Day 29: Reflections on the water

As you might have guessed from the rather sporadic nature of the blog lately, there hasn't really been a whole lot of activity in the last few days, and Day 28 has so far not proven to be much different. I've now started on my fourth book of the trip - as usual on my holidays I've resolved to read more when I get back - whether or not it translates into real action is another matter, but years of experience would suggest otherwise! It's all very relaxing, which is quite welcome, but doesn't really give me much to write home about! Today has featured more pub trivia, a classical piano recital (much to Dad’s horror, so he opted to spend the time in the shops instead!) and the England-USA match - which I have to confess I didn't watch all of, just went to see the friendly competitiveness between passengers on either side. Of course, the English passengers seem to care about it a lot more than their American counterparts! At the pub quiz we met a couple of disabled passengers (both wheelchair or scooter users), who were on the Queen Mary 2 on the way out and had done a similar trip to us. Didn't really get to chat to them properly, but it seemed they had spent time travelling around (including to Niagara Falls), and also in New York. They reported having had a better experience on New York buses than we had with the taxis!

One thing that I've been asked on this trip is how accessibility for disabled people compares between the UK and the US. The popular belief, and one I once held myself, is that the US is generally more accessible. In some aspects this is true, in that more businesses seem to have made some kind of accommodation for disabled people. This may be a result of having legislation around disability discrimination five years before us (1990 Americans with disabilities act), and also a culture where there is more fear of being sued. However, it is not quite as simple as all that. As with legislation in the UK, in the US not all buildings have to be completely accessible, adjustments simply have to be made where it is practical, or reasonable. Admittedly, in the US there seemed to be more buildings where ramps were available then you would find in the UK. But often there are buildings that have no access, particularly the older buildings as we found in Boston.

Moving beyond the simple case of getting in to buildings, I would say the US is less accessible than the UK in many respects. In regards to toilets for example, in the US accessible toilets are almost always integrated into the standard toilets, so there will be a larger cubicle in the men's and ladies rooms. In the UK, disabled toilets are unisex, and almost always separate from the standard toilets. This means in the US, you are completely screwed if you have a carer of the opposite sex, or perhaps a mother and son/father and daughter. Also, because of this setup the accessible cubicle was often too small, which I can just about cope with but for many people would be a dealbreaker that would prevent them from leaving the house. Because of the sheer number of people I know that would find this a problem, I'm staggered to think that this has never been considered in the US.

And it's not just the toilets, in the US there seem to be many things that have been neglected, which the UK is leading on - roads and pavements are in a very poor state, road crossing points are often inaccessible, accessible taxis are very limited in number, etc. For me, I was able to manage for a few weeks, but I think living there would present some serious issues. To be honest, I would love the chance to do my job in New York for a while and sort them all out! What struck me when I was looking at New York is that there doesn't seem to be a particularly active lobby of disabled people, which is perhaps why so many problems remain.

It's things like this I have been reflecting on, now we are nearly the conclusion of the trip. That, plus where I will go next! I know that I will struggle to top this trip, which really does feel like a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but I remain determined that this will not be my last holiday! I guess now I really have caught the travel bug!