Taxi Driver Online

Eastern Daily Press

August 3, 2006

BYLINE: BAGSHAW

Breaking an ankle and being forced to use a wheelchair and crutches has given a South Norfolk council chief a personal insight into the daily struggle that people with disabilities face when trying to get about the district.

Council leader Vivienne Clifford-Jackson spoke last night of her anger at the problems she has encountered, during the two months since her accident, while trying to fulfil her duties as council leader as well as holding down a job.

She said: "I thought that with the Disability Discrimination Act the whole area of what's needed if you are a disabled person had been dealt with. So it came as a shock from day one that it wasn't true.

"My first shock was Norwich (railway) station where they didn't have someone trained to put the ramp up for me. I was going to a business meeting in a business suit and I had to sit at the bottom of the ramp and drag myself up.

"Then a taxi driver in London said 'Can't you hop up into the cab?' A lot of it is about attitudes and people making assumptions about what you can and can't do.

"I only had a broken ankle but you would have thought I'd got a broken mind half of the time. I was wheeled into a paper shop, handed over the money and my change was given to the person pushing the wheelchair. What does that say!"

Mrs Clifford-Jackson is determined to raise public awareness of the issue, one of the particular concerns being the lack of facilities at Diss rail station.

"We have said at the council how appalled we are by the access at several stations, and the situation at Diss is totally unacceptable. You couldn't clamber up the steps clutching a case. What they offer you is to be pushed across the line in a wheelchair, but what if you can't find a member of staff?

"If you wanted to go to London and return home late there is no one at the station. Why should you be left stranded on the platform because of your disability?

"Hopefully, I will have my plaster off tomorrow and will have forgotten about it in a few months. But for other people this is how they have to live, and I want to raise the profile of what it is like for them. Being disabled limits your choice and that's the main memory I shall take away."

Diss rail station is by no means unique, and Mrs Clifford-Jackson sees it as the tip of the iceberg for the county as a whole.

Two years ago, disabled campaigner Keith Roads of Lakenham, near Norwich, was stranded for more than an hour on one side of Thetford station because there was no way to cross the 10-yard gap to the other platform. But he lost his claim for damages at Norwich County Court.

A spokesman for rail operator One said: "We do have a facility for disabled passengers. If they require assistance they should ring our customer services centre 24 hours in advance, on 0845 600 7245, and we will provide whatever assistance they need at the stations."

Under the Disability Discrimination Act, all public agencies must have a disability scheme in place by December 2006.
...................................................................................