Michael Moynihan: Is Cork City a nightmare for wheelchair users?

There were problems going from Parnell Place to North/South Main St, says Declan Groeger — 'Nothing is perfect. But I would have to say it’s very good, genuinely'

‘One place I like going to is Princes St, to meet a couple of friends for a coffee in Clancys, or outside Clancys. The footpaths there can be crazy to deal with,’ says Declan Groeger. Picture Dan Linehan

A couple of weeks ago I wrote hereabout Make Way Day, the annual campaign to make people aware of the needs of people with disabilities, particularly in public spaces.

With the day itself looming fast — tomorrow, in fact — I thought I’d ask someone who’s familiar with Cork to evaluate the city on that particular basis.

Is it a nightmare for a wheelchair user? “Generally it’s good,” says Declan Groeger, a wheelchair user and member of the Cork Access Group, a voluntary group seeking to make Cork as accessible as possible.

“Why I say that is [because] on August 24, I used Parnell Place as a starting point and North Main St-South Main St as a finishing point, and I wheeled every street and lane and quay between those two points and the quay walls.

“I did that the morning of the 24th on my own — it took me about four hours but I did it. And there were problems, don’t get me wrong. Nothing is perfect. But I would have to say it’s very good, genuinely.”

One of the bigger problems Declan finds is more to do with people’s attitudes than anything physically blocking a footpath. “I’d go into town a couple of days a week during the summer in particular and the dishes on the footpath can be an issue.

“The dish is where the footpath is lowered to the level of the road, it’s where wheelchairs and buggies and people with poor mobility don’t have to step off the footpath to get across the road.

“But that can become an issue because those dishes help to facilitate trucks and lorries to pull up across the footpath if they’re making deliveries, for instance. 

A couple of weeks ago I was in town and there was a truck parked up on one, and when the driver came along I said, ‘I can’t get off the footpath here’.

“And he said, ‘One second, I hadn’t thought of that’ and he moved straight away, in fairness. I can’t blame a delivery driver for wanting to get as close as he can to the place he’s delivering to, but it’s thoughtless. They probably just see it as just making their job easier but it does have an effect on other people.”

Understandable, then, but not excusable? “That’s a good way to put it.”

There aren’t really many parts of the city that Declan avoids because they’re particularly inaccessible, but even a favourite haunt can present particular challenges. “One place I like going to is Princes St, to meet a couple of friends for a coffee in Clancys, or outside
Clancys.

“The footpaths there can be crazy to deal with — but the reality is there isn’t anything that can be done with those footpaths; the buildings are so old that if you raised them they could be higher than the bottom of the doorway. So that’s a reality as well.”

A few weeks ago he and others from the Cork Access Group were involved with Cork City Council in doing a street furniture audit. “Three people from the council went around Cork with three of us from the group to look at and photograph the street furniture in various parts of the city— the chairs and tables put out by restaurants and coffee shops on footpaths, for instance.

“And in fairness, it was city council who initiated that contact, not us, which is very encouraging.

“The Cork Access Group is a voluntary group with representatives from the [Disability Federation of Ireland], NCBI, the Deaf Association, wheelchair users, and so on, and we have a very good relationship with Cork City Council.

“We’re revamping our social media profile at the moment because we’d feel that for every one complaint there are probably dozens of people who don’t take the time to complain, and we want to reach out to them.”

Speaking up is a key issue for people with mobility issues, but it’s complicated. Declan points out that in some housing estates, cars can be parked half-across a footpath, but people can be reluctant to confront their own next-door neighbours compared to a stranger blocking a street in town. Human nature at work.

If people just examined their consciences as they parked and thought ‘if I park here am I going to inconvenience anyone?’, would that make a difference?

“It would. It would mean people wouldn’t park in disabled parking spots for one thing.

“Also, they wouldn’t park too close to one of those spots, which is another issue.

“I’ve seen it myself where someone’s parked their car in such a way that they can say to themselves, ‘I haven’t parked in a disabled spot here’ — but they may have blocked off two disabled spots.

“What I’ve often seen in Blackpool Shopping Centre, if people know the area, is someone pulls up to run into the bank next door to McDonald’s — but by doing so they may have blocked off two disabled parking spots even though they’re not technically parked in one of those spots.

“If someone parks badly next to a disabled spot then that space can’t be used — for some people who have to use a disabled space they may have to open the door almost to ninety degrees to get out, and if there’s no room to open the door like that, then the space is no good.

“Leaving space to open the door, or to enable people to get a wheelchair out of the back of a vehicle, is very important.

“People don’t realise that disabled parking spots are roughly one-and-a-half times the size of a regular parking spot for that reason — to access the vehicle.

“And people get shirty if you pull them up on it.”

People's reactions are a whole separate issue, Declan adds. “Take invisible illnesses. A few years ago I’d drive in to town, park in a disabled spot, and walk away from the car.

“What people saw was someone parking in a disabled spot, someone apparently healthy enough to walk around town — what they didn’t see was me coming back to the car an hour later, absolutely knackered.

“We all judge a book by its cover, let’s be honest, but people should try to be aware.

“When I worked in town, I was too vain to use a walking stick — I often used a golf umbrella, so if anyone saw me coming out of Clancys after a morning coffee, they would have seen a man coming out of a pub balancing himself with a golf umbrella and maybe leaning on the wall for support. And I know what people thought when they saw me.

“We shouldn’t judge, but we all do to a greater or lesser extent.”

True enough. Though if we eased off on the judgment and increased the consideration for others it’d be a start, surely.

For more, go to makewayday.com