Today my children's behaviour was complimented in public

[ailbhe]

A woman in my penultimate stop (M&S, for my lunch, before going to Eclectic Games to eat it) stopped me to say "What would you do if they weren't so well-behaved?" to which I said "Stay at home, I'd have to." They were pulling the shopping trolley and carrying things, and being obedient and safe and so on. Mind you, they had already had their lunch, because they wanted chips and since it's their pocketmoney they are allowed to spend it in Burger King if they like; having eaten always helps (though because junk food isn't properly filling, they also later ate a large portion of my lunch, which I knew they would ahead of time).

It was nice to get the compliment, but startling. At some point in the disjointed conversation (while I was hungry and in pain and trying not to let the children get bored while I talked to a stranger) I did say that yes, they are brilliant, because they are.

And I got to check out the change-mat we want for the bathtop, and bought Emer's summer sandals - in a colour she swore blind she didn't want last time we were in a shoeshop, but there you go - and we investigated the local Aldi, and found a shop called Range which has a horrible lift for people with buggies or a disability, and either travelators or stairs for everyone else. I can handle going up or down on an escalator with steps, because me and the crutches can be on a level surface, but I can't manage downhill on a travelator very well at all, and Emer was frightened by it. So we tried the lift.

It was one of those platform-in-a-shaft ones, with one half-height wall for the internal controls. To summon the lift, one pushes and holds the button outside until the lift has gone from the ground floor to the first floor. Then one lets go, and presses the button again to unlock the door; the door must be pulled open while the button is being held or it relocks. Then one pulls the heavy door open and enters the lift before it springs shut again on one's arse.

In other words, it's for disabled people with able-bodied helpers. The children and I needed ALL of us to get the door open, for a start. And once we were in, Linnea had to hold the down button down the whole time, and we all had to be careful not to brush the walls of the shaft. Then we had to get out by pushing another heavy door open, and immediately outside the door was a small, short ramp from the lift-level to the actual floor-level, which was a bugger to navigate with crutches, two children, and no free hands to open the door. If Linnea wasn't so big and strong we'd have been in trouble.

I shall write them a letter. And not go there alone until I'm able-bodied again.

Comments

[pauamma]

Re that elevator being for disable people with TAB helpers: that's actually a common complaint. See eg, http://accessibility-fail.dreamwidth.org/26542.html.

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

Those lifts are the bane of our lives. When we see one, we groan.

If you do brush the walls of the shaft, the lift stops dead. Hugh found this hugely compelling For Quite Some Time.

Hugh and David ended up locked in one at the Nat His Mues, with Hugh having hysterics, and David unable to work out what combination of touch, buttons and somesuch causing problems.

They are a NIGHTMARE!!!!!!

[ai731.livejournal.com]

I struggled with them horribly when my father was still well enough to be taken on outings in his wheelchair - trying to somehow hold the heavy door open and push the wheelchair onto the lift at the same time, without the heavy door bashing my father's legs. The no-touch sides seems to be a European refinement, though - I haven't met that special feature in Canada.

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

Many of the newer ones, as well as the touch the side it stops feature, have automatic doors. Which take some seconds to open up, then hesitate, and swing back. And if they meet you, swing back again, and hesitate and...

Toddler, Mum and wheelchair... not a timely scenario... it was how we ended up with Hugh and David locked in one, as David put Hugh on his lap, and I took the stairs!!!! The time we lost, trying to get the damn doors to open and shut, around us... as I said, we groan...

[taimatsu]

I've never seen a lift like that! I feel lucky. Range is new, it's turning up in my reports at work. Shame their access is so terrible.

[ailbhe]

I'm writing them an email or something - see next post!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Those lifts aren't actually intended for disabled people. They're intended for lifting heavy loads, such as trollies full of books in the library. We have one in Birkbeck Library, but it's usually intended for use by staff only. Disabled people are allowed to use it in an emergency if the main lift breaks down.

I imagine that it's in this shop as their main Goods Lift, and for some reason they allow customers to use it because it's easier than having to actually comply with the DDA, or something.

[ailbhe]

It's VERY heavily signposted and there are clear instructions on the travelators that people with buggies or wheelchairs should use the lift, go that way -> etc.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that you weren't supposed to use it.

I'm saying that the shop is wrong to expect disabled people to be able to use it. It's not what that sort of lift is intended for.

[ailbhe]

I thought you were saying that the shop didn't *expect* me to use it, which they definitely did. I didn't think you were questioning my right to use it.

Sheesh, I've used a lot of goods lifts over the last six years, between buggies and disability, and mostly they have walls, and staff to help you. Today's goods lift closely resembled the short-hop lifts other places use (Debenhams and John Lewis spring to mind) so I assumed it was from the same, er, stable, or herd, or whatever. But those are easy-push buttons, glass walls, grab-rail, automatic doors etc, even if they tend to have only two rather than four actual walls, and those only half-height.

[miriammoules.livejournal.com]

We have one like that fitted at church. It's what we were allowed to have as a listed building, because we have irregularly spaced floors.

It does however has automatically opening doors, and the button can be elbowed if you're on crutches.

[ailbhe]

The automatic doors and one-push buttons make a HUGE difference; a lot of places in town have those, especially for very short flights of stairs, like 4-6 steps.