Beds, Ballots and Boneheads.

I have had a couple of incidents occur recently which presented me with those moments where you want to scratch your head and ask quizzically “what on earth was that all about?”, if only I was able to scratch my head!

The first of these occurred six months ago when the owner of a B&B we were evaluating for access commented to me that a number of potential clients had cancelled bookings because they thought the establishment is too geared towards disabled people. This naturally came as a surprise to him and he had spent a great deal of time and money investing in making his establishment fully wheelchair accessible, something which he thought would be advantageous. In the case of this B&B they had decided to not only modify one of their rooms but most of them with the result that there was sufficient accessible accommodation for up to six wheelchair users and the entire rest of the establishment, lounge dining and swimming pool areas were all accessible. It appeared that these holidaymakers did not wish to share their accommodation with anyone who might be less than perfect. Perhaps they think disability is a contagious disease? The owner of the B&B had also received feedback indicating that his use of the international wheelchair symbol on his street signage, and website, was drawing a negative reaction since able-bodied tourists were interpreting it to mean that the premises were intended for disabled people only.

A sister B&B just a few hundred metres away had also spent considerable investment in making themselves wheelchair accessible and due to negative feedback from potential able-bodied customers they had taken to referring all disabled visitors to the aforementioned B&B. These points were raised with me as matters of genuine concern, not so much because of the time and money invested in the creation of wheelchair access but because the proprietors had a genuine desire to provide accessible accommodation and yet were encountering mindset obstacles which they could not fathom.

Normally I wouldn't dismiss this as just a momentary lapse of reason on the part of some narrow minded holidaymakers were not for the fact that three months later another B&B owner, in another province, in another town, commented to me that many potential clients thought that her establishment was a nursing home for disabled people rather than a B&B, and hence declined to make a booking. She too had made the “mistake” of modifying more than one room to be wheelchair accessible and also ensured that the parking area, garden paths, pool gazebo, tv lounge, dining room and living room were all accessible.

Then completely out of the blue, just a week after the recent municipal elections, comes a letter to one of the local community newspapers, from a certain George Ashsworth of Noordhoek, expressing his displeasure at having to stand in line while disabled voters were ushered to the front of the queue. He believed the disabled should have made use of the special votes system to cast their vote on an earlier day, presumably then out of sight of their fellow Southern Africans. Our urban environment is far from being accessible to all. The train services are out of bounds to us, the bus services are inaccessible, as is the taxi service. Local training colleges and schools are inaccessible, the majority of businesses do not provide access, and even the very voting stations themselves provide limited access. Yet here is an individual who not only fails to understand his good fortune as a citizen, tax payer and rate payer, but sees fit to write a letter complaining when he has to stand back momentarily for his fellow man.

Whilst none of these rather strange interactions are likely to keep me awake at night, and George Ashsworth will likely never know how little I care that he had to wait in line whilst I cast my vote, they do serve as something of a wakeup call as to how out of touch some members of the community are, despite us supposedly being far down the road to equality. What saddens me is that many of these people may well be active members of our society, serving on their local school committee, or working with local municipalities and construction is companies. Their mindsets will lead them to be “exclusive” rather than “inclusive” in their decision-making at home and in business, resulting in the cycle of ignorance being perpetuated. It tells me that the process of education as to the inclusion of disabled people in the broader community has a long way to go, and that we should never take for granted that people have little grasp of the challenges which face us on a daily basis.