I absolutely love the month of December because it gives the disabled community an opportunity to celebrate who we are on International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is today – Sunday the 3rd of December.
I recently spent 110 days fighting for West Midlands Trains to meet with me in order to discuss some concerns that I was attempting with raise with them in respect of accessibility at Witton Lane station in Birmingham.
I finally met with the team from WMT (West Midlands Trains) last week on Tuesday the 28th of November and I must say that it was an incredibly positive meeting with all involved.
I felt listened to and have helped to come up with some solutions to the challenges that those who have disabilities face when using the rail network to attend matches at Villa Park.
There were 3 key solutions discussed during the meeting and those were:
Solution 1: Staff from WMT to make a note that we are are making a return journey from Witton upon arrival at the station, this however has to be done 2 hours prior to kick off when staff will be at the station.
Solution 2: Staff located at the bottom of the ramp at Witton should radio up to staff on the platform, making them aware that there is someone requiring a ramp to board trains about to enter the station.
Solution 3: Signage to be placed on the platform where those with disabilities are to wait when requiring the use of a ramp to board trains.
I have seen 2 different signage designs at the time of writing this blog and I believe that this shows, I am being listened to by WMT (West Midlands Trains), which is all I ever wanted.
I have also been invited to join the Stakeholder Equality Group (SEG) at West Midlands Trains so that I can feed into there work around accessibility across there network with others.
I think this is a classic example of not being defined by your disabilities when it comes to working with an organisation like WMT, they didn’t see my wheelchair just the fact that I am a customer of there’s who wants to improve the quality of service and experience for others.
I know that this is a really short and boring blog but I wanted to share an example of when I haven’t been defined by my disabilities with you, my readers and followers.
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I would like to end by taking the opportunity to thank the entire team at WMT (West Midlands Trains) who have ensured that I was listened to after such a long time of trying to get my voice heard this week.
Cam
JustBeingCP 