I feel like in the disabled community we all (or at least mostly all) know that when we hear things like “I’m sorry, we can’t have wheelchair users at this concert venue because you’re a health and safety/ fire risk” it’s lazy and it’s ableism. So why did I experience what to me feels like a form of this at Naidex (the UK’s largest disability event)?
One of the things that I was looking forward to when going to Naidex for the first time was trying out some of the fancy complex rehab power chairs. I was really hoping to try a chair that has the ability to “stand up”. Not so much because I wanted to buy one but because I haven’t been able to stand in almost a decade now and I just wanted to see what it would be like on my body. I also wanted to try some off road chairs, and a chair that was able to lie down flat because I think I’d benefit from one if I ever got the chance (and money) to use one.
So I went to a stand to ask if I could try one out and the wheelchair rep there said he was really sorry but the organisers had told him that he wasn’t allowed to let me because I transfer using a hoist because it was a “health and safety concern” and “prohibited by the events insurance”. Apparently they were being really strict about enforcing this.
Which made absolutely zero sense to me because there were at least four hoists in use at the expo. Three changing places toilets were fitted with ceiling hoists, and the adapted climbing wall had a mobile hoist which they used to lift me so they could fit the adapted harness under me in my chair.
The wheelchair rep also told me that they could assist with lateral transfers, which in my experience is probably more likely to result in a fall than a hoist transfer done correctly.
The only thing I can think of was that all the other hoists were being used in sectioned off areas like toilets, or the climbing area which had a fence around. The only possible risk I would be slightly concerned about was someone walking into the hoist mid transfer. But if that’s the case, why not have a designated sectioned off hoisting area where that’s not going to happen? And why would you not be concerned about the same thing happening with a lateral transfer?
The wheelchair rep I spoke to was really apologetic and couldn’t understand it either. He said that his company was insured, trained and had the equipment needed to hoist people, and that a lateral transfer carried most of the same risks.
It felt really unfair because so much of the marketing for the event was around getting to try a variety of complex rehab powerchairs, and they really leaned into the high tech, futuristic appearance of these chairs. But a huge percentage of the people who would most benefit from these chairs couldn’t use them because we weren’t allowed to be hoisted “for insurance reasons”.
Again, this was an event where I was hoisted into a full body climbing harness before being winched up an entire climbing wall. But somehow they couldn’t find a way for me to be hoisted into a wheelchair like I am several times a day.
Overall the event was brilliant and I got so much out of it. It just left a really bad taste in my mouth that the aesthetics of the equipment used and needed by severely disabled people was used so heavily in the marketing, but we weren’t given equal access to actually trying it out.
