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Column When living with a disability, Ireland is a different country

People in wheelchairs literally see life from another perspective – and the view isn’t too pretty, writes author Corina Duyn.

“DISABLED PERSONS WITH reduced mobility have the same right as all other citizens to free movement, freedom of choice and non-discrimination. This applies to air travel as to other areas of life.” These were the words written by Equality Officer Orlaith Mannion in her recent report on a case of discrimination on grounds of disability.

Of course I agree, as I am the woman who was at the centre of this discrimination.

When I became ill with the condition ME thirteen years ago, I saw my life very rapidly change from that of an able-bodied woman to one who needed full-time care. One of the hardest things I had to deal with was relinquishing my independence. A hard pill to swallow when all of the sudden you have to ask for help with every single action – from opening a new tube of toothpaste, to having one’s breakfast made, and to be able to go outside your own front door.

For this last action, mobility aids became a necessity. Yet, when my first wheelchair arrived I was not able look at it. I was the one who should be pushing a chair, having been trained as a nurse; I wasn’t destined to sit in one. I avoided the room where it was stored and only agreed to a spin in the chair during the hours of dusk, away from town. However I had to agree to these wheels in the end. So long as I had a pusher – a ‘mobiliser’ – it meant that I would not be confined to my home for ever.

Being seated in a wheelchair changes one’s perspective of life. Literally. Suddenly your view is at a child’s level. With the result that people talk down at you. Literally. It seems that if you are being pushed in a wheelchair, you must have something wrong with your brain, not your body.
I remember a few incidents from those early years. I was wheeled into a shopping centre, which was celebrating its second birthday. A ‘pirate’ ran up to me and was about to give me a kiss and a handful of sweets. I pushed him, with all my strength, out of my face.

A few weeks later, my ‘mobiliser’ was asked: “what’s wrong with the little one?” I reckon that the questioning man and myself were close in age, both in our forties.

Handing money over to a cashier, without fail, the change would be handed over to the person behind the chair. Why?

‘People laughed in my face’

My ever-growing quest for true independence brought me to the decision to purchase a mobility scooter. With this aid, my world opened up for me again as I was able to leave the house when energy allowed, not just when I had someone to push my wheelchair. Looks and comments did not stop. They just changed. People sometimes laughed in my face. One bonus is that being without a ‘mobiliser’ I was able to pay for my groceries and get the change into my own hands.

However, life on wheels is not without its obstacles. There is no transport in my rural area which I can use. In my town there are two banks. Both have large steps into the building. Thank goodness I have some use of my legs and am able to get off my scooter and walk into the bank with the help of a walking stick. The credit union has the same architectural challenges. Footpaths have been upgraded, but the levels of the curbs are now too high. Some have been lowered after a meeting with the council. There might be a bathroom for the disabled in a café, but it is impossible to get inside the door due to the high steps into the building, and if you get in, there are most likely too many tables and chairs to get through the space.

I remember visiting a restaurant situated on the first floor. There was an elevator, and a small floor-lift allowing a wheelchair user to combat the few steps into the restaurant itself. I was very pleased, until I went to visit the ‘disabled’ bathroom. Indeed it was disabled. All the cleaning gear was stored in the large bathroom.

‘People get angry’

We all know the way people abuse the parking disc, which allows people with a disability to park in designated areas. Some seem to borrow their ‘granny’s’ disc, or park in designated areas while the disabled person is not present. When confronted these drivers get angry. Very angry. Some tell me that they have a disabled child – at home – others that “they’ll only be a minute”. Other people park their cars on the sidewalk, leaving no other option than to risk one’s life and continue your journey on the busy main road.

I am aware that people are not thinking about this type of challenge – you only become aware when you’re disabled yourself. With that thought in mind, I would like to propose a national day of disability awareness. On that day local politicians, shop and café owners and teenagers will be given a task to complete in the towns and cities of Ireland. All are disabled for a day: be it blind, seated in a wheelchair or suffering from hearing loss. The tasks they would be given could range from getting the groceries to going to the bank; going for coffee and using the bathroom; visiting a gallery, etc. Maybe, just maybe, this will open people’s eyes and make our country a place where a “disabled person and persons with reduced mobility have the same right as all other citizens to free movement, freedom of choice and non-discrimination”.

That will be the day!

Corina Duyn is an author and artist living in Lismore Co Waterford. Her work is informed by nature and living life in the slow lane. See corinaduyn.com for more.

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    Mute The Risen
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:43 PM

    “Reflect”? Just shows the arrogance of an organisation that thinks it still wields far more power and influence than it does. Lands amounting to the value of the debt still outstanding from the various child rape and assault scandals should be confiscated with the same vigor that revenue would come after you or I if we owed anything.

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:48 PM

    @The Risen: True, but why ignore the other travesty, developers again getting a get out of jail card by their buddies in office????

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    Mute That's FineGaelness
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:02 PM

    @Tony Harris: Who said to ignore developers getting a get out of jail free card?

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:14 PM

    @That’s FineGaelness: I was referring to the comment above which ignored that bit!

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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 8:15 PM

    @Tony Harris: Because yer man in the photo isn’t wearing a hi-vis. :)

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    Mute Ian Phillip Creaner
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    Sep 8th 2021, 8:49 PM

    @The Risen: i agree completely. But After you or me. You cannot come after “İ”.

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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    Sep 8th 2021, 10:45 PM

    @The Risen: the state recommended that the church pay 50% of all the redress which the church did not agree to as they knew it was impossible. On the one hand you are saying the church is in decline but on the other they are supposed to have a financial standing equivalent to the state.

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    Mute Dave Harris
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:50 PM

    The Bishop should take a good long look in the mirror while he’s “reflecting”
    How those supposed men of god can live with themselves I don’t know

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:24 PM

    @Dave Harris: Indeed. He needs to reflect on the ban on birth control and the possible link with homeless families going hungry. No doubt they’d prefer to set up orphanages to export the children on commission.

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    Mute Dorothy Giselsson
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:25 PM

    With the amount outstanding that these people owe their victims should they not just send in CAB to confiscate their assets in lieu of overdue debts?

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    Mute Pádraigín O'Sirideáin
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:06 PM

    The church should hold no land, they should hold no wealth, if they were real Christian’s they would gladly give land to build social housing… but no, they’ll reflect on it and hope the publicity will go away, no wonder mass attendance numbers are dwindling. Shame on the church again.

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:30 PM

    @Pádraigín O’Sirideáin:
    So much for vows of poverty!

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    Mute Irish big fellow
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:12 PM

    How much does the church still owe the state to pay for the agreed portion of financial compensation already paid out by the government to those who were victims of abuse by the members of the clergy?

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    Mute Robert Stevens
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:42 PM

    The money was just resting in my account

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 7:41 PM

    @Robert Stevens: It was resting for a long time, Ted! Good long rest!

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    Mute Amadán
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:45 PM

    I hope they do give the land…on the stipulation that it will be turned into social housing.
    Because, you know O’Brien and every other minister will develop the builds and then hand them over to parasite landlord class.

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:16 PM

    @Amadán: Excellent point, well made.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 7:41 PM

    @Amadán: This is exactly it

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 7:42 PM

    Why you’re not an Amadán at all!

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    Mute NoPlanetB
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:24 PM

    Do a Henry VIII reboot: Dissolution. Widespread state seizure of church lands for Social housing. Much of this land was gifted to the church in any case by Builders when they built an estate and land for church use was made available for a nominal fee. The house owners themselves paid for it whether they liked it or not.

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    Mute Joseph Duggan
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:46 PM

    Wonder could the church show us the deeds of.all the land they have control of

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Sep 8th 2021, 7:43 PM

    @Joseph Duggan: I’d be interested

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    Mute Joseph Duggan
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:49 PM

    Biggest private landlord in the world vatican

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    Mute Ivan Genockey
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:19 PM

    The minister should just take the land off the church for all the pain and misery they caused.
    After all they didn’t even pay up.

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    Mute Amadán
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    Sep 8th 2021, 3:43 PM

    Or, it could be more likely that they have to talk to the individual Diocese about what can be done. Those in said diocese, ordained and laity will have to be consulted.
    That’s before you get into the different orders and some that will have to go to the Vatican.
    It’s not the hegemony orginistion people think it is. It’ll take time. Probably looking at about a year.

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    Mute Fred spins kdb
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    Sep 8th 2021, 2:48 PM

    Hes the bulb off piers Morgan.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Sep 8th 2021, 4:39 PM

    Centre right and centre left governments in Ireland have operated from a base assumption that the housing demand can be left to ‘the market’. In the early 1930s FF earmarked large sums of money to local authorities for the construction of houses for people on low incomes. But that was a temporary aberration; since then the Hidden Hand of the Market has held economical sway. Catholic Bishops and lay Catholic theologians can examine papal encyclicals etc and see if the Hidden Hand concept can be morally challenged. I hope that will be a significant aspect of the Bishops’ declared ‘reflection’.

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