Disability Discrimination - part 2

So... what to do?  The first thing you discover in a situation like this is that nobody wants to know.  And I mean nobody.  My first stop was the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.  I mean, that's their job, isn't it?  So I phoned up several times, and asked for help.  I could, I was told, arrange for mediation if the other side agreed.  The arbitrator would make recommendations but these weren't binding.  Given how I had been treated so far, anything that wasn't as binding as a length of anchor chain was a definite no-no.  I asked whether the EHRC could support me in taking the case to Court.  'They are very choosy about which cases they handle.'

That's right.  The body of bureaucrats set up to help people like me in situations like this are very choosy.  Well, good for them.  That's lovely to know.  They aren't actually interested in justice per se.  They can afford to cherry pick.

I began reading everything I could find online.  I had been discriminated against, that was certain.  I wanted a proper apology, and so far all I had received was a letter that made it clear that disabled people were totally reliant upon the 'initiative' of whoever happened to be working in the shop at the time. 

Well it's not good enough.  Shops etc.have an anticipatory duty to look ahead and work out what might be required by a disabled person.  Needing help in a changing room isn't rocket science.  Many women take their partners into shops with them when they're buying clothes.  It's hardly unfathomable that some of them will need help.  And why can't they have help from a male partner?

So - I went back to the shop again.  This time I set out my position, explaining:

As things stand, no, I do not have the confidence to visit your store again because I do not think you really understand what has happened here.  How can you write of ‘any necessary retraining action’ when you do not seem to appreciate what it is you are retraining staff to do?  I don't think any of them had ever heard of disability discrimination, or if they had, they clearly felt it was something that actually operated against the disabled person.  They certainly were not aware of requirements to avoid disability discrimination, and from your reply today I am not entirely sure that you understand it either.

As time progressed I began to realised how the disabled are really discriminated against - not just by shops but even abandoned by the very bodies that were set up to help them.  It's disgusting.  It's demoralising.  And it got worse.

And this is why I am recounting the whole sorry saga, blow by blow, because I want people to realise that they don't have to lie down and take this.  They shouldn't lie down and let these big firms get away with it.  It's time to fight back.