Monday 14 January 2008

STEPS

Our house has no back-step.
Our kitchen has been built flush with the garden - presumably on the off-chance that someone in a wheelchair will visit.
Which, mostly, they don’t.
But slugs, worms and leather-jackets potter in and slither across the floor at will.
Is this acceptable?

9 comments:

Littlelou said...

No step should be cosidered a blessing...try a line of salt to keep slugs at bay!!

Gledwood said...

Shouting at the radio?

... so are YOU a RADIO 4 regular, too...

Susan Harwood said...

Louise . . .

But salt won't stop the water that flows in as well!

This is a particularly difficult issue for me.

I have epilepsy. If I am not careful in my use of energy, I lay myself open to fits.

After a fit, I am 'out of action' for about three days.

For most people, washing the kitchen floor is no big deal. For me - it will quite likely mean I have a fit before the day is through - and that will affect me and my family for at least a week (possibly longer as one fit frequently opens the way for more to follow).

And if I don't actually have a fit, my 'energy quota' is often totally consumed by this one action of washing the kitchen floor and I will need to be helped to bed.

So . . . the lack of a back step has become quite an emotional issue for me.

Sometimes, it seems disability only 'counts' if it involves the use of a wheelchair.

So, when I scoop up the slugs and worms from the kitchen floor - and take them back to the garden - I'm often ranting internally about the way people in wheelchairs seem to have had so much influence over things . . . and how I live here when 'they' don't . . . and wonder how I would cope if I were blind and knew there were 'creepy crawlies' in the kitchen but couldn't see where in order to escort them back outside . . .

I'd particularly appreciate your response to this as I know you too have a special interest in disability.

Susan

Susan Harwood said...

Gledwood . . . I used to listen almost exclusively to Radio 4 but now I listen to Radio 5 quite a lot as well.

This is partly because it has a more penetrating sound and I can hear it easily as I move around the house.

In part it's because Radio 4 gets a bit repetitive.

And, more positively, I like Simon Mayo's programme on Radio 5 on weekday afternoons.

Susan

TartanWonder said...

Susan,

Perhaps a concrete 'barrier' can be put in across the doorway entrance? On the external side of the bottom of the door, with a narrow run-off in front of it to divert rainwater away to one side of the house for drainage.
If done, the only problem might be to avoid tripping on the new concrete rise.

David.

Susan Harwood said...

Er . . . yes . . . I don't think creating a new trip hazard is the solution!

More than that, with this blog, I am attempting to come sideways at issues which affect all of us and for which society as a whole needs to find solutions . . . and in some cases 'society' means every one on the planet . . . even if the way we chance upon them is through the small events in one's own life.

So . . . the problem addressed here isn't what I should do about my own kitchen lacking a back step.

The lack of a step symbolises something wider. More than one thing, I reckon . . . so I'll put them in separate 'comment boxes' in order to keep them distinct.

Susan Harwood said...

First . . . the 'symbol of the lack of step' highlights the way the needs of people with different disabilities may, at times, be contradictory.

Second . . . it is a reference to the way wheelchair use has become synonimous with disability - which it isn't.

Third . . . it seems to me that some disability lobies have more power than others.

Fourth . . . architects and planners and councils . . . and all of us . . . need to take hidden disabilities more seriously (I think!).

Incidentally, when I first had epilepsy, the smallest amount of energy use was likely to bring on a fit. These fits weakened me so much that walking became impractical . . . so friends pushed me around in a wheelchair.

But,in some ways, I was freer then than I am now . . . I certainly went to more places. If I had a fit on the way, it didn't make any difference . . . my friends kept pushing me, regardless!

But . . . if you are out-and-about-and-you-can-hardly-stand-up-and-you-are-getting-home-as-fast-as-you-can - when the proverbial old lady gets on the bus . . . and you are the youngest person there . . . but you know that, if you offer her your seat, you will simply keel over . . . and the bus will stop . . . and the driver will send for an ambulance . . . and everyone will be inconvenienced . . . and you'll end up in Accident and Emergency in a hospital ten miles from where you were going . . . well . . . um . . . it's very awkward!

Susan

Susan Harwood said...

Last comment for the moment . . . !

In Weymouth, the river Wey (as its name suggests) leads into the sea.

Already, the harbour walls have had to be raised because, at times, the river floods over the road. (Too much rain flowing down from the land beyond the town - lots of issues there!)

And, already, the council is trying to plan what to do as the sea level rises (global warming).

Much of the centre of town is built on re-claimed land. I expect those who have steps up to their houses are feeling more secure than those without.

(People with cellars and basements may be feeling less happpy . . . hmm . . . ah well!)

Susan

Unknown said...

Be grateful that you have a kitchen.