Disabled mother 'banned' from sitting with family

Published: August 15, 2012 13:25 by CJB666

The Petition at tinyurl.com/parabeth has just passed 21,000 from an initial target of 1,000 - keep signing!!

Published: August 15, 2012 17:45 by CJB666

Please kepp signing - BUT NO RESPONSE FROM COE OR LOCOG. Hardly surprising reslly.

Published: August 16, 2012 10:49 by CJB666

The story featured in Metro - but has not been picked up by other media. It is in the Huffington Post though.

Published: August 16, 2012 16:07 by CJB666

The scandal of this issue is that both Lord Coe and LOCOG have totally ignored the petition. You can email them at:

sebastian DOT coe AT london2012 DOT com
pressoffice AT london2012 DOT com
complaints AT enquiries DOT london2012 DOT com

(note: no spaces in addresses)

Published: August 17, 2012 09:29 by Anon

Can anyone with contacts in the media get this story and folks affected onto "This Morning"?

Published: August 17, 2012 13:33 by Anon

This is typical:

Thought I was the only one to have been treated like this! Having attended 3 Olympic events, two at Cardiff and the jewel in the crown - athletics at the Olympic Stadium - I was separated from my 12 and 15 year olds AT ALL EVENTS! as I was only allowed one companion to sit with me in my wheelchair. My children were even down on the tickets to enter by different gates and entrances! For all three events their tickets were vast distances from me in both stadiums on all three occasions!! They paid children's rates for their tickets (children paid their age, so the organisers knew they were 12 and 15). Felt so sad that my family were split up at the Olympic stadium. My husband ended up sitting in the 15 yr old's seat with my son, and my 15 yr old pushed me in my wheelchair and sat with me, but I should have been able to sit with my family. Despite phone calls before the three events and emails, nothing could be done - my calls were cut off on two occasions as it says the line was busy and I would be disconnected, so we enjoyed the olympics separately - not a good time to be disabled and in a wheelchair, but we were so pleased to get tickets. The sole exception to this disabled ticketing fiasco was a lady steward at Cardiff on our second visit there, who went out of her way to put us together but was only able to do so as the event was not a sell-out so there were spare seats. We are going to Paralmpics soon but have not got a designated wheelchair seat - hope we have more luck at being seated together this time!! Feel strongly that as we applied for all tickets as a family of 4 with me in a wheelchair, that more could not have been done to put my children at least vaguely near me in the stadiums!! It was a fantastic experience at the Olympics, just marred by being seated separately!

Published: August 19, 2012 19:14 by Anon

This from Beth:

Help me reach 50,000 signatures and tell LOCOG to review their Paralympic ticket policy

Share the Petition

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In just three days, over 34,000 people have joined you in signing my petition asking for London 2012 to review their paralympics ticketing policy - thank you.

The campaign has been covered on the BBC, Channel 4 News and in The Telegraph and London 2012 (LOCOG) are starting to take notice.

On Thursday [Aug 16], Mark Todd, LOCOG’s Accessibility Manager phoned me. He accepted that mistakes had been made on this issue and said that if we collected names of those affected he would act. He told me they would issue a statement to that effect.

But yesterday [Aug 17] LOCOG issued a dismissive statement saying that wheelchair users would have to wait until the day of their chosen events to secure seats with their families.

I don’t think it’s fair to expect people to turn up on the day and hope they can sit together. In this amazing demonstration of disabled sport it should be possible for disabled people to have their families sit with them.

Can you take a moment to share this petition with your friends and family on facebook, Twitter or by using the email below and help reach 50,000 signatures?

The more people who sign the petition, the more LOCOG will see that they need to put in place measures to ensure people have confirmed seats with their families in advance so that the London Paralympics 2012 is an event to remember for every family.

Thank you for your support - it means the world to me.

Beth

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Published: August 19, 2012 19:17 by Anon

Hi,

I just signed the petition "International Paralympic Committee @London2012: Review ticketing policy for wheelchair users" and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name.

Our goal is to reach 50,000 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here:

http://www.change.org/paralympictickets

Thanks!

Published: August 19, 2012 21:28 by Anon

Beth now opines ...

UPDATE: Since this petition started I have been overwhelmed by the massive response and I appreciate every one of you! Last Wednesday LOCOG sold me 4 tickets allowing my family and I to sit together at the cycling on 30th August.

Although very grateful and appreciative of this, I did not think it fair that although I could now go with my family others could not (based on the correspondence I received from fellow disabled parents) and so I decided to continue with the campaign.

Since Thursday I have been in contact with the Accessibility Manager at LOCOG who has been trying to find a resolution. Although we are not in agreement on many matters it is obvious to me he is trying to resolve this as best he can in his position.

Although I have been promised that this is not a policy issue and it has been admitted to me that this is a result of LOCOGs poor training of their staff, I am still aware that there are those people who have held tickets since September and who are still having issues.

LOCOG have advised me in a letter today that they are now re-briefing staff about disabled seating. However I would still appeal to LOCOG to state this publicly so that further confusion is abated.