Wheelchair Unfriendly

I'm a wheelchair user - I can't walk very far at the best of times, but I've just had major surgery, so my left leg has broken bones that have been partially fused. Sounds painful, doesn't it? Well it is, and on top of that, the tendons have been lengthened and the ligaments are torn as well.

All this means that I now depend on my wheelchair and I can't go anywhere without it, as I can put weight through my leg.

I decided to go down the street today to the Old Bushmills Distillery and have my lunch in their restaurant. We got there OK because Dad drove us, but he had to go to my Uncle's, so he left us there - which was alright because we don't live far away.

Anyway, we had a brilliant lunch (Beef and onion sausages and champ!), looked around the gift shop and then went home.

On the way out of OBD (which is very disabled friendly), it started to rain. We took shelter under a walkway and waited it out. When the rain went off, we decided to go down to the Spar and get some groceries.

This was when the trouble started.

The place is a nightmare to negotiate in a wheelchair - high curbs, gutters, muck, fast road, narrow pavements, cars parked across the dips in the pavement meant for prams and wheelchairs and people nearly running you over.

All in a 20 metre stretch!

The disability rights act may have come into force, but most people are still ignoring it - the world just isn't built for wheels...

David