Suzanne Fletcher's Blog

Problem with the buses - keep your ticket!  That is of course if you have been able to get on to a bus to get one.  However this was the advice given by the bus operators who had come along to today's Disability Forum when faced with a number of complaints about bus drivers who had not been as helpful as they might to people trying to get on and off the buses.  The ticket will be able to locate the exact bus and driver as well as stop you get on at, and can be sent with the complaint to the bus company to investigate.  A lot more than that is needed but at least it is a start in dealing with the many problems that people with disabilities face when using a bus, on top of the issues that everyone else has.

There was also news of the Bus Users Forum.  We were told the next meeting would be in July or August.  I don't think that is at all good enough, given that the first meeting was in February, and there is no sign either of the steering committee people put their names down for.  There are lots of issues people want to raise, and why not.  We are going to have some sort of wonderful partnership we are told - well engaged couples need to sit down and talk and get to know each other before a permanent partnership!

It was, though, a very good meeting of the Disability Forum, and I would encourage anyone interested to go along to a future meeting.

IF ONLY

I met someone who had a daughter with learning disabilities and she was telling me how she had been fighting on a number of fronts, but encouragingly had started a group with some other parents called "IF" - if only they had known about a number of things earlier it would have made life so much better, and they wanted other parents to benefit from their experience.  Well done, and I will post more information in the future as I find it out.

Then tonight at a reception I went to with John I met another woman I enjoyed talking to.  We said how we now had the confidence to go up to someone and start talking to them - if only we had in years earlier how much richer our lives would have been.

Yesterday I said to my pilates instructor - "if only" I had known some of the techniques she was teaching me 20 years ago, how much difference it would have made to my life.

Still - I managed to stand for most of the reception.  Now if only the right bus came at the right time for us all ......