Minnie’s Musings

I have been reminded of the SEND illustration which illustrates equality of access. Myself husband, my youngest and I were all trying to peer over a wall. My husband could see straight ahead and down the other side easily, my daughter could see straight and could see nothing.

You may have across the illustration I am speaking of.

Three children of different heights stand in front of a wall. Only the tallest can see. The adjacent pictures shows the same three children standing on boxes of different heights. All have the same view.This is defined as “Equity” which is a good way of putting the need to provide some with additional support to experience the same opportunities.

Now, in the SEND world the need for supporting resources and adaptations including scaffolding in the classroom is well established. In the adult world there are improvements and those should be celebrated. And I am not going to get into a controversial debate about what constitutes reasonable and realistic adjustments.

What I do want to say is there are two things that regularly annoy this ordinary middle aged woman of NATIONAL AVERAGE height and the requirements of anyone who has pushed out multiple babies at full term.

1. The height of cupboards in kitchens and supermarket shelves for the things you need – all designed by persons of at least 5’8”
2. Women’s loos which are always placed further away than the gents and rarely have enough cubicles. .

I could go on about VAT on women’s essentials which took Brexit to resolve (it remains applicable in Europe, so I am standing up for Hausfraus and Madames across the Channel) And multiple car safety measures done without regard to the fairer sex.
Before you assume this is a feminist rant, I also think there is little or nothing out there for dads who stay at home to look after the kids either fill time or part time. This is because most groups are run on an informal basis by women. They can be deeply intimidating for newly minted dads feeling their way.

Anyway I get off at the next stop so will post now (and hope there aren’t too many typos). Ta-ra!