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Wheelchair challenge
When a radio DJ upset listener Lesley Muncey with an insensitive comment, she challenged
him to spend a day in a wheelchair. Lesley’s husband Noel Muncey, Vice-Chair of the DDMC, tells us how he got on.
One morning, Matt Jarvis, a presenter on Hereward,
Peterborough's local radio station, joked that he would like to be pushed round in a wheelchair when out shopping with his girlfriend, as she always took so long in the shops that his legs started to ache and he needed to sit down.
Lesley rang in with her challenge, then other listeners started
to set challenges for him to complete, such as buying a loaf of
bread, a pint of milk, paying a bill, buying a top shelf magazine
and using the public toilets.
I then contacted Sarah, who presents the station's 6-10am
show alongside Matt, and said I would go around Peterborough with Matt for the day to photograph and interview him as he undetook the challenge. I also arranged for Matt to use my manual wheelchair while I used my power chair.
The day arrived and I met up with Matt and Sarah after the morning show had finished, and got Matt into my manual wheelchair. Matt was sitting next to me in my power chair and secretly thinking, “How the hell has Noel got a better chair with lights on it?”
The first challenge Matt faced was to get to the railway station.
Normally, as an able bodied person, it would be a case of going over the footbridge and a short walk to the station taking about 10 minutes. Not so in a wheelchair. After some discussion outside the radio station we went into Queensgate shopping centre to the lift down to the bus station, out of the bus station to Cowgate, then down the underpass and up again (where Matt needed the assistance of Lesley and Sarah to get up the other side), then round the car park and on to the station.
Matt was surprised to find that it took 30 minutes, and was beginning to feel the strain on his arms.
Having got to the railway station, the second challenge – and one that could end up costing Matt a fortune if he was in a
chair permanently – was to get a taxi. As Matt found out, by
the time he and Sarah had got into the taxi there was no room
left for anyone else, so Lesley and I went back via the underpass to meet up with Matt and Sarah again.
The next challenge was to get some money from a cash machine, which proved to be easy as the machine was fairly low and there were no obstacles to prevent Matt getting close
enough to it. We decided to get a hot drink and went to a coffee shop. Having ordered the drinks, Matt looked around and said: “Shall we sit outside so we can have a cigarette?” However, the coffee shop had a small smokers area which proved a very tight squeeze – but taking his time Matt managed to get to the table and back out of the coffee shop.
We then headed off to Westgate house so Matt could take up
the next challenge – using a disabled toilet. When he came out
of the toilet Sarah asked how he got on and he said that it was
difficult and admitted that he had actually got out of the chair.
This was probably partly my fault as I had not shown Matt
how the arm rest came off the wheelchair to enable him to
transfer (but hey, who tells chair users how to do this anyway?)
Having once again used the lift in Westgate house, Matt now headed for the newsagents to try out his last challenge, whichwas to buy a top-shelf magazine. After having a little trouble
getting into the shop through the small doorway Matt then had to ask the female shop assistant for the magazine, and asked how much it was and said that he may be back for it later.
We then decided it was time to head back to the studio with Sarah saying: “Go up here, round the corner and we will be on the right floor for the studio.” Then she realised they could not
go that way, because to get to the floor we wanted there was a mountain of steps to climb! So it was back through Queensgate shopping centre, up in the lift and to the studio.
Matt and Sarah then gave us a tour of the radio station, which was very interesting and, as they had said first thing that morning, the building had failed with access. However once I transferred to the manual chair I was able to use the lift and had chance to go into the studio to be asked by the presenter how Matt had done. Live on air I said, “I think both Matt and Sarah have learnt a lot about disability access issues and the problems disabled people face.”
Matt admitted that he would not like to be in a wheelchair permanently and that it was not as easy as those in wheelchairs make it look. On his show the next day, he was saying that his
arms were still aching from the experience.
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