Please subscribe to our YouTube channel here.
This was another opportunity for John to go driving and this time we were accompanied by Jack. Jack is a young man, who is also severely visually impaired, who lives near to us, so we gave him a lift to the event.
There were three cars available for visually impaired people to drive - an Audi, a Ford Focus and a Hyundai i10. In addition, various people had brought along vintage cars, in which they drove different people around the track. The cars for visually impaired people to drive were all automatic and had no duel controls!
Jack was really excited about the day as he had never driven before and he had first go of the Focus. I sat in the back of the car, so that I could film as Jack drove. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a wimp, but maybe I’m not so much as wimp as I thought, as there are not many people who would sit in the back of a car while a blind person is driving! Jack really enjoyed it and did really well for his first time.
John also drove the Focus and I sat in the back of the car again, so I could film John. Again, I think I dispelled any wimpiness I thought I had! John also did well but as this was not his first time driving, he didn’t quite express the enthusiasm that Jack did!
We were really fortunate that George was also allowed to have a go. George drove the i10 and I sat in the back and filmed him as well. George really enjoyed it and also did really well for his first time.
In addition, all of three of them were taken for a ride in some of the vintage cars too.
It was a really enjoyable day for all of us and we’re really looking forward to next time the visually impaired driving experience day is on.
We are a family of three. George has ASD, EDS and dyspraxia. John is totally blind and partially deaf. Sue is our driver and trip organiser. These are the tales of our adventures. All opinions are our own.
Monday, 20 May 2019
Blists Hill Victorian Town
Please subscribe to our channel here.
This was our first visit to Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire, and we were really impressed with the accessibility of this museum.
There is a charge to park, however blue badge holders can park for free. Normally when we visit places, the disabled person has to pay to go in and the carer goes in for free. However, here it is the other way around - the carer pays and the disabled person goes in free. This worked in our favour as it meant for us, we only paid for me.
Once we had paid we were given a disabled access booklet that was really detailed as it gave accessibility details for every exhibit there, which we found to be really useful.
The shops were really interesting and we especially enjoyed the sweet shop and the fish & chip shop, with the fish & chips fried in beef dripping!
There is a steep hill in the middle of the town, which has an incline lift for wheelchair users. Unfortunately, on the day we visited the incline lift was not working, so we attempted the hill with George’s chair. There were some gravelly bits on the hill, which George’s chair kept sliding on, so we ended up using the chair as a manual chair. Fortunately for me, a very kind passer-by helped me get the chair down the hill. I was not looking forward to pushing the chair back up but, luckily for me, George was able to get the chair back up by himself, by putting it on full speed and just going for it, while John and I tried to keep up! We were offered the option of moving the car from the main car park at the top, to the staff car park at the bottom, but we bravely (or stupidly) decided to tackle the hill ourselves.
It was a really enjoyable day out and we would definitely visit again.
This was our first visit to Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire, and we were really impressed with the accessibility of this museum.
There is a charge to park, however blue badge holders can park for free. Normally when we visit places, the disabled person has to pay to go in and the carer goes in for free. However, here it is the other way around - the carer pays and the disabled person goes in free. This worked in our favour as it meant for us, we only paid for me.
Once we had paid we were given a disabled access booklet that was really detailed as it gave accessibility details for every exhibit there, which we found to be really useful.
The shops were really interesting and we especially enjoyed the sweet shop and the fish & chip shop, with the fish & chips fried in beef dripping!
There is a steep hill in the middle of the town, which has an incline lift for wheelchair users. Unfortunately, on the day we visited the incline lift was not working, so we attempted the hill with George’s chair. There were some gravelly bits on the hill, which George’s chair kept sliding on, so we ended up using the chair as a manual chair. Fortunately for me, a very kind passer-by helped me get the chair down the hill. I was not looking forward to pushing the chair back up but, luckily for me, George was able to get the chair back up by himself, by putting it on full speed and just going for it, while John and I tried to keep up! We were offered the option of moving the car from the main car park at the top, to the staff car park at the bottom, but we bravely (or stupidly) decided to tackle the hill ourselves.
It was a really enjoyable day out and we would definitely visit again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)