Disability activist stranded on Liverpool Street platform after staff ‘refused to get ramp’
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/wheelchair-user-stranded-liverpool-street-station-network-rail-disability-rights-b1228605.html
Posted by insomnimax_99
30 Comments
Her response felt like reading a social media lingo bingo.
Doesn’t make it right, though. They should have just done what they could to assist. When you work with the public, many are going to be rude and for the most part you just deal with it.
You don’t refuse to assist.
This happens far too often, a lot of people I know have been let down by the Passenger Assistance service and some of them have been made late for work because of this on numerous occasions.
Why don’t we have a better system for this on trains yet? Busses have those little ramps that come out automatically and the bus tilts down to the pavement, would a similar system not work on trains?
“In a further post, the wheelchair user explained she was not interested in meeting with the team at Liverpool Street station as she had been left “traumatised and would prefer to never have to interact with them or use this station ever again”.
I’m not saying they still shouldn’t have helped, but this Hyperbole does suggest to me that she was being rude and insufferable.
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>“Our investigation into what went wrong continues and this will enable us to make changes and ensure such an experience isn’t repeated.”
Lessons will be learned – aka code for lets put this behind us and never speak of it again because we don’t really give a shit, this is just PR bluster.
>Ms Frost confirmed that she should not have been denied service and said that the staff at Liverpool Street Station had their body cameras switched off.
Businesses have been violating the Equality Act for far too long, thinking that it doesn’t apply to them and that they are above the law. It shouldn’t require training to know you don’t discriminate against the disabled, that should be basic humanity – which sadly a lot of people in society seem to lack. It wouldn’t be tollerated if you refused to serve a black person or a woman, why the fuck is it OK in society to shit on the disabled?
Every effort should be made to help if they can. Its already very hard for people in wheelchairs or with mobility issues to use trains.
But if she didn’t book in advance and all of the ramps were in use for people who did book then it is only fair that she has to wait. Someone who booked shouldn’t be put in the position of possibly missing their train because someone who didn’t wants to board?
Why frame it from the outset as her being a disability campaigner. If they had just said a wheelchair user who couldn’t get on the train then it would probably garner more sympathy. As it is it comes across as though she was looking for a fight to make a point.
In an ideal world she wouldn’t need to book and would be able to get on and off trains without assistance. But unfortunately it isn’t an ideal world.
It’s tricky. There is a lot of evidence to suggest some likelihood of the victim being an insufferable twat who has deliberately provoked the incident, although we can’t say it for sure.
Railway staff aren’t paid enough to deal with abuse, so if she was abusive I would argue their right to step away in literally any other situation.
It’s tricky to balance the rights of the traveller to travel and those of the station staff to not suffer abuse, if that is the case. No one wins, everyone loses.
Do station staff even wear bodycams? Thought that was a police thing only tbh.
Well, look at the comments—non-disabled people telling us disabled individuals to be grateful. Ableism at its finest. You shouldn’t have to arrange assistance; disabled people have a right to travel when they want, just like non-disabled people. It amazes me how people are so openly ableist but wouldn’t dare be as racist.
Little torn on this one.
If she was ‘rude to me i would help. But without full context if she was shouting and screaming she can piss off.
I feel like its lose, lose for the staff. Might as well get the ramp and send her on her way.
As someone who has periods where I need to use a wheelchair, this isn’t uncommon.
I arranged for one at my local station. Train got delayed and the person with the key to get the ramp went home and made no attempt to let anyone know. I had this embarrassing situation of holding up an already late train as staff looked puzzled at what to do.
Suggestions involved…you can get off at the next station and maybe they have a ramp (ignore the fact it’s 4 counties away!) or maybe I could “jump and I will catch you”….yeah I don’t think that’s a good idea.
the staff at Liverpool Street in the last 15 yearsor so no longer seem like they know they have a service industry role.
A lot of people don’t get that asking for reasonable adjustments can be seen as rude or argumentative by some people, especially if it means they have to go out of their way (even though it’s their job) to assist someone who is disabled – there’s an awful lot of hatred aimed at us.
I saw her Twitter thread about this, and her tone even there came across as entitled and rude. Her response requesting monetary compensation and staff to receive disciplinary action made me lose sympathy, to be honest.
Also, this bit is of note:
“[She] was told by a staff member she was a “lower priority” than others who had booked for assistance in advance.”
So, did she not request special assistance with our booking? Because, of course people who had already made their needs known should be seen to.
I live with my severely disabled mother (who I have helped attend PIP assessments with), and have an older brother with a chronic disability too. I know how shite our country is at caring for disabled people, and maybe Network Rail’s complete denial of service was at the extreme end of a response, but not approaching every situation with all guns blazing can go a long way…
Wish I could be surprised. So many staff seem to think that a disabled person wanting to travel without booking is a chore the railway could do without.
So if you read the article it seems other wheelchair users had pre booked help in advance so they got priority.
She didn’t book early , was told she didn’t have priority , and is now playing the discrimination / sexism card .
From the sounds of it, she’d hadn’t booked the use of the ramps in advance and when she arrived all the ramps where currently in use by people who had.
Under those circumstances what exactly did she want the staff to do? If all the ramps where in use they where in in use. It’s absolutely correct that those who have booked get priority over those who have not.
If you know you are going to need one, then let the train service know in advance. I’m sure they wanted to help, but meet them half way. If she’d been patient one would have been become available eventually.
I used to be a care worker for a wheelchair user. Travelled all over the place by train.
Always had to notify staff in advance that ramps were required.
Ramps we’re ALWAYS there upon our arrival..never had an issue boarding or alighting a train in dozens of journeys.
From my experience, she’s the problem here. Intentionally so.
Being told that those had pre booked a service were higher priority that turn ups was in no way able-mansplaining – whatever the fuck that is. She was just being provided information.
Should she have been provided the service after the other? Yes, unless she was such a fucking harridan that the staff felt refusal was an appropriate response.
No idea if she actually was that bad however staff should probably have just assisted her.
Sounds like a jobsworth twat met a wolf shouting twat
The top comments here are shocking. What a wild lack of empathy. I hope this comment section doesn’t reflect how people generally feel about this in the uk, but I know it does or we’d have better disability rights and access.
This comment section makes me disgusted.
You can always trust a Brit to punch down and then act high and mighty about it.
Just because you are in a wheelchair, doesn’t mean you cannot also be an arsehole!
Simple question, would a body abled person be denied access to the train if they expressed the same behaviour?
If Yes, well there you have it
If Not, then she was discriminated against through her disability.
If she was just rude, then och well… She is not helping anyone.
I’m not a wheelchair user but I have to book help whenever I travel solo. Dealing with any kind of disability is an exercise in planning and it is time consuming and annoying. I spent the first part of my life not having to do that so I know the difference.
People will screw up even if you book and you sometimes end up being made late by that. I have been standing in the lobby of a building trying to find a way to call that building to get some help. You run into the issue that no business wants to have a human answer a phone call. All this is completely frustrating and it wears on you and grinds you down over time. When you are tired and late it is easy to snap when people do daft things.
However.
There is something that we are not being told here. Reading between the lines it seems that she turned up super late, didn’t book help, happened to turn up when all the ramps were in use, or some other situation occurred that made things more complicated than usual. I would speculate (and I am speculating) that she got annoyed, which is understandable, but that she then turned into a stereotypical stroppy disabled person, which I try not to do, because it does not help me in the moment or anyone else who comes after me.
Anyone who self describes as an activist and is willing to tell someone in person he is “mansplaining” is not doing herself or me any favours. I would absolutely say she was being abusive from that word alone; that’s a sexist comment. I might meet that guy soon. I don’t want to be the next disabled person he encounters.
Why should a person have to be grateful and grovelly to be entitled to access. When my daughter was younger you had to book your disabled train space at least 24 hours before, then you had to be at the station at least 20 mins before the train… This requirement has been removed… But unlike able bodied travellers there is a tiny number of spaces… Often my daughter has to travel dehydrated because there aren’t adequately accessible toilets…. Being angry, vile or polite disabled passengers should have the same access to travel as other people.
With my daughter we have been stuck on trains when no one came with a ramp to enable her to get off… I’ve had to stand blocking the doors hurting my back before anyone came with the ramp… My daughter is visually impaired, deaf and has spina bifida she is always polite even when bus drivers refuse to put their ramp out.
Btw just in case anyone wondered my daughter works, has a degree and has a right to travel despite her disabilities. How many times have I been on a train with loud, rude, drunk people but no disabled people must always be grateful and smiley. Urgh
Refused to help a disabled person on their premises, body cams turned off, what a couple of heroes. She is absolutely right in stating that disabled people are forced to come over as humble, overly grateful, in order to get the service they have a right to get. Even worse are those enablers happily calling her a every name under sun because ‘she must have done something’.
I’m a wheelchair user and travel regularly by train. There’s a service called Passenger Assist that allows me to inform station staff which train I’ll be getting on so they can be ready with the ramp. However, you need to inform them at least an hour in advance which means getting on a train, unannounced, a few minutes before departure is a pain because you have to find someone to help.
Having said that, there’s absolutely no need to be rude to station staff; if they can help you they will.
well, “several minutes early” is taking the piss, and I say that as a wheelchair user. If there’s a finite number of assistance staff and many platforms you might have to turn up a bit earlier than someone who isn’t disabled – not ideal, but FFS get a grip!
Anybody who identifies as an ‘activist’ is always a pain.