Kerbs...

Just like my post on the state of pavements, able bodied people do not really think about or notice kerbs because quite frankly, they don’t need to. But, for wheelchair users, whether a kerb is dropped or not becomes important when crossing a road for example.

Dropped kerbs are actually rarely completely flat and normally have a lip which is a couple of centimetres. This isn’t ideal and causes a small bump up and down. However, some kerbs are more severe than that. There are many places, even in London, where the council have concluded that three inches is passable as a dropped kerb. My powered wheelchair does have a kerb crawler to climb low kerbs but I cannot use it for a while because of my op. Also, the device is not standard for all chairs so if you were faced with an inadequate dropped kerb without a crawler, you would be stuck.

Another issue is not people being plain nasty (although they might be) but just ignorance and lack of understanding. There is no need to park across a dropped kerb and completely block a disabled person’s path. You may as well hold two fingers up and stand triumphantly in front of the wheelchair.

Whilst I am complaining, my biggest bugbear is drivers who can clearly see the traffic is not moving yet continue past the lights and thus block the crossing. Why? Because they are selfish idiots.

Bye for now!