* Editors Notes
* Do & Don’ts of Orange Badges
* Orange to Blue
*
The DDA Part III & Disability Rights Commission
A very warm welcome to
this edition of Wheel Power, by the time you read this, we will be well and
truly into the year 2000 so I would like to take this belated opportunity to
wish everyone a peaceful and trouble free year.
Let us look forward to the time when wheelchair users and all people with
disabilities have a truly accessible environment to live and work in, including
full access to transport, goods and services, education and employment for our
full inclusion in society.
I would also like to see ‘equal
provision’ of the right wheelchair from the NHS Wheelchair Service
for all users of that service. It cannot be right that some people get the chair
they want and others have to jump (excuse
the pun) through many hoops to get the chair that is right for their clinical
and daily living needs.
Welcome progress has been made in that direction with the
provision of indoor/outdoor powerchairs (EPIOC’s) for severely disabled
people and the voucher scheme. The voucher scheme is good, but it still depends
on which wheelchair service you come under as to the value of the voucher you
receive towards your wheelchair. The scheme is fine for those who have the means
to pay the difference, but what about the many users who cannot raise the money?
Do they just accept the basic standard wheelchair that in many cases is inappropriate
for their needs.
The disability consortium EmPower
is campaigning hard for a national look to individual needs and has produced
a wheelchair users charter. Full details on their website at www.empowernet.org. The wheelchair users group is also networking
with other users groups in an effort to improve provision. We now have our own
website at www.wheelchairusers.org.uk
promoting the work of the charity and the services we provide. All our members
and subscribers to Wheel Power can now access our support helpline via our new Freephone
number on 08000 740848.
Finally, enjoy reading your magazine and remember if you
have an article, story, poem or even something to say about the wheelchair service,
(good
or bad) please let me know.
Your copy should have been with you in September 99, but due to pressure
of work, computer upgrades and software problems we have been unable to desktop
publish Wheel
Power until now.
If you’re not happy with the wheelchair offered by your local NHS Wheelchair Service, and would like a better chair, ask your Wheelchair Service for details on the Voucher scheme.
In recent years, the Orange Badge Scheme has come under fire from a number of sources, not least those Police and Council officers who come across countless cases of abuse of the system. At one time or another we have probably all seen a car stop on double yellow lines, a badge appears on the dashboard and then someone jumps out and runs across the road into a shop. Orange badges are issued for one purpose only, that is to allow its disabled holder to take advantage of certain limited concessions about where and for how long they can park a vehicle. Orange badges are not a permit to park anywhere, nor are they a licence to cause an obstruction. Here then, are a few reminders to all of us who have Orange Badges on what we can and cannot do with them.
An Orange Badge is issued to an individual disabled person. It must not
be lent to, or used by, husbands, wives, children, cousins, neighbours, Old
Uncle Tom Cobleigh or anyone else.
Orange Badges must only be displayed when they are being used. That means
that they should not be attached to a sun visor that spends most of its time
across the windscreen. Neither should they be permanently placed in windscreen
holders used for displaying the old style Orange Badges.
If the Orange Badge holder is not getting out of the vehicle, the Badge
must not be used. A Badge holder who remains in a vehicle that is parked in
a restricted area with the Badge displayed is liable to have it withdrawn.
Orange Badges do not permit parking in areas where the loading and unloading
of vehicles is prohibited.
Even if the Orange Badge is displayed, the driver of a parked vehicle must
move it if in the opinion of a Police officer or other competent official
the vehicle is causing an obstruction. If the vehicle in question has been left
unattended it can still attract a Fixed Penalty Ticket even if the Orange Badge
is displayed.
Some local authorities, allow concessions to Orange Badge holders in their
car parks, others do not. It is the responsibility of Orange Badge holders to
find out what the rules are in the car parks they wish to use,
and abide by them.
Finally, all of us who hold Orange Badges must remember that their possession
is a privilege, not a right, and apply our common sense to how we use
them. It is almost certainly the case that the majority of us do use our Orange
Badges properly and that the abuses of the system that have tarnished its reputation
are the acts of a thoughtless minority. Nevertheless, the actions of a small
group of people is doing enormous damage to the reputation of all Orange Badge
holders. The only way we can restore both our image and the validity of the
Orange Badge Scheme is to ensure that we obey the rules ourselves and that we
report to the appropriate authorities any and all the abuses of the scheme we
come across. Only by doing this, and thus helping to stamp out its misuse, will
we regain for the Orange Badge the respect that it should hold in the eyes of
the public, the Police and local authorities.
Ian
Bentley, Access Officer, Wheelchair Users Group.
The famous Orange Badge won’t be around for much longer. As from the 1st January 2000, blue will become the new colour (although existing badges will only be replaced as they come up for renewal and the old badges have been used up). The change is (according to a circular from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions) is a result of our closer relationships with Europe. Eligibility criteria of individual countries is not affected. The new card usefully extends badge-holding, Brit’s parking privileges throughout Europe. Uniformity of colour and style of badge will help enforcement officers to recognise parking cards from other member states, enabling those with genuine entitlement to travel more confidently. It should also help to cut down on the selfish minority of motorists who continue to abuse the concessions.
From orange to blue -
Update: There will be a gradual change-over to the new blue badges, as
and when your orange badge comes up for renewal you will be issued with the
new blue badge.
Because of the change in colour of the disabled parking permit, the name of The Association of Orange Badge Holders will also change to: The National Association of Blue Badge Holders, with a working name of NABBH.
The DDA Part III
The Disability Discrimination
Act (DDA) has been in operation for three years. October 1st 1999 saw implementation
of Part III, which relates to goods and services. From that date, service providers
- be they a local corner shop, large multinational corporation or government
agency - will have to make “reasonable” adjustments to how they operate
to ensure that they do not exclude a disabled person; if such changes would
be “unreasonable”, then there will be a legal obligation to find alternative
means of providing its services
to disabled people. For instance, if a doctor’s surgery is inaccessible,
the GP may visit the disabled person
at home.
The final phase of the implementation of Part III of the DDA will be April
2004 when service providers will have to take reasonable steps to remove, alter
or avoid physical features, which make it impossible or unreasonably difficult
for disabled people to use the service.
The provisions will be backed up by a new code of practice to advise businesses
and other organisations dealing with the public how to improve the way they
serve disabled customers. The UK will become the first country in Europe to
implement wide-ranging rights of access for disabled people. The DDA helpline
can be contacted on 0345 622 633.
Another important milestone is the Disability Rights Commission
(DRC), which will be established in April 2000. For the first time mainland
Britain will have a statutory organisation to enforce their rights. The majority
of the DRC’s Commissioners will be disabled people.
The DRC will work towards the elimination of discrimination against disabled
people by encouraging good practice and advising the Government on the operation
on the DDA and whether changes need to be made to it.
It will provide a central source of information and advice to disabled people,
but also to service providers and employers and assist disabled people to secure
their rights etc.
At the turn of the year RADAR’s Director Bert Massie departed for pastures new to take up the post of Director of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC).
The
DRC can be contacted at 222 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8HL.
Peter
Mansell, formerly
Chief Executive of the Spinal Injuries Association from 1995 to 1999 became
the new Chief Executive of RADAR in February this year. Peter, who is 42, became
a wheelchair user following a traffic accident when he was 20. Since then, he
has become heavily involved in the issues around the physical and social barriers
he has encountered as a disabled person.