Experiences of accessible housing needed!

[mathy3890]

Hi all,

My name is Mathy, and I work with the young disabled persons' campaigning group Trailblazers. We recently launched our investigation into accessible housing for disabled people.

If you have any experiences of accessible accommodation - for example, do you know somewhere that has particularly good or bad access? have you just had your house or flat adapted? have you tried to visit an estate agents but you couldn't access it? - we need to hear from you!

Please fill in our accessible housing survey, it only takes a few minutes, and your responses will help us to write our investigation report. You can fin out more about this campaign (and our other campaigns) on the Trailblazers website.

Thanks for your help!

[Stepheninleeds]

I have done it. God, the process was a nightmare for us. My mother had a breakdown, it too a year to get this place & move in. We had problems after moving in. I had to get my solicitor involved before & after we moved in. It was hell.

[mathy3890]

I have done it. God, the process was a nightmare for us. My mother had a breakdown, it too a year to get this place & move in. We had problems after moving in. I had to get my solicitor involved before & after we moved in. It was hell.

Hi Stephen, thanks for taking the time to fill it in! What you went through sounds horrible! Experiences and feedback like this will really help us a lot to write our report, thanks again

[Stepheninleeds]

YW. believe me, I did not even tough the surface of it. To say it was hell & a nightmare really is not an exaggeration. Even when we got this place & could not move in as it was in a terrible state, we were told, these are the very words: "If you do not want it give us the keys back" & "Other people manage." I hope what I have put on the survey helps.

[welsh]

Hallo, Trailblazers seems brilliant. But ageist. I wonder what you expect to happen to you all, the day you pass the age of 24? Will the housing stock in this country suddenly reveal millions of accessible homes, for your next 80 years ? Or will you suddenly be non-disabled, assuming 80 years sleeping on a park bench may not be your dream home?
Sorry, I don't mean to pour cold water on your wonderful energy and enthusiasm.
Do you realise that you will still be you at 43, 75, 102 ?

If you want choice now, you will not want to be shoved into an institution when your only crime is reaching a certain birthday
You want a social life, with a mixed bunch of relatives, friends and strangers, probably with much variety in age, experience, interests, and things n common
You want to travel, to exercise, to learn, to see nature and art and all manner of recreation.

Those "weird sub humans" in old people's homes were you, they still are you, and they are forced out of bed before dawn to suit the staff, they are abused and starved and dehydrated and unwashed and untoileted and lonely and isolated and have no help, nobody to fight for them, nobody to care if they live or die. Like you, they once thought it could never happen to them

It is understandable that you wish to restrict your attention to your immediate age group, but please give thought to others, even in your own self interest.

[Stepheninleeds]

I do agree Welsh, in many ways. There always seems to be people & groups fighting for kids, the young, pensioners, but the rest of us are ignored. Of course there are times when these age groups need help others may not, but getting any help if you do not fit into one of these groups can be very difficult, sometimes impossible.