Betty

‘I wonder sometimes, who is designing public spaces, like roads and public toilets.’

Betty doesn’t mind being known as ‘the lady with the mobility scooter’. She lives in a good community, is well respected and nobody has ever said a ‘bad word’ about her.

Her main concern, she told the Royal Commission, is that the buildings and facilities where she lives are not accessible. She said people with mobility issues are too scared to complain or don’t know how to.

Betty can’t drive her mobility scooter on the roads and walkways in town because the curbs and gutters are high and steep. She said there should be more ‘crossovers’ – where they ‘smooth out the gutter and create sloped concrete’.

Buildings rarely have automatic doors and Betty struggles to open them. The doors are often so heavy even people without a disability have problems opening them.

The local tavern installed a ramp but the railings jut out making the entrance too narrow for Betty’s scooter. If she’s there with a big group of people, staff move the kegs out of the service entry so she can access the building. ‘If it were me just visiting on my own, I don’t want them to go through all that hassle, so I never go alone.’

Betty is also unable to access the sports and recreation building because there is a hairpin turn the scooter can’t navigate. When she complained, management told her the ramp complied with ‘wheelchair accessible standards’. Betty said if that’s the case standards need to change to include mobility scooters.

Public toilets, including those designed for people with disability, are not easily accessible. The local hospital and the rehabilitation centre toilets do not have automatic doors. ‘This means you have to ask people for help to get to the toilet, it is very demeaning.’ The tavern replaced sliding toilet doors with swing doors. Betty still can’t access the toilet because one door swings in and the other swings out.

If Betty needs to use the toilet at one of the big shopping centres she has to ask a cleaner to open the door. The cleaner has to wait outside until she’s finished to let her out again.

Other accessible toilets have shower spaces and are often wet and slippery. Some are used as storage rooms.

When Betty raises the issue the common response is, ‘it’s built to standard’.

‘If things are built to the standards and the standards don’t work – especially with new technology like electric scooters – they should be updated.

‘I think it’s really important that people who make the plans really think about the perspective from people who may require facilities and are living with disabilities.’