| Hello Thomas Welcome to this week's Independent Living newsletter. Contents: 1. International Day for People with Disabilities 2. Euan's Guide – Five 5 Campaign! 3. Ability Matters! 4. Abacus Healthcare 5. Changing Places - Shop til You Drop! 6. Latest news - Moving & Handling Feedback """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 1. International Day for People with Disabilities As I write this, it is the International Day for People with Disabilities, and this year's theme is "Break Barriers, Open Doors for an inclusive society and development for all", which is something I'm sure we can all engage with. I hope you've had an opportunity to listen to my interview with Martyn Sibley, as this is very much what his recent activities have been about. Even after so many years of legislation to support equal access, people with disabilities are still routinely facing barriers that make life more difficult, and are disproportionately affected by welfare reform, cuts to social services and unemployment. So at least half a cheer that the WOW Petition - the campaign by and for sick and disabled people and carers to fight the War On Welfare - reached its target of 100,000 signatures in the last few days, thus obliging the government to at least consider giving time to a Parliamentary debate. The next step is getting as many MPs as possible from all parties to engage in the democratic process of achieving a Cumulative Impact Assessment of the disproportionate effect of welfare reforms on sick and disabled individuals. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 2. Euan's Guide – Five 5 Campaign! Particularly appropriate to introduce you today - when we are focused on universal access - to a new website, Euan's Guide, which is bringing together reviews of venues around Britain, written by disabled people, their friends and families. The idea is that you can visit the site, and access a knowledge bank about accessible places to visit - and they have very kindly written a guest blog for us, about their new venture. If you're wondering about the name, there is a real person behind it - Euan MacDonald, and you can find out more about him in the article. I think he might be a Hibs supporter! Of course, the more reviews are contributed, the more useful the site will be, so they are asking everybody to help make it a success, with their "five 5 campaign" - please review five venues and pass the word on to 5 people. If you are feeling inspired, you can write your first review now, at www.EuansGuide.com """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 3. Ability Matters It's good to welcome this subscriber to Independent Living. Ability Matters offer mobility and accessibility products and assistive technologies sold directly to customers and professional clinicians. Their new page features products from their extensive range of manual and powered wheelchairs and scooters; walkers and rollators; rise and recline easy chairs; and aids to daily living. Take a look! Ability Matters showcase page """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 4. Abacus Healthcare Abacus Healthcare also has a new page, highlighting some of their extensive range of baths for adults and children who need care and assistance while bathing. Now part of the Care in Bathing Group, which includes Gainsborough Specialist Bathing and Premier Care in Bathing, Abacus has developed their range with an emphasis on the safety, comfort and dignity of both bathers and carers, and they work closely with therapists, families and care providers to understand exactly what's required to provide the best bathtime solutions. Particularly distinctive are their platform baths, which include a variable height platform on which the bather rests while they are lowered into the water for washing, and on which they can remain once bathing is completed, for drying and dressing. This reduces the number of transfers required, and also removes the need for a separate area for drying and changing. You can see more on the Abacus Healthcare page, and visit our Assisted Bathing area for a wide range of bathing solutions. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 5. Changing Places - Shop til You Drop! Great to see the roll-out of more Changing Places facilities around Britain. January sale time will be better for people in Manchester, Southampton, Gateshead and Doncaster, simply because their local shopping centres have chosen to optimise accessibility. The cities' major shopping centres have all fitted Changing Places assisted accessible toilets, which enable anyone who needs the help of a carer in the toilet, to have appropriate, hygienic surroundings. With more space than a standard wheelchair-accessible toilet, a Changing Places facility also includes as standard a hoist, privacy screen and a height adjustable changing bench, as well as a washbasin and peninsular toilet. Clos-o-Mat have designed a helpful interactive search map, so that you can plan shopping trips in advance, and relax about the need to find an accessible loo when out and about! Read more here """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 6. Latest news - Moving & Handling Feedback I'm not surprised that last week's item about Moving & Handling generated a big response. Many people within the industry sharing their concerns about the way in which some training is undertaken - or not: despite agreement on how important it is, there are people carrying out these procedures without any training at all. You can read a representative selection of comments here - and do please add your own. There was also some understandably brisk reaction to the assertion from last week that charity bosses were being very restrained, as they had "only" averaged a 3.2% annual pay increase. Plenty of you haven't had any sort of increase in the last few years, and as there hasn't been a similar freeze on price increases, actual wages have gone down in real terms. Perhaps time for smug charity types to stop congratulating themselves. In recognition of the International Day for People with Disabilities our friends Simon and Obama at Pony Access were sponsored to provide wheelchair access to the lovely Burgh Island on the south Devon coast yesterday; another great example of removing barriers for wheelchair users. You can see some lovely photographs here. Don't forget you can access all the news as soon as it is uploaded in our News Centre. Our Visitors Forum is the place to start a debate about any topic that interests you. Previous newsletters are archived here. Our Facebook page is regularly updated with the latest developments on the site, and is also somewhere that you can share your opinions with us. Or if you want to make it pithy, send us a tweet! @IndLiving Until next time, all good wishes, Frances -- Frances Leckie Editor E: editor@independentliving.co.uk t: +44 (0) 208 133 0628 Skype: francesleckie w: http://www.independentliving.co.uk This newsletter was sent to thomaschambers@eircom.net. If you prefer not to receive future copies, just reply asking to be removed from the list, and it will be done! |
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
Fw: IL Newsletter, 4th December
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment