Tanni Grey-Thompson’s transport nightmare is a waking reality for most disabled people

On Monday night Tanni Grey-Thompson had to do something she’s unfortunately accustomed to now – crawl off a train. She had the same experience 12 year ago, too.

Tanni Grey-Thompson’s experience is the norm

The paralympian who uses a wheelchair had once again been abandoned by passenger assistance and after waiting 15 minutes on an empty train after 10pm in London. She had no other choice but to take matters into her own hands – literally.

Yesterday morning, after listening to Grey-Thompson recant her experience on Radio 4, baroness Sal Brinton tweeted about how she’d also had this experience, but she also made an interesting point.

Brinton said:

If the new Labour Government wants more disabled people in work… then barriers to getting to work (getting on and off trains, lifts working, priority on buses, recognising PIP helps with additional costs only faced by disabled people) must be addressed.

Brinton as usual is spot on here. If this government is as intent on forcing disabled people back to work as the last, they have to actually invest in making sure we can physically get to work.

Barely accessible: the UK’s transport network

Tanni Grey-Thompson is far from the only wheelchair user this happens to. Many regularly tweet their frustration using the hashtag #DisabledByTheRailway that they’ve been left on trains, not been able to get on them due to ramps, or abused by other passengers who were using the wheelchair space for luggage storage.

From travelling with wheelchair-using friends I’ve witnessed rage from other passengers who’ve tried to push onto trains first, and flippant train staff. On the flipside I’ve also seen the kindness of strangers who’ve had to help us off tubes we were told had level boarding.

And that’s just wheelchair users. As someone who regularly uses buses and trains I have to sacrifice my energy by using a cane instead of a walker as there’s more chance I’ll be able to board and have a space without jostling with mothers and prams.

And of course there’s only one mobility aid space on most buses, meaning that only one disabled person gets to travel at once. Because nobody who’s disabled could possibly have friends, family, or partners who are also disabled.

On my local buses the dedicated pushchair space has been replaced with extra seating so now parents have to share the space with wheelchair users. While wheelchair users are supposed to have priority many just refuse to move and drivers don’t advocate for disabled passengers.

And that shouldn’t be a decision disabled people or indeed parents should have to make. We all deserve to be able to get to where we want to go. But when services deprioritise disabled people we all lose.

Labour must take seriously disabled people’s transport woes

I’m lucky to be able to work from home. But I’ve heard countless stories from people who’ve missed important meetings, been unable to get to their jobs, or even been sanctioned by the DWP because they couldn’t get on a bus, nobody arrived to help them on the train, the lift was out at the station or it didn’t even have one, or they were given wrong or unsafe support from staff who were adequately trained.

Brinton also pointed out that PIP enables a lot of people to pay for the extra things they need to get to work. For me, the fallback of PIP enables me to only work the amount of hours I know won’t leave me exhausted and in too much pain. How are vouchers going to help support me in that way?

In all the flurry of getting back to work panic, there’s also been nothing on how they’ll tackle the two-year-plus Access to Work backlog. Many are risking losing job offers or putting themselves through more pain whilst the support they were promised doesn’t materialise. There’s also no mention of training employers on how best to support disabled people. That and the fact that disabled people earn six times less than non-disabled people.

Stop the ‘scrounger’ narrative

There’s so much more that needs to be done to actually support disabled people into work than just job coaches and threatening to cut their benefits.

One thing’s for sure, if Labour continues to allow the scrounger narrative to spread and plough ahead with cruel welfare reforms, without support disabled people will be forced into jobs that could kill them.

If Labour are actually passionate about supporting disabled people back into work and not just using us as a welfare scapegoat they’ll actually invest in physically getting us there.

Featured image via the Canary