Hi, my name is Bakes57! I need some advice, disability discrimination?

Bakes57

I need some advice if anyone has any it would be greatly appreciated:

	I was staying at an overnight spa and during a
	treatment they had an unexpected power cut.
	They advised all members to go into a certain
	area or their rooms and would update as much
	as possible. However, when I asked how I
	would get down they advised that they would
	have to get the chair to take me down the
	stairs but needed to locate the trained persons.
	After a couple of hours one of the therapists
	was very honest and said the managers were
	panicking because no one was trained who
	was was at the time. They left me upstairs with
	my husband as they had no other way down
	for me. I was upstairs from 2 until gone 1130. I
	felt so humiliated by the whole experience.

Bakes57

Disability Discrimination or not?  I’m really not sure?

Sandy_123

Hi @Bakes57 welcome to the forum 
Well that's not good is it, my worry would be if it was a fire. So what was the out come in the end  did they get you down  or did you have to stay. 

Some information here 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/check-what-type-of-discrimination-youve-experienced/duty-to-make-reasonable-adjustments-for-disabled-people/

Bakes57

It was such a surreal situation as I had said the same but by then my husband had explained to the Manager (who wanted to assist me down) clearly I didn’t look disabled enough for him so he thought an arm would help me get down the stairs; that I have frequent joint dislocations and these would increase if I had people holding my joints.  So when I mentioned the fire hazard he said they have different protacols and given my condition he wouldn’t want to bump me down the stairs in the chair.  But I already know there was actually no one trained to complete the chair handling anyway.

Hannah_Alumni

Hello @Bakes57

Welcome to the community!  

That's awful! I am so sorry that they didn't have what they should have had in place to support you. Can I ask is this a chain of spas? Because I would encourage you to email their head office. Sandy's link to Citizen's Advice is a great help too. 

Sunny_D

What an awful experience for you.  The Fire Service should go into that spa and do a "Fire Safety check".  If there was a fault due to an electrical problem then it could very well have led to a fire.  My ex was a firefighter and I know that they did do frequent checks.  If they don't have trained personnel then maybe the local authority can ensure that they make alternative arrangements for the disabled.