Moment wheelchair user, 29, crawls up stairs at London Overground station on her bottom due to broken lifts – as staff are heard ‘laughing’ when she is told it is fixed just as she reaches the top
by Forward-Answer-4407
Moment wheelchair user, 29, crawls up stairs at London Overground station on her bottom due to broken lifts – as staff are heard ‘laughing’ when she is told it is fixed just as she reaches the top
by Forward-Answer-4407
18 comments
[removed]
I have a question – if she crawled up the stairs, what the hell happened with her wheelchair?
Impressive that she’s maintained such good musculature in her thighs and calves despite being paralysed from the waist down for 6 years.
Disabled people are so often an afterthought when it comes to maintenance. I used to work in a building that had one lift and the cafeteria on the first floor. That lift was broken for *two months* before someone fixed it, and the solution to disabled access to food in the building was basically to fuck off somewhere else and stop asking.
Unfortunately, this subreddit tends to take a dim view of accessibility. So to lighten things up here’s your “Thread about disability on r/unitedkingdom” bingo. Pick four:
1. The thread has 0 net points
2. Accusations that the incident is staged
3. Someone assumes that wheelchair users are completely confined to one at all times
4. [deleted]
5. [removed]
6. Someone suggests the disabled person isn’t disabled
7. “Everyone has a disability now” or something close enough
8. None of the top 5 comments express any empathy for the disabled person
There’s no excuse for this. Laughing about it needs to be a disciplinary matter.
One of our friends is in a chair and back when we were out late in London we’d routinely have to carry him and the chair up the escalator or stairs as the lifts were shut off.
That was the 90s though and you’d really hope things would have moved on by now.
Disabled people have enough additional challenges without having to deal with simple issues with trivial solutions just because nobody took 2 minutes to think about what they were doing.
Perhaps tfl would like to take time to have staff experience navigating the underground in a wheelchair such that they can better understand the impact of their decisions and actions.
TfL staff. If they’re not on their phones distracted they’re laughing at the disabled.
Doug Paulley on youtube makes some eye opening videos showing just how bad public transport can be for disabled people and has won court cases against organisations thar put no effort into providing the services to disabled people that are legally required to.
This case, on the face it looks especially egregious.
So many clowns working for TfL demanding more money, half of them stand around being as unhelpful as possible. There’s definitely some great people working there, but I’ve had my fair share of shit experiences that would have been much less shit if the staff around were actually trying, to out right laugh at a disabled woman who had to crawl up stairs is a great example of some of the jokers that they employ.
This is shocking, London is so backwards in terms of accessibility.
The Tottenham Court station refurb and the Elizabeth Line has meant that the Covent Garden and Soho area are much more easier for me to get to, before it was an absolute pain up the bum.
She might seem to some people a bit like an opportunistic social media creator – she’s done similar things to get national media attention before.
But sometimes such activists are needed to get anything done.
My work had a lift broken for months, as a site and team we did everything we could. But the Head Office and Engineer companies were dragging feet, ‘can’t find parts’ ‘need special parts made elsewhere’ etc.
Then one day someone similar to this lady came in, kicked up huge fuss, posted around Social Media, made it get regional BBC news, and oh look, a week later the Lift was repaired.
Sorry but with what it costs there should be multiple step free access in all stations.
Not just people in wheelchairs use this, but also parents with kids in prams. Neither should be expected to take on the stairs, on any occasion, for so many safety reasons too.
How the fuck does no one step and help this poor woman?
As a wheelchair user it’s hard to describe how angry it makes me that sanctimonious arseholes on the internet dare to assume they have a right to comment on what she did. Or didn’t do. Or should have done. This whole thing is fucking outrageous but what’s worse is it so unsurprising. Disabled people are the lowest in society. Have some fucking humility and listen to the experiences of disabled people themselves.
The laugh could be more like a nervous “haha, you’re joking, what a ridiculous coincidence” type, not a cruel “haha, disabled people are funny” type. I changed from “sounds like” to “could be” before posting as I’m not a laughter expert, but hopefully TfL will investigate and don’t immediately sack the person over a laugh.
​
I’ve definitely nervously laughed in a few uncomfortable situations during my job that were meant with no malice.
Disabled people and wheelchair users especially are an after thought. Navigating around anywhere in a wheelchair is needlessly more difficult because people just don’t think. They stick A boards across the pavement, then get angry at me when I fold it up and put it by the side. They park on the pavement and over dropped kerbs. On a bus, people will stand in the wheelchair space or park their buggy there and not move. Or worse, I’ll try and get off and people will stand exactly where I need to go to turn or dump their shopping in the aisle.
On trains, assistance is spotty and often non functional. I’ve been forgotten before. Lifts will be out of service, sometimes at multiple stations so I’ve no option but to get a taxi. People leave luggage in wheelchair spaces and don’t move it. People touch my chair and try to move me without asking. If you’re doing this, don’t. My chair is an extension of my body; don’t touch without permission. You’re not being helpful, you’re being rude. Then there’s the “it’s a miracle” jokes when I stand up; despite two seconds of thinking making it bloody obvious that of course some wheelchair users can stand or walk in some circumstances for some distances.
This isn’t even going into the problem of disability hate crimes, which are a major and growing problem. Or how you’re at increased risk of sexual and domestic violence if you’re disabled, especially if you’re a disabled woman.
I use a power chair because I have deformities in my wrists so a manual chair isn’t suitable. It’s heavy and you can’t lift it up a flight of stairs. I can’t leave it either, my chair cost over £1000 second hand. It’s so freeing and changed my life, but I can’t afford to buy another one if it gets lost.
Absolutely disgusting, that poor woman. Why can’t people just treat others with respect and decency.
Tyne and Wear Metro, they just shut down the lifts to “save money”.
Their instruction (and regular tannoy announcements/electronics signs) is to just go to another station and wheel yourself several miles back to where you WANTED to get off.
They don’t give two shits about the disabled. Dismissive and rude to anyone questioning them.
Fire the fucks that were laughing at this, and ensure this is fixed more rapidly