Radio Ga-Ga

Posted by Lara Masters at 14:57 on 14 Apr 2009

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I’ve been promoting the Rough Guide to Accessible UK as I reviewed much of the London area – that’s me and the ducks at the Wetlands Centre. It's a Rough Guide, obviously, made in partnership with Motability Operations and featuring 175 UK attractions with exceptional access for people with all types of disabilities.

I did 28 radio interviews in one day, back-to-back from a central studio, sometimes with only nanoseconds in between. One minute I'd be talking to BBC Radio Manchester about the delights of Manchester United Stadium (whilst putting my family allegiance to Man City temporarily on hold), next I was on BBC Radio Northamptonshire bigging up Silverstone racetrack where a wheelchair-user can drive a Ferrari using hand controls or someone who’s visual impaired can be driven round the track at warp speed by an instructor.

Luckily, I had with me a seasoned PR team who were aware of my appalling lack of geographical knowledge which could happily be classified as a disability, as could my uncanny ability to mix up places that are entirely unrelated except for the fact that they begin with the same letter. The PR posse kept running into the studio between interviews, smacking the map in front of me in the relevant places lest I went on Radio Belfast waxing lyrical about their thermal baths which are, I discovered, rather helpfully situated in Bath. Radio Belfast were a bit miffed at allegedly not having as many attractions highlighted in the guide as other UK regions so that had to be handled rather delicately and I deftly defused (‘scuse the highly inappropriate pun) the situation by mentioning how much I loved the Northern Ireland accent. Genius.

Then BBC Somerset and BBC Guernsey were spitting as they weren’t featured in the guide at all and I had to practise my best diplomatic relations to placate them which largely included changing the subject, complementing their accents and avoiding asking: "Where exactly is Guernsey again?"

I found it extraordinary that almost all of the 28 radio presenters wanted to know why this guide was necessary when everywhere was accessible now because of the Disability Discrimination Act? Huh! Able-bodied people make me laugh with their Utopian notions of the world of disability and their Blue Badge envy. The Disability Discrimination Act merely suggests that public service providers make "reasonable adjustments" to accommodate disabled people and in many cases this caveat is interpreted by service providers as “OK, I’ll try not to park in a disabled bay next time I go to Sainsbury's. If I’m not in a rush.” One presenter practically accused me of lying, live on air, about there being any access problems in the UK because apparently everywhere he goes there is disabled access. How preposterous. As there was no BBC Radio Alternate Universe on my list I can only assume this presenter was either on the sauce or a keen bingo player (Bingo halls being notorious for great access as frequented by a more mature clientele.)

The Rough Guide to Accessible UK is available FREE to all Blue Badge holders at www.accessibleguide.co.uk or by calling 0800-953-7070. It’s £6.99 to everyone else.
 

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