City Council has the Key

Did you know you can buy a RADAR key over the counter at the Guildhall Reception?

They cost just £1.50

No need to get caught out without one!

And it's not just toilets that you can easily use with one of these, but some shops and swimming pool changing rooms have introduced them for disabled customers.

From the Lakes to the Fens

Does anyone else remember a place called Lakeland Plastics, a small warehouse near Windermere station where you could buy freezer bags and all sort of plastic goods?
Well, the small Cumbrian firm has transformed itself, and has a branch in Cambridge which has been nominated by a partially-sighted customer.

Mark went to check it out, and as you can see from the photo (left) he is showing an unhealthy interest in the Hallowe'en catering range for gruesome snacks .

His visit showed good basic facilities for wheelchair users such as level access, automatic door opening, generous circulation space and low checkout counters.

What we could not know until our The Way To Be nomination came in was the helpful and discreet assistance offered to customers who need a bit of help to find and examine the goods.

Thought for the Day: Just as the Lakeland poet Wordsworth spoke of the inner eye that can recapture beautiful sights such as wild daffodils, we know how much it means to disabled customers to remember the kind words, actions and thoughtfulness celebrated in some of our many really great nominations.

Inclusion — A Delusion?

A week in the life of a Guide Dog owning, Braille reading, working lone parent.

Saturday – Food shopping – local supermarket has Braille on a number of items now so this makes it easy to find the unsmoked bacon, and the vegetable lasagne ready meal. After lunch Guide Dog puppy walker takes Wade (my Guide Dog), out with her puppy. Take taxi to Funky Fun House to drop off my daughter at noisy 7 year-old’s party. Meet another parent from school who offers a lift to shopping Centre. Trainer shopping. Buy hockey stick and shin pads. Son then practices at home – in the front room! Guide Dog and puppy come back and we puppy sit for the evening.

Sunday – Wade is not up for working today. A 6 year-old dog just can’t take the pace of a puppy! We walk into city centre. Children select a favourite café to go for lunch. As we enter we are told we cannot come in because of the dog. I say we can because Wade is a Guide Dog. We sit and start to select our food. The waitress again states we cannot be there. I say it is the law that we can. The waitress again returns and says she is happy for us to be there, but the manager has said we cannot. Children are totally upset and we leave. They refuse to go into another café. We sit on a bench and they eat hot dogs. We go to bookshop and they cheer up as they spend yet more of their Christmas money on books! How has it lasted so long? I ask if its O.K. for me to go into bookshop café for a hot chocolate. They spot muffins and their mood changes about cafes! The staff are very pleased to have Wade and say how lovely he is. He behaves as a Guide Dog should – thank goodness!

Monday – I don’t like Mondays. However organised the uniforms are, the homework, the lunch, it is still always chaos. We make it on time to school but then a bus passes me a few metres before the stop. It is my lucky day as within 30 seconds another one arrives. It is crowded and I am standing with dog. Next stop a mother wants to get on with pushchair. Driver asks if someone will please assist by moving and allowing me and mother with child to get a seat.

Only 26 emails today, 2 meetings and more paperwork regarding my Support Worker – employed to help me with paperwork! Something crazy about the Department of Work and Pensions creating so much paperwork around their scheme to provide support to visually impaired people who have difficulty with – yes, paperwork!

Between meetings I return to café where I was sent away from yesterday. Owner is there. He is not apologetic, talks over me, and only after prompting by Ann, my colleague, takes the information I have printed off about the Disability Discrimination Act as it relates to visually impaired people and Guide Dogs. I explain that the problem with disability is being refused entry to places, having your children embarrassed about going places because of the fuss that occurs. He says he knows, his mother is disabled.

Tuesday – Stephanie starts work after school. The County Council have funded 6 hours of support to assist me in my parenting role. Childrens homework may now get completed and they will get the help they deserve. She is 23, has energy beyond my understanding, and stains on uniforms, and untidiness is removed in minutes! Paperwork around her employment foxes me again. Have to contact the Rowan Organisation to get help. They are great and patient with my mental blocks about forms. Feel it should be easier for me dealing with this sort of thing at work, but just seems to be worse with so many forms and processes to get my head around.

Wednesday – My long day at work and children are collected by after school club, then go to have supper with their father. Arrive back bickering over who will give cabbage to the guinea pigs! My brother calls to say he is going to have an operation on his knee. The nurse at the hospital filled in a form with him, asked about his blind registration and how much he could see. She then explained he would not be able to drive for 24 hours after the op. He says it will be great if he can drive 24 hours after the op! So many times people ask about your visual impairment and then ask about your driving skills!

Thursday – No work today! I am as usual exhausted and there are so many phone calls and letters to follow up. No email or internet connection on my computer. Second time in two months and yet I am paying a large amount to have reliable broadband service. Cannot sort it as noone here who can tell what the lights on the modem are doing. Bathroom tap is wobbly and dripping – where do I find a plumber?

Friday – get up early as I am being paid by another organisation today to go and do interviews. My son appears, has temperature and a throat that sounds like a rusty saw. Have to phone and say I cannot make interview panel. I don’t suppose they will ask me again. I reassure my son that it is not a problem and say he is my priority, (but could have done with the extra money). He wants to bath the dog. We manage to lift 32 kg dog into bath and have a great time – even the dog. Spend 45 minutes on the phone regarding computer internet connection. Son relays information about flashing lights, screen etc. They say after all this that we need an engineer. So no internet food shopping this weekend. Go to friends house for a curry and discuss the joys of being working lone parents before I leave to go to bed at 9.00!!

Lynne Hester

Nominate Cambridge sportspeople

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Sports Awards 2007 have rolled around again and nominations are now open for the

• Sports Performer with a Disability

award, which carries a prize of a £100 grant towards their development, a trophy and sports kit.

Nomination form (PDF, 260kb) from the Living Sport website.

Do the Funky Flamingo

communitycare.co.uk has a great story about a visit to Cambridge's Funky Flamingo club, which is a regular night club held at The Junction venue, organised and run by disabled adults and young people from Cambridgeshire and beyond.

David Fry of United Response (who are a national organisation which supports people with learning disabilities or mental health needs to live in the community) travelled from London for an all-day fundraiser. He says:

There was karaoke and live music, which I love because I am a big music fan. They were raising money so they could throw a Halloween party as well as fund Funky TV, a TV channel for people with learning disabilities.

The best thing about the event was how friendly it was. I like doing lots of different things in my spare time with all sorts of people. But sometimes it's nice to go to a place where people with learning difficulties are very welcome.

One of the first people I spoke to was Amanda Kleherer from the charity Inspire, which organised the event. She says: "Funky Flamingo isn't about being different or exclusive," she says. "It's meant to be just as much fun whether you have a learning disability or not. I've got friends who came to our club night and didn't know anyone who had a learning disability before, but they ended up loving it."

When I was younger I didn't know about anything like this. I think it would have been really fun if I'd been able to go to events like this and meet new people. I talked to a man called Darren Moore, who performs at the events as a Tom Jones impersonator and also helps organise them.

Darren says: "My advice to everyone would be 'get involved'. It takes a lot of organising, but they train you to help and it's all worth it. I've had so much fun."

Much more about the Club, what's on, what's planned for the future and how to get involved on the busy Funky Flamingo website.

Wheels on Fire : Mayor Bailey visits the Dragon's Lair

One of the sponsors of TW2B Cambridge 2007 is local engineering firm Dragonmobility, and the Mayor of Cambridge, who is herself an engineer, went along to see how they make their distinctive brand of life-changing wheelchairs in a small workshop behind the Aldi carpark on Histon Road.

Dragon wheelchairs are a unique combination of physics and psychology. It seems to be as important to identify the right person and the right family as it is to engineer the individual seating and steering mechanism.


Young Irving is a good example of this, and he met Mayor Jenny Bailey during her visit, demonstrating the freedom that a Dragon chair can give to a child with disabilities, even if that includes the freedom to make mistakes as well as friends, have accidents as well as have fun!

Ruth Everard, is another example, although in her case the technology that gave a her the chance to be defiant at storytime in Trumpington playgroup when she was four has since then enabled her to get a law degree from Oxford and a high-flying job as a solicitor in Canary Wharf.

Cambridge Hospitality To Be Proud Of

Last year TW2B awards attracted several taxidrivers and small shops. This year we have two Cambridge restaurants on the list of nominees, which is good news if you like good food!

We have had a nomination for La Mimosa restaurant, and by coincidence my father chose if for his 86th birthday lunch this week, so I was interested to meet Dom the proprietor and see his team in action.
Certainly the place is physically accessible, in a lovely location by the river at the end of Thompson's Lane.

The welcome was very warm and staff very attentive, and as it happened my father had rather overdone his eardrops and couldn't hear properly, but the waiter was very courteous and it was clear to me that customers with hearing problems are in safe hands as well!

We have also had a nomination for Brown's in Trumpington Street. I myself was pleased to see this one come in, as I was invited to lunch there by a friend some years ago. MS meant that my friend used a powerchair and had difficulty with his speech, but it was noticeable that the staff at Brown's addressed him throughout as he was the host, (he was paying, after all!) and we had a most agreeable meal. Obviously their tradition of good manners continues.

The ramp and automatic doors make it physically accessible of course, but as ever it is the attitude of the staff that lead to a nomination for TW2B.

If anyone reading this has personal experiences of Mimosa, Brown's or any other businesses featured in this blog, please do add your comments or make a nomination.