The nature of disability

Who knows what errands we were running yesterday but during them it occurred to us that we could call in on The Door Store which had been closed on two previous attempted visits. I was humbled by Paul, the owner of the store. He was in an electric wheelchair, clearly unable to use his legs, and his right arm and his left arm from the elbow down. And yet, singlehandedly, he was running his own business. He had what I can only describe as a prodder attached to his arm. It ran along his forearm and emerged near his fingers and, since he had movement in the top part of his arm, he was able to stab at his computer keyboard or his telephone. There was a plastic loop on the top of the telephone handset so he was able to hook it with his prodder and lift it to his ear. The Door Store sells doors and kitchens and windows and Paul couldn’t have been more helpful and outlined how if we had any ideas or designs that we couldn’t find in his catalogues then his carpenter would make them for us. I think this man should be the standard against which those applying for DLA should be compared.

As we left we spotted Nigel Heron’s kitchen and bathroom design store which was previously unknown to me. It remained unknown to me for most of the time we were in there. I have, and always have had, a bit of an issue with my hearing but only had it tested and confirmed a couple of years ago. The man who tested me said that most eighty year olds would be disappointed to have hearing as poor as mine. I was touched. Well, to be honest I was a little distressed. I’d always known I missed large amounts of conversations in certain situations but, since these are the only ears I’ve ever used, I didn’t know truly how poor my hearing was. After testing my hearing the man gave me a hearing aid smaller than a five pence piece that actually sat behind my ear with a little wire going into my ear. The difference was miraculous. Then he told me it would cost me £2500 to buy one for each ear and then there was a maintenance charge plus new batteries. You can guess what I said. It’s not that I’m deaf it’s that I have a very limited range and so struggle to pick out certain sounds when there’s a lot going on. In a pub there’s so much background noise that I’ve no chance of hearing what anyone says however close to me they might be. It takes so much concentration to follow what is being said I’ve no chance of actually joining in. It also confuses people, I think, that I have to give them ear contact rather than eye contact. Certain, strange, things might be in my range though. Last year we went to see a comedian and I could often hear a couple whispering to each other fifty metres away above the performer and his amplified voice. It was driving me nuts but no one else could hear them. I also have tinnitus. I didn’t know I had it for years. This is the only head I’ve ever been inside and I’d never chosen to discuss the constant whistling with anyone else. If I had they would have said ‘What whistling?’. I love music but possibly part of my need to always want some playing is that the whistling disappears. Anyway, in Nigel Heron’s store we had the combination of a quietly spoken assistant, background music and, with the door open, traffic noise. I didn’t have a chance. It may be that he’s the only actual designer we’ve met thus far. He seemed to have ideas of his own and said that kitchen units could be made to suite our precise requirements. We didn’t stay long but left with a forest’s worth of catalogues.