Letter to the Shop with the Horrible Lift

[ailbhe]

Hi,

Today I and my children wanted to visit your shop in "Vestern Court Retail Park". I need crutches to move around and my children are aged 3 and 6 years and can walk independently. We went up to the first floor on the travelator, having checked that there was a lift to come down again (downhill using crutches is extremely difficult and painful, and can lead to falling over). However, when we came to use the lift to return to the ground floor, we encountered several problems.

First, to summon the lift the button needs to be continuously depressed. I cannot stand with only one crutch and balance like that while holding a button down and waiting for the lift to ascend an entire storey. Both of my children were able to take turns doing this, but the necessary pressure made their fingers tired; if only one of them had been there it would have been even more difficult and time-consuming. I assume that in a wheelchair one could approach this button sideways-on, or possibly lean extremely far forwards and push it, but even that is suboptimal, and I have no idea how someone in a wheelchair could get a shopping trolley into the lift at all.

Second, to open the safety-lock on the door it seemed to be necessary to press the button and pull the door open at the same time, which requires two free hands. That is completely impossible for me, so first we tried having the three-year-old child push the button and the six-year-old pull the door, but the door was too heavy, so I had to pull it open myself.

Third, the door needs to be manually opened enough to allow entry onto the lift platform, and swings closed automatically on a spring. I cannot hold a door and walk across its arc enough to open it with only one crutch even when the door is not as heavy as this safety-door is. My six-year-old pushed it further open from where I had managed to open it and I held it in place with my crutch while both children entered the lift. Then I had to use one static crutch which I could not move (or the door would have closed on me, possibly knocking me down or hurting me) and one mobile crutch to get myself far enough into the lift that I could safely allow the door to close.

Fourth, the lift only moved while the "down" button was actually being held down.

Fifth, the door at the bottom was just as heavy. Thankfully, it was easier for my six-year-old to push it open than to pull it, so she was able to open it and walk out, and lean against it to hold it open while my three-year-old and I left the lift.

And sixth, the lift with the heavy swing-closed door opens onto a sharp, short ramp, because it does not come down level with the floor, so one has to hold the door open while navigating a slope.

All of this means that it is impossible for me, depending as I do on my crutches, to spend money in your store without an able-bodied assistant.

Comments

[pauamma]

I would add something along the lines of "Now *if* that's what you think I should be doing (have a TAB assistant with me when I want to spend money in your store), I expect you to bear the full expense of supplying me with one. In that case, please confirm that you're ready to have someone meet me outside with £100 in cash on 1 hour notice whenever I decide to grace your store with my custom. Sincerely, etc..."

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

you have clearly enumerated the problems-- do you want to tell them what you want them to do about it?

[ailbhe]

I can't work out how to do so without ranting incoherently, yet.

[barakta]

It'll have to be reasonable. Replacing the lift is unlikely to be reasonable unless it's a very large chain of shops - it'll be deemed based on the financial status of the ENTIRE organisation not just that one branch. A notice instructing people how to obtain assistance may well be reasonable and they'd be expected to provide the assistance quickly. If it's a huge chain then yes repairing the lift to work properly would be reasonable to request.

Problem is, legally you're not disabled. You haven't had your disability for 12 months and do not expect it to last more than 12 months in total. If it's not public sector they're not bound by anticipatory wossnames. Hypotheticals don't count, and your disability is temporary - although I wouldn't mention that if it went further it would mean you couldn't persue this further.

Yes, interdependence vs independence... Access fail tastic.

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

Are you sure anyone has ever intended the lift to be used by people with disabilities? I am wondering whether it's only ever been planned as a goods lift, with the major problem being that they don't understand that a travelator doesn't solve the problem for everyone. (To me a travelator is like an escalator but without steps - is that what you mean?) Of course, your case demonstrates that they do need a lift to be usable in this way, but you might write the letter differently if you think this might be a point.

[ailbhe]

the big signs on the travelator saying not to use wheelchairs or buggies on it but instead to take the lift, arrow this way ->, and the HUGE signage visible across a large area of the ground floor showing the way to lift, make me believe they intended the lift to be used by the general public.

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

Fairy nuff!

[ailbhe]

http://www.therange.co.uk/scat/listofstores looks likea huge chain to me but possibly it isn't, by UK standards.

"The signs on the travelator clearly state that people with buggies and/or wheelchairs should not use the travelator but should instead use the clearly-signposted lift. To make this actually accessible to people with disabilities, at the very least there needs to be a way to summon staff assistance to open the door and operate the buttons, on both floors. Far better would be an ordinary lift with automatic doors wide enough for a wheelchair or trolley, walls around the platform, and single-push buttons to direct it to a given floor."

Any good?

[ailbhe]

Of course, the reason I noticed this is that most of Reading is totally accessible to me all the time, whether I'm walking normally, on crutches, in a wheelchair (rare, but has happened) or pushing a buggy. So the places which aren't REALLY stand out.

[barakta]

I approve. That wording is excellent. I hope they respond sensibly!

[ailbhe]

Also, I'm not legally disabled, but they don't know that, and anyway, it's alright for me, because I can wait until the autumn when I will be better, but meanwhile they are definitely losing my money and almost as definitely losing my goodwill; buggy-pushing while ill has made me pretty aware of accessibility things for the usual mobility impairments, and it makes me really angry.

I must find out whether there's some sort of crack disability superhero team around here who would check the accessibility and take it to the papers, with the backup of being legally disabled.

[da-pol.livejournal.com]

Range is quite a large chain of shops - they have several dozen stores across the country.

What Ailbhe has described is actually a lift style I meet quite often - quite a few motorway services have this style installed between two levels and they're nearly impossible for wheelchair users to use without an able bodied assistant.