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Rewind Festival

I went to Rewind Festival a couple of weeks ago, it is a music festival in Henley and focused on music from the 80's.

I was a little apprehensive before going as I wasn't sure what it expect as I hadn't been to a Music festival before and had images of a muddy wet field and mankey cows. Fortunately my fears were not justified and it was a fabulous dry day, no mud in sight, very loud.

As a wheelchair user i was able to take advantage of a viewing platform that had been installed to view the music, there was only about 6 of us there so it was really pleasant. There was also a disabled loo on the platform which meant we didn't have to battle back through the crowds to use the facilities.

There were wonderful assistants on hand to help me when ever I needed which is a real added bonus even though i already had support.

Whist a i was there I also took advantage of the food that was on offer and had a massive pizza and later curry chips!

We saw The Village People, Illusion and Mr Motivator.

I am really looking forward to visiting again next year.

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Yesterday I went to Snelsmore Common near Newbury to exercise Bosco the dog with Debbie and her dogs Baxter, Basil and Boozy. We took a picnic along with us and came across this magical picnic bench. Some bight spark had the great idea of extending the table top beyond the seats. This enabled me to also enjoy my picnic at a table with the others, rather than having it on my lap, away from the group. This is an addition that really improves my enjoyment of and activity, but is so often not thought about in the design process. It is things like this that many able bodied people take for granted but it was a really nice surprise to find.

This is a great place to visit if you are in a chair as they have created accessible routes through the trees and park to enable everyone to enjoy it and not feel like you are going to get suck in mud or rattled out of the chair.

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Introduction to Me

My name is MJ, I am 31, live in the south of England and have a wonderful Labrador, two cats and two fish (who i nearly forgot about). I have been mulling over the idea of writing a bog blog for a long time now. 

The day has come. 

Originally I wanted to use this space to complain about the poor facilities available to wheelchair users, however now I would like to also celebrate the great things I find along on my travels. 

I have been dependant on a motorised wheel chair for 15 years. This is because I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when I was born. Cerebral Palsy is a condition caused by damage to the brain either at or just before birth. The symptoms and progression vary from person to person as well as the way the illness develops over the years. For me, at the moment I am affected by weakness in the lower half of my body, fortunately my drinking arm still work! 

I am particularly interested in looking at how access has been created in a wide variety of places to include wheelchair users. I would like this to help promote positive ideas and engage the public and designers to think more about the whole population and their access needs.

Along the way you may also enjoy some of my anecdotes about various medical things that occur.