Fi Anderson, a disabled mum of 2 and blogger from Bolton talks about the challenges she faces as a disabled parent on public transport.
My name is
Fi Anderson. I’m best known for my passion
in campaigning as Transport Ambassador for MDUK, Changing Places and for
accessible housing. Living with Muscular Dystrophy means I’ve been a wheelchair
user since early childhood and only now is our family able to explore the
option of obtaining a wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV). In the meantime,
like many other disabled people who don’t drive, we utilise public transport
everywhere we go and that includes with our young children.
Wheelchair
vs buggies
You may have
heard about the fight over who is more entitled to the dedicated ‘wheelchair
space’ on buses after campaigners bus companies to court after
being denied access to the space which was (at the time) occupied by a child in
a buggy. While the war of wheelchairs vs buggies exploded on social media, wheelchair
users fighting their corner and parents with young children who use buggies
fought theirs, it seems nobody stopped to think about disabled parents.
Policies
and Pandemonium
When we
venture out as a family, my powered wheelchair and my youngest daughters’
buggy, we can only board at the driver’s discretion and if no other buggy or
wheelchair is already on, which as you can imagine limits us greatly,
especially during peak time. It doesn’t help that different bus companies have
different rules, for example on one bus service, drivers tell us that it is one
wheelchair OR one buggy, never both. So, if we needed to board one of their buses to
get to an appointment on time it’d mean going in convoy. I’d go ahead with my
eldest daughter and my partner would catch the next bus and meet us there with
our youngest in the buggy. Having to make a rash decision to separate our
family to continue a journey is not only inconvenient, it causes our children
great distress because they simply don’t understand why we’re suddenly forced
apart. There’s been times passengers on the bus have shook their head in shock
as they see my youngest crying out for her Mummy, watching a big bus take her
sister and I away from them. Other local buses mostly have a buggy AND
wheelchair space, so we don’t get separated as much, however sometimes both
spaces can be occupied by 2 or more large prams or buggies. Our world record of
how many buses we’ve had to miss in a row stands at 6, waiting for a bus that
would allow both me as a wheelchair user and my youngest to get on in her
buggy.
Of course,
there have been kind-hearted drivers along the way who ignore the rules and see
that we should be able to travel as a family unit, letting us play Tetris in
the wheelchair space. I do this by tucking my feet back a bit on my footrest
and there’s just enough space for the buggy to fit between the seats and my
feet. However, the flip side is we’ve waited in horrendous weather and missed
several buses. The kids have been hungry and tired, for us to be stood there
begging an ignorant driver who DID have the space to let us play Tetris for them
not even realise the children next to me were mine. There’s been two occasions
in my 7 years of Motherhood where we’ve had to ring for help from a relative to
come collect the children in their car and mind them while we carried on
battling to get home after being left stranded in snow or stormy weather by
drivers who refuse to bend the rules or other parents who too, don’t realise
these are MY children and we too are trying to get where we need to be.
What can
you do to help?
The only way
to improve the situation parents like myself face when using buses is to spread
awareness. Next time you are sat on a bus, I challenge you to simply think about
those around you. Any one of your fellow passengers could have a disability or
chronic illness, as too could any parent you see. Disability can strike anybody
at anytime in their lives, it doesn’t matter your ethnicity, sexuality,
religion or class. Some people become disabled after they have children by a
terrible accident or sudden illness, some like me, may be disabled from birth
and never let that dictate their dreams of becoming a parent. One day it could
be you.
There is no
policy to protect the rights of disabled parents on public transport. Until
there is, we are 100% relying on human decency to treat us with the kindness
you’d wish society would treat you, if you were in our shoes. If you see a
disabled parent struggling to access a bus, speak up and help where you can.
Scope's campaigning to help make travel fair. Tell us what promises you want to see public transport companies make in order to make it easier for disabled people to travel.
If you need information, try Scope's advice and support for travel and public transport.
Do you
have experience of public transport as a disabled parent? Let us know in the
comments below!
