The subtle and not so subtle oppression

Recently I had an appointment with the TfL mentor, to help learn how to board a bus on a Mobility scooter. To say it was very traumatic is an understatement. I have driven a car with a full licence for 50 years. I’ve had a mobility scooter 4. I’ve used the scooter to journey around the whole of RHS Wisley and Kew Botanical gardens in London. I have driven it to my local shops. I can drive into my small flat and do a 3 point turn to allow it to be facing outwards when I require it. It was hard to drive it up the ramp into a bus, where I had to reverse and do a three-point turn, so that I was sitting facing backwards against the pad within the back of a bus.

This was without any people, pushchairs or other wheelchairs in, it was very difficult to do. I did feel stressed as the driver was on his break and the session was being timed. The inaccessibility of our society came to the fore. I was humiliated and embarrassed. The mentor was kind and manhandled the scooter into the correct position. He said that he would allow me to have the certificate and say I was capable of doing it, with practice. I was embarrassed and said that I would never go on the bus without moral support. Which of course effectively cuts me off from doing things on my own. So I thought I’d write this blog. Of course some people would know exactly what I’m talking about, but others need to know how inaccessible our society is. how on a daily basis we are challenged by the institutions that seek to exclude us.