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A blue badge holder and wheelchair user has strongly criticised accessibility for disabled people in town, branding it as “horrific” as he recounts numerous experiences of being humiliated whilst struggling to navigate many of St. Helier’s streets.
Joe Baimbridge was left physically disabled after a severe motoring accident “completely destroyed” his left leg, meaning he needed to use a wheelchair.
This issue was raised on social media recently when a care worker hit out at obstructions to disabled parking in town.
Pictured: This obstruction to a disabled parking bay sparked outrage on social media after a care worker hit out at town accessibility (Facebook/Vicky Soar).
Joe, who now only uses his chair when he knows he has to travel long distances but still holds a blue badge due to the lasting effects of his injury, spoke to Express about what it’s like to navigate town as someone with mobility issues.
Joe said the daily struggles he faced got so bad that it stopped him going into town altogether: “I stopped going into town. It’s too dangerous [and] I couldn’t take it. Being repeatedly battered by that feeling of being less than everyone else; it sucked all of my confidence, all of my self-esteem.”
Joe told Express that there are a number of issues with disabled bays in town. He said: “There’s not enough of them and they’re in completely the wrong locations. It’s like they were set out as disabled bays a long time ago… town has changed and the bays haven’t.”
Pictured: Joe says that the size and availability of disabled parking bays in town is not good enough - issues that are looking to be addressed as part of the island's Disability Strategy.
Joe recounted that when he was using his wheelchair, he often found himself in situations where the lack of room either side of the bays meant he had to set up his chair in the middle of traffic.
There is currently an island-wide review of all disabled parking spaces underway and is due to be completed in 2022 as part of the implementation of Jersey’s Disability Strategy.
Amongst anecdotes of being stranded on pavements made slippery by the rain, having to pull himself and his wheelchair into buildings due to lack of access and falling out of his chair due to uneven and cobbled streets, Joe explained that the camber of pavements towards the road to allow rain runoff can also prove a challenge for wheelchair users.
Pictured: The five top priorities of the Jersey Disability Strategy includes a pledge to ensuring those with disabilities "have greater access to the island".
He added that “the pedestrianisation of town is a lovely idea for everyone except disabled people” as the surface of the walkways “offer no grip to wheels” or crutches as well as the lack of on street parking renders those areas inaccessible for those with mobility issues.
Joe said that it might make a difference if the people who were making the decisions on accessibility issues experienced what it was like for wheelchair users trying to navigate town: “If they spent a week in a wheelchair, I guarantee there would be huge, sweeping changes because they would understand just how difficult it is.”
He explained: “I’ve always been very, very sympathetic to anyone who has a disability, but nothing prepared me for when I became disabled… unless you’ve been in that situation you just don’t know.”
Pictured: Joe Baimbridge who was left physically disabled by a serious motoring accident and his partner Carla Butler who became his carer. (Carla Butler)
Joe also said that he would welcome more consultation with the disabled community when it comes to making town more accessible.
He also said that more needs to be done to change attitudes towards those with disabilities as he described people regularly looking over him and avoiding eye contact almost as if not to acknowledge his existence at all: “I don’t think it’s so much out of malice, I think it’s because people don’t understand disability – they don’t know how to deal with it and because of that it scares them.”
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