Discrimination towards disabilities

Most of the time I brush this off, say can't be true or isn't true, surely in our modern world people aren't treated worse because they happen to use a stick, wheelchair or have prostheses, but then I noticed a question on a group, The Last Legs group in fact, the question was does anyone using wheelchair faced problems with the ambulance service, as in not allowed  to take their chair on the ambulance due to health and safety, I was stunned, this can't be true, just saw on the news that they adapt ambulances, a small amount for obese patients so adapting for wheelchairs can't be an issue.

As the debate went on I learned it wasn't just wheelchairs, people have been refused their sticks, this is bizarr, what if when your discharged and you have no aid to help you into a taxi to get home, the worst part of the debate was ambulance staff confirming this, what the heck.

It doesn't end there, mores the pity, if you complain to councils about the paths being highly unsuitable for wheelchairs your told as long as paving is under an inch it's fine, but even a small lift of paving can take wheels off, jolting you and causing more pain, one user asking if I had loose wheel syndrome, that's how common a problem that is. I suggest a councillor put into a wheelchair and taken round his areas bad paths with all the bumps along the way and see how quickly Tarmac becomes an answer.

Then you have people who talk to the person pushing a wheelchair, not the person in it, last I checked, a bad back, lack of lower limbs or other issues placing a person in a chair doesn't make them daft or deaf, those same people seem to think a persons invisible also though, hitting you in the face with a shopping basket or their bag.

Now I understand most people don't want to have a disability or any of their loved ones, but just put yourself in their shoes for a little while, try and think before you stare or speak, making a few adaptions to an ambulance is not a huge deal if you can for other groups of people, changing a path is a sensible idea, anyone, not just wheelchair users, abled bodied too could break their ankle or nose on a dangerous paving. None of these things are a difficult thing to do but could make someone's day who's going through enough as it is.