Julie Pilsworth, 45, from Grimsby, pictured with her guide dog, Maeve, explains how the park position affects her everyday life.
Julie Pilsworth, 45, from Grimsby has been registered blind after being diagnosed with glaucoma and a list of health problems now means she uses a wheelchair.
In addition to this, he is the primary carer for his 25-year-old son, Ash, who is also disabled.
Maeve, Julie’s guide dog for four years, helps Julie navigate when she’s out and about, allowing her to go alone to places like the doctors, shops or chemist to collect Ash’s medicine.
But he says the flatbed has become a ‘daily battle’ for him.
When drivers were parked on the side of the road, he couldn’t fit in his wheelchair despite the gap left between the parked car and the wall.
Maeve has also been trained to block if she doesn’t believe the chair will fit into the space.
At one point, when Julie tried to reach out using her white cane, before working with Maeve, she knocked her head on a fancy wing mirror and left a large deposit.
Another difficulty is when vehicles park on curbs and the pavement dips to meet the road. This is the only way Julie, a wheelchair user, can safely leave the platform or risk jumping off the chair by falling off the raised lip.
He said: ‘I can’t get in the way like other guide dog owners. It’s too bad because the chair bends. I had to backtrack to find a curb to get into the driveway, but then there was the added challenge of finding a curb to get back onto the pavement when I turned into a parking space.
‘Sometimes I go back and go for twenty minutes before I find a good place to get off the road. Because of my health problems, it’s a big issue if I’m struggling for time when I have a condition like bladder failure.’
Maeve has been specially trained to stop if she doesn’t believe that Julie’s chair can fit into a car parked on the floor.
According to Julie, sometimes the tow truck forces her to go back that way for 20 minutes before she can find a good curb to cross the road and avoid the traffic blocking the way. walking
The hardships of the yacht bring Julie back to a time before Maeve and the hardships she faced without Maeve’s help.
‘I felt like my life was about to end because going out was so difficult,’ she says.
‘I went for a drive and then my vision got bad, so I had to stop, it was really sad. I was really down and because it was so difficult to go out, I was about to quit. One day I found it in myself to think’: ‘Let’s find a way to do this’.’
But since Julie befriended Maeve, life has changed dramatically.
Julie says: ‘The independence and confidence I’ve gained from Maeve has been huge. But I’m still getting back in the van – I’m ready to give up.’
He also recounts the times he was taunted by drivers blocking his right-of-way.
‘I’ve had the unfortunate experience of telling the driver that I’m not going to pass and asking him to move out of the way,’ says Julie.
‘Some of the bad things I’ve been through have made me cry.
‘I was really scared because I couldn’t see to know what was going on. And if you can’t see what’s happening to you, it’s really scary. You never know if they will attack you.
‘One person I spoke to at the end drove at a high speed in such a rage that he almost hit an old man and a woman with an orange car a few meters down the road… I was so scared.’
For Julie, seeing the sidewalks was dehumanizing, made worse by social ignorance.
She says: ‘sometimes you wonder why bother asking for help, you’re a bit of a badass. You don’t expect people to call you because you politely asked if they could move their car so you could go. I should have the right to use the stone floor like everyone else.’
Julie said she was sometimes harassed by drivers when she asked them to move their car off the pavement so she could get into her seat.
According to Julie, every day there is a struggle with drivers using the road to park.
Julie wants to do more and put more effort into raising the profile, including launching her own Facebook page to educate others about barrier positions for the partially sighted and those with disabilities. wheelchair user himself.
He says: ‘The problem doesn’t just stop at the pavement. When you’re on the road, people don’t seem to be slowing down as they pass – they’re too busy with their own journey.
‘It’s scary being on the road with oncoming traffic and I’ll always say it’s a long time before someone gets seriously hurt.’
He added: ‘Every day is very difficult, it’s easy to ride, but when you’re dealing with pavements that are really harassing and screaming at you… I’d say it’s still there, it’s not. alive.’
Julie is advocating for the government to change the parking regulations and is also advocating for the general public to be aware of the issue.
He said: ‘Parking is very selfish, inconsiderate and dangerous. The government can do more, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t take many more tragedies to make people realize how serious this issue is.’
