Adrian's blog

Accessible holidays
06/08/2012

Accessible holidays

I'm not very good at holidays! Taking two weeks off in one go is too much for me, so I usually have a couple of single week breaks. I know that I'm privileged to have the choice to do that, and I'm very thankful for it.

For our first week as a family, we went to stay in London for a few days and be tourists. It was good fun, and with our grown up sons, it meant that we could go our separate ways if we wanted to and be together at other times. I must talk about my work a lot, because when we visited some of the tourist attractions, both my sons commented that the accessibility of certain venues was not very good. How exciting would it be if their generation saw that accessibility should be everywhere, and not just in a limited number of places?

Holidays and accessibility are two things that are occupying the minds of many of us at Papworth Trust at the moment. There are too few places where people can go and have an affordable, accessible and enjoyable break with their loved ones. It's not all about wheelchair ramps and through-floor lifts, although these are always great. It's about places and spaces where disabled people and their loved ones can be together to have time out and to enjoy each other. I'm not sure what the answer is yet, but we're looking hard to see if we can find one.

Between my two one-week holidays, it's good to have some time to catch up at work - visiting some of our services and generally getting ready for a full and exciting return to normal work in the autumn. It's been good to visit some of the young people we work with having a great break in our summer youth clubs and to see the hard work in our Employment offices helping people to find and to keep work.

I hope that you have some time to enjoy a break during the summer, in a place that works for you, with the people you want to be with. If you have any thoughts on what makes the perfect place for a break, do let me know - I would love to hear them.

You can email Adrian at ceo@papworth.org.uk.