Never really thought about it before, but having read this I agree that disabilities are no less valid simply because they don’t confine you to a wheelchair. My concern is that the current drive to force people off incapacity benefits and back into work misses all this subtlety.

I recently and quite suddenly found myself crippled by arthritis in my foot. Like Ruth, I absolutely didn’t think of myself as disabled: I was a walker, climber, kayaker and mountain biker …. but I could only walk about 100m. Medical advice was that this was either probably permanent (the surgeon) or that might improve a bit if I was careful and worked hard (the physiotherapist)

I’ve been trying the physio route and when its been painful I’ve been very careful about not agravating it. Often this has meant using my bike when normally I’d have walked somewhere. When visiting historic sites over the summer, we found some sites were much more helpful and supportive about this than others. Historic Scotland were fantastic:They immedately trusted me not to do wheelies amongst their ancient stones and welcomed me + bike amongst their ruins. One neolithic site in Orkney even took their gate off its hinges to make it easier for me to bring the bike in! On the other hand, The National Trust were unbelievable nitpicking and bureaucratic. No way could I use my bike to accompany my friends round the gardens at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire.. even tho there was no way this could be damaging. They offered me an electric buggy, which no doubt would have been good for some of their elderly visitors, but as a fit mid50s I would have been mortified to have used one.. Finally with lots of huffing and puffing, they allowed me to be let in (on foot) at a gate at the far side of the gardens, so I could at least join my friends for a picnic, even if the rest of the gardens were out of my range.

Currently I’m making quite good progress with the physio and my range is increasing so it is limiting my activities less than it did, but the experience has been eye opening about the subtleties of disabilty and the need for flexibility in accommodating people’s needs.

Anne

In keeping with that, the law does not require that you prove to service providers (which would include festival organisers) that you meet this requirement; it simply requires them to make the necessary reasonable adjustments to ensure that you can use their service.

The bottom line is, if you feel excluded because of your disability, ask the service provider in question what arrangements they have to accommodate you. If they have no arrangements or show no willingness to make such arrangements (as long as these are reasonably practicable), they will be in breach of the Act and you can legitimately take action against them. And frankly, you bloody well should.

In the UK I think it’s a case of an industry where the show-offs and pushy succeed (and the majority of those tend to be men) rather than a conspiracy. At Womad where a plethora of cultures are represented with (let’s call it for the sake of politeness) a more traditional attitude to equality the results are more striking.

As a member of Bellowhead which is only 1/11th female (although some would say it’s more) I’m aware that we’re part of the problem. I’m all for redressing the balance because with a larger pool of talent, the music will be better, and that’s got to be a good thing. The question is, how?