Campaigners outside Kentish Town Underground Station which is closed for escalator works

• I REFER to John Stratton’s statement that “It is quite evident on reading the cries of moral outrage from the Camden Disability Group that they have no sense of reality or costs”, (It’s a question of funding, June 29).

I don’t know why God made me partially sighted. But I am pretty sure that it was not to exacerbate Mr Stratton’s budget problems.

Disabled people are not the problem. It’s the budget which is the problem. A party-political argument that “it’s the government’s fault” doesn’t need to be turned into “it’s disabled peoples’ fault”.

And “it’s all the government’s fault” is never the most productive argument, in any case, whatever colour is in power (blue, yellow, red).

And Mr Stratton, it is hoped, is not the sole voice where power and budget are concerned (the deputy mayor, it is hoped, will now let the voices of WinVisible and other groups be heard – see the WinVisible letter (Step-free stations is the priority, July 6).

And to Mr Stratton, whom I do not know but I invite him to call me, I say… First, well-planned public transport is good for everyone, not just the disabled. It so happens that if you get it right for the disabled person you get it right for plenty of other able-bodied people too.

Second, able-bodied people with pushchairs, shopping, and baggage need step-free access too (and it will keep cars off the road, so less pollution and less congestion).

Third, lifts are not therefore solely about disabled people. Yet it was only disabled people who were considered annoyances to be dismissed out of hand as having “no sense of reality or costs”.

Imagine if someone had written “it’s quite evident from the cries of moral outrage from women who expect to be paid while they have babies that women have no sense of reality or costs”.

Except that no one in any position in any public organisation would now ever write this, because it is no longer acceptable to speak of women as inferior to men because of their bodies’ differences from men. This is not to say that I think of pregnant women as disabled.

Rather I say that it is about time that it should be no longer acceptable for able-bodied people to speak/think of disabled people as a burden.

CLAIRE LAZENBY
Mornington Terrace, NW1