At the end of September, I went on a short holiday with my family to a cottage close to where we live. Though it may seem unremarkable, it was probably the first time in 10 years we have been away from our house for an entire week, mainly due to the difficulties of going away as a disabled person. The holiday was unexpected in that we only found the location by chance. We had been looking for somewhere to stay which met all of our requirements for some time (mainly accessibility), but my sister happened to come across a place called Bramwood holiday home after some research on the internet. Despite not being very far from where I live, the change of scenery and easy access made it a great place for us all and we really enjoyed our time away.
Holidaying is definitely not an easy thing to do when you have complex needs, but the place where we stayed was fully wheelchair accessible and had a bedroom kitted out to accommodate a severely disabled person. The room I stayed in had a ceiling track hoist through into the bathroom, a profiling bed and plenty of space to move throughout it in my wheelchair. The rest of the cottage also had plenty of room to move around in and there was ramped access around the whole place. An added complication of going away is that we had to take all of my equipment like NIV and cough assist etc., but there were plenty of points to plug things in.
I found the overall experience to be excellent and I felt very comfortable within the environment. It was nice to be able to go somewhere where there was no fuss about bringing your own mobile hoist, or not having enough space, or worrying about whether it will be possible to use the toilet easily. It would be fantastic if more places were created which looked to accommodate and cater for all people with different disabilities. There are so many people who want to travel to different places but a lack of facilities is preventing them from doing so. More inclusivity and availability cannot be a negative, so addressing this problem would therefore be in everyone’s interest including disabled people, families and tourism industries.
DMD and Me 