This morning I rang up to book my tickets for Nickelback on Jan 19th. All was fine until she told me the price was full price for 2 people when we've always only paid for one disabled ticket cuz my husband (or whoever might go with me) is needed to push the chair and assist with whatever else, getting drinks, carrying a bag, whatever. As nicely as possible I asked since when does my partner not go free? You wd have thought I'd asked her to kill her own mother!!! She was practically shouting at me about how they can't assume anything, some people have independent wheelchairs, you said you wd be coming with your husband - your husband isn't necessarily your carer, a lot of disabled people will get offended if we assume they can't cope by themselves, we can arrange for someone to push you within the arena if that's all you need.....I'll tell you what I did get offended by - her getting so angry at me as if this was all about my attitude to her! It sadly shows, as with parking bays and blue badges and many many other disabled facilities, that the decisions made about the facilities are not made by the people who actually use the facilities, they are made by people who are in no position to remotely understand our needs. She actually said that when I said I was going with my husband she cd not automatically assume that he was my full time carer. No but by the same token I shdn't have to justify whether he is or not, for the purposes of going to this concert he is acting in the capacity of my carer and they shd not have to know that. It proves in my mind that most people making these decisions have no clue what being a carer actually means. They obviously have an image of you requiring to be fed or attended to every minute and anything short of that means you don't really need "a carer" at all. I find it completely ludicrous that they say they can arrange for someone to push you to your set within the arena...right so I logically need someone to push the chair to get me to the arena but it's okay they can just push me to the door and then leave? Obviously whoever assists me to get there is going to come with me to the show. And someone can just push me to my seat and then what? What if I need a drink or something to eat, what if I need the loo, what if there's some kind of emergency...they don't think these things through. We have had that once before where they insisted on "being helpful" and having their own people push my chair - we had to wait about 15 minutes for someone to come and they disappeared the second they had deposited me where I wanted to be. If this was in a huge arena and I was on my own it's really a completely unworkable situation. I wd have liked to try and explain that actually I've never been asked to justify the carer ticket before but tbh I cdn't get a word in edgewise. I did try to say actually I've never been asked before but that just set her off again implying it was my fault for saying it was my husband going with me. Really? Every other time we've booked tickets anywhere they have just said the price for one ticket and no more was said about it. I am sick of this attitude in this country these days that situations that have existed for centuries suddenly are a problem because one person in a million MIGHT be offended. Why oh why can they not ask us actual disabled people what WE need. I find it offensive that they are telling me what I need and then going off on one because I'm suggesting that they've got it wrong. It's the assumption that the only reason you need assistance is to move the wheelchair, they don't understand there is so much more to being a carer.
The best place we've had for this was Milton Keynes. Bon Jovi and Nickelback that shd have opened Wembley but it wasn't ready. MK is a huge outdoor arena, it was a beautiful hot summer night and tho I'd have rather been at Wembley it was a nice place. We basically were allowed the "backstage" entrance thru some car parking and separate from the difficulties of the main crowd. As at O2, the disabled area was just a large platform which made it really easy to get the chair around and get comfortable. At Wembley it's literally a fixed seat with a limited space beside it. At MK there were surprisingly few security people whereas at O2 and Wembley they hover and I feel under suspicion the whole time. If I do stand up, they watch me to see if I can actually walk so I must be pulling a fast one being in the disabled section. I really felt completely normal and comfortable at MK, just left alone to enjoy the show. Maybe the problem is London, other cities might be a bit more relaxed.
not a good start to the day but there we are. I have my tickets that's all that matters!!!! Can't wait. Right, rant over, coffee calling, legs hurting, child fed, feeling a bit like I've done a day's worth of crap already and it's only lunchtime.
