bbc.co.uk
Home
TV
Radio
Talk
Where I Live
A-Z Index

Ouch weblog: individual blog entry

19 Jun 07, 3:39 PM - Get out and about with GOJO

Posted by Crippled Monkey

Big news, readers. Crippled Monkey has been getting rather fond of buses of late. Really. And as my friends know, I've always been a fan of trains. Not that I'm a trainspotter. Ahem. No, definitely not.

Here on Ouch, whenever we publish an article about public transport, or whenever a post about the subject is left on the messageboard, it gets a lot of feedback. A lot. Quite rightly, it's a subject close to disabled people's hearts. Yet despite the fact that changes to the DDA introduced in December last year gave disabled people the right, for the first time, to fair treatment on public transport, many younger disabled people say they still lack confidence in using buses and trains compared to their non-disabled counterparts.

Launched in May by the Disability Rights Commission, GOJO is a campaign to encourage younger disabled people, especially, to get out and about on public transport, particularly if they have difficulties or fears about using it. Its launch featured stand-up comedy gigs on buses by the Abnormally Funny People group, which you can watch for yourself on everyone's favourite video-sharing site, YouTube.

This coming weekend sees the culmination of GOJO's activities in the five cities and local areas on which they have focused their activities - Exeter, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield - which coincides with The Longest Weekend. It's the weekend with the most daylight hours, running from the Summer Solstice on Thursday June 21 to Sunday June 24. And they're encouraging you to get out and about and do stuff. Which sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?

You can find out what's going on in each of the local areas using GOJO's Events Guides. Plus they have teamed up with local venues and attractions to provide a range of special offers to encourage general getting out and aboutness with so many daylight hours to fill. These include two for one cinema tickets, free travel tickets and discounted meals. It's a good geographical spread across the country, so hopefully you'll be able to find something going on near you.

Finallly, GOJO are also publishing travel diaries on their site, containing your personal experiences of using public transport. There are prizes for the best entries too - not that you need that sort of encouragement, do you? Nope, you don't.

So Crippled Monkey, being a younger disablified type myself (no snarky comments, thank you), is going to be getting out and about this weekend, and suggests you do likewise. I'll see you on the buses. Or on the train. Though probably not on my bike. No, definitely not on my bike, in fact.

Comment on this entry | Link to this entry | Stuff to do

< Previous | Main | Next >

Comment on this entry

Please note that your name and email address are required, but that your email address will not be displayed.

Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the author has approved them.

Required
Required
 

Ouch may edit your comments and cannot guarantee that all will be published.

 

  

Archive

Browse entries by month:

« January 2008

Messageboard

Join in with the discussion on Ouch's lively messageboard.

Newsletter

Subscribe to our free newsletter to receive regular Ouch! updates.



About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy