible to me, it is simply too risky. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, then you are lucky.

While a train is generally accessible to me, with assistance. There’s no guarantee that all the stations I may want to go to are accessible to me. In fact from experience, money aren’t, and this often determines exactly where I will travel.

While buses at least in my area are accessible to me, they are only accessible to me if there isn’t already someone in a wheelchair on the bus. One day, the people that designed for which transport might learn that multiple disabled people can and often do travel at the same time.

Certain cars are accessible to me, but not many. I cannot just get a lift off anyone. And while I can learn to drive a specifically adapted vehicle, to do get the vehicle would cost me money I don’t have. This is before I even know whether driving is something I would be physically capable of.

I’m going to just say that we bike is concerned, I cannot ride one and we’ll leave it at that.

You don’t travel to a place on a journey, you visit that place as well. Accessibility doesn’t stop in modes of transport.

The world isn’t generally accessible for people like me in various many ways. I don’t really get to explore questions like this, without an element of ignoring reality. There’s a word for this, which took me as surprising amount of time to remember at 3:30 am. Cognitive Dissonance.

I think somebody’s gonna read this and wonder why did I take it so seriously? It’s obviously one of those writing prompts like what would you do if you won the lottery? Reality isn’t really supposed to be considered in these situations.

But I’m not really good considering reality when someone asks me these questions. I’m not really good at the cognitive dissonance. I’m thinking about myself and situations I might be in. My disability is such an integral part of who I am and the experiences I have. That it’s hard to separate myself from it, even in the situations.

I suppose I don’t really know what it’s like to think as a non-disabled person. I don’t really understand what it means to have that freedom on any level, whether that be thought or reality, it doesn’t seem to matter.

Maybe if I had a bit more freedom, in reality, it might be something that would reach my imagination, a little bit easier. Then perhaps I could answer these questions as they were intended to be answered.

The only way I reach this level of freedom in thought, as I am sometimes able to reflect in my writing, is to completely distance myself from the thought. In reality, my freedom is always limited by the world around me and there is nothing I can do about it. As soon as I put myself in the situation, my reality hits again, and I am limited by it.

Please forgive the state of this post as my sleep deprived brain is unable to reread it and make sure it actually makes any sense at all.

Mondays.

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So my family tend to go to a cafe every Monday. My dad picks everyone up, and drives them there. Apart from me and my sister who get the bus.

Now she gets the bus because I get the bus, on the times I haven’t gone, my dad has picked her up.

But the reason I get the bus is because my dad’s car is not accessible to me. This is a choice my dad has made. When I was a child he had accessible vehicles for me, but as soon as I was able to use public transport for myself he got rid of them because he didn’t want them. And I didn’t need him to get around as I good do it myself now. This was his understanding of the situation, not mine.

I’m supposed to say my wheelchair, right?

On By Katy DalyIn Blog, My Disability Truth, Writing PromptsLeave a comment

The most important invention in your lifetime is…

So I’m going to answer this question in terms of what invention I feel has had the most important impact on me personally. Not necessarily the most important global or social invention of my time. Basically I’m not doing any research, I’m just answering the question based on my life.

If you looked at me now, you’d think this was the most logically answer. And while I am grateful for the invention of the wheelchair, and in my case particularly the electric wheelchair, there are in fact other more important inventions to me.

I don’t think I’d be answering this question properly if I didn’t consider the inventions that undoubtably saved my life when I was born. Like many with my condition I was born extremely prematurely and should’ve died. So a small nod to the inventions that are the reason I’m alive.

Then it’s important to remember the ones you’re more likely to see me in, my electric wheelchair. There’s my electric bed and air mattress that I need to sleep, as well as my electric blanket which has to be the best pain killer for me personally. My comfy chair which just gives me somewhere else to sit and my shower chair, which I hope by the title is self-explanatory. Then you’ve got to remember the hoist, that gets me from a, to b, to c and sometimes d.

But the ones that I feel are the most important thing to me are those like the mobile phone, the internet, the computer. Now I know this sounds very millennial of me, if I’m getting the terminology correct. And someone’s somewhere is going to judge me for my reliance on the internet. But just remember where you’re reading this blog.

The internet, social media and the technology that exists to use them on. Provides me access and inclusion to the world around me in a way my wheelchair cannot do in such an inaccessible world. Steps do not exist on the internet.

I know social media gets a bad reputation and I understand why. But I always say it’s the way people use technology, not the technology that it is bad. While this doesn’t apply to things like guns which don’t have a good use. It applies to things like knives which clearly do, and in the case of this post, social media.

Social media lets me be the me I wish I could be in the real world. It lets me meet new people near and far, and learn all about them. It lets me keep in touch with people, that would be even more difficult to do without social media due to my lack of mobility. The internet truly is a wonder. And phones can do so much, provide so much access beyond what I use them for.

Inventions truly are a wonder. They can often be used by people in ways the person who invented them likely never imaged. They are never to be underestimated.

I’ve talked a lot about this recently.

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What would you do if you won the lottery?

I think it’s something that everyone talks about from time to time. Even when you know it’s never going to happen, it’s good to dream.

But I don’t even play the lottery, I don’t really have the money to waste, so I’m never going to win am I.

But let’s still give the question a go.

I used to say that I would by an accessible camper van. So I could live somewhere that was completely accessible to me, travel where I wanted, and see family. So that I could stay somewhere else without having to be uncomfortable. I even used to say that I would pay for carers to be on call 24/7 and follow me around in there own camper van.

And while this idea is nice, and maybe something I would do if I won a lot of money, I don’t think it’s where I would start if I won the lottery any more.

I would start with doing up the flat I live in now. Making it look nice and a little more lived in than it is.

I would then buy some more up to date tech. A good computer, a good phone things like that.

I would then stock up the house, get some better appliances than I currently have. I would make sure rent and bills are paid well in advance if possible so I wouldn’t need to worry about them.

Then a holiday, abroad. Somewhere hot maybe, or somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, Las Vagas, maybe. Or I’ve always wanted to go on a cruise, that would be fun. Or even just to say somewhere in a posh hotel.

I would also love to try a spa, get a new tattoo, get my hair done professionally. Those types of things. Maybe I could even get a jacuzzi in the garden with a hoist so I could use it.

Maybe then a car, and learn to drive.

What I find interesting about what I would do if I won the lottery, is I would just live a more accessible life. I would just like to explore the world a bit L, and live in little more comfort.

I don’t think that makes me different from many people. It’s just the money might be spent a little differently in order to active it.

It is likely to cost me a lot more to live a comfortably life, because of my disability. Life is more expensive when you’re disabled. Added to this is it is harder to earn money, and when it’s harder to earn money, you have less of it, which makes things altogether more expensive. And the inaccessibility of the world costs money to solve.

Life is just altogether more expensive when you’re disabled. People including the government somewhat recognise this, but no one who doesn’t live this life, truly understands the cost of disability.

Travel day

On By Katy DalyIn My Disability TruthLeave a comment

If you pay attention to this blog you might notice this post is backdated. It’s back dated because yesterday I had a very long day.

I went on a train, well two, well four, if you count there and back. And I had to have a bit of a wonder in the middle there.

Wonders can look very different when you’re disabled. I didn’t travel too far, I only went round the corner, but that counts as a wonder.

Going to new places is difficult when you’re disabled, so I try not to do it.

So this is your reminder that sometimes to go on a wonder you don’t have to go far, just somewhere new.

Trips

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So today I finalised some plans for upcoming short trip with family. And when I say short trips I mean short the longest one is overnight.

Now going to the majority of places leads to some element for an inaccessibility for me, I actually think that’s being generous. I don’t have the time energy or willpower to write down every instance of an accessibility I face. Honestly I think I would get bored. But the point being whenever I go anywhere I have to make the decision as to whether I’m willing to accept the inaccessibility that that will inevitably involve. There is ultimately something I have to sacrifice, if I didn’t I would never get to do anything. I’ve decided that it is worth it for these trips.

Most of the sacrifices I make surround my incontinence and personal care, for one particular trip it is no different. For the overnight trip I have to go without care for 24 hours, experience unknown inclines and access to properties, sleep in my wheelchair, and tackle the public transport in an area unknown to me.

The final part of this might not sound like much of a difficult thing to do. However growing up and an inaccessible world I know that it is possible that I may not be able to use the public transport that is supposed to form part of the journey I will be taking. In this instance this is actually the backup plan to getting a taxi, which I’m even more concerned about being accessible to me.

Now as I’ve said these are all things I’m willing to do, and to be honest there are things I try not to think about too much. I tried to focus on the fun I will be having, particularly this time, as both of these are for family parties. It is difficult though, and in many ways I am not looking forward to these events as much as I am looking forward to them.

Just remember you can never be sure of how much effort someone has made to attend something. What inaccessibility they might have faced? What they might be giving up? I’m not writing this to spread guilt. They have made the decision fully knowing what it would cost them and they still wanted to come. Consider it a privilege that everyone who can attend has. And don’t blame those that can’t, for not.

Why do people say they’ll do something that they won’t?

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This question has been really upsetting me recently.

I have been invited to a family event that I was happy to sort my own travel and sleeping arrangements to. Namely a train and sleeping in my chair, but there’s nothing new there in the world of inaccessibility. However someone said they would find away for me to travel with other members of my family, and they just haven’t.

I’m so used to not being able to travel with them, that it never crossed my mind that I would be able to, until the idea was suggested to me. Now it feels like my opportunity to be part of the family has been taken from me.

I know that may sound dramatic, but that’s honestly how it feels.

Did I mention that part of the new improved travel plan that my family member wants me to use, involves getting a taxi. When you’re a wheelchair users there’s no garuntee that I’ll be able to get in any taxi. And this just feels like a complication I don’t want to deal with on top of everything else

I thought for once I would get to be part of a family event, without feeling like I’m in the way. I thought that my family were willing to go a little bit out of the way to make me feel this way. I guess I was wrong.

Sometimes I think the world’s only accessible to me if I stay home, and then I realise just how inaccessible the world must be to me for me to think that way.

This is just one of many times people close to me have said they’ll include me like it’s no big deal, and then when it comes to the practicalities of them actually including me, it becomes a big deal. To the point where I’m not sure I even want to go this time.

But this time I don’t really have the option not to go, well I do but it’s a little more complicated. As my sister wants to go, if I didn’t go I would be left home alone, with the dogs. This would mean that I would need to cancel the carers even if I don’t go to the party, as it wouldn’t be fair for me to drop my sister from going to a party she wants to go to. So I would be home with the dogs and stuck in my wheelchair for a long period of time anyway.

Honestly any.

On By Katy DalyIn Writing Prompts1 Comment

What cities do you want to visit?

I’m going to be brutally honest here and and say that travel is difficult when you’re disabled and poor.

Don’t get me wrong being disabled makes it difficult to travel. But the hardest part of travelling, or in my case not travelling to another country, is being poor.

There is some truth when they say that money can buy happiness. I don’t think it’s that simple, money doesn’t solve all the problems of the world, but I think it can buy you freedom.

You can definitely buy the freedom to travel, anyone with money can attest to that. So while I would love to travel, it’s just not possible.

But the question is what city would I travel to, if I could.

If I could travel, I would love to go to Vegas. I’d love to try my luck as it were.

I would love to go on a plane, or a boat. I’d just love to travel differently, to go somewhere different.

I am an adult.

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As I write this I am at my friend’s. It is about 9pm, and my dad just called me to tell me they think I should go home. He says that it’s other people he’s worried about and not me and my ability, but it honestly doesn’t feel that way.

When I was out the other night with my sister he didn’t have this problem, and I was out a lot later. But then I wasn’t alone, so someone he views as more responsible was there.

I know he worries. But I honestly don’t think this is fair anymore.

I’m an adult. I am not less of an adult because I’m disabled. His worry for me is actually ableism.

Don’t worry I will get myself home.

Finding a different path.

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So tonight I went to an acoustic concert, very nice and a different experience. But this post isn’t about the concert, it’s about getting to the concert.

As this was at a venue that they had not been to before, I had to follow maps in order to get there, as you do. But once I found out where it was, I realised that there was an easier way to get there. I understand that this is the case a lot of the time when you simply follow google maps. But when you’re disabled this can be a lot more complicated.

The route that google sent me had me going on the road, and on an even pavements that I nearly tipped on. The route that I figured out on the way home had pavements that were a lot smoother and a lot wider.

I’m not exactly sure how this would be done, but I feel like Google Maps needs a feature that highlights the accessibility of areas better. it has gotten better by giving accessible routes at least in my area over public transport. But this does not seem to apply to roots that you would walk.

The takeaway from this post is, is of course to leave for the venue if you have not been before, well before the time you need to be there in order to make sure you’re not late. in keeping with a past trend on social media, you may want to call this disability math. Or at the very least disability time management.