1) Disability discrimination in Margate, Kent Pet Shop

Every Saturday, myself and my sister accompany my disabled daughter in her wheelchair to visit the Paw Prince pet shop in Margate High Street.  My daughter owns a dog, so does my sister and I have two dogs so we always spend money in this shop as it is the only Pet shop in the town centre. However, every week we find that access inside the shop is restricted by various obstacles such as bags of bird seed etc stacked on the floor and more often than not, a large (6ft x 4ft ish) cardboard freestanding pet food advert on display inside the store which I have to move slightly as it blocks access to the half of the shop that displays dog toys, bones and treats that my daughter wants to buy. She has never been offered any help with access around the store from the shop assistant (who I believe is also the proprietor of the shop).

This person has always made my daughter feel uncomfortable when in the shop, she gives my daughter "dirty looks" and turns away when she can clearly see that something needs to be moved from off the floor to allow her wheelchair access to the counter to pay for her purchases, but I have always tried to reassure my daughter that this is just the personality of the shopkeeper and that her disgruntled attitude is not personally directed at her.

BUT .... this Saturday (20th Aug 2011) the three of us were completely shocked by the discriminatory attitude and cruel words from the shopkeeper when after paying for our purchases and on leaving the store she said to us "stop moving things in the shop" I replied that "I only moved the cardboard advert enough to allow my daughters wheelchair to pass", my sister added "you should make your shop easier for disabled access by not leaving things around to block floor space and obstructing wheelchair users" to which the shop keeper replied "I don't want people in wheelchairs coming into my shop".

My daughter was very upset, as this statement confirmed to her that all the bad looks and obstructions in the shop had been directed at her personally because she is a disabled person.

Two years ago my daughter suffered a severe stroke at the age of 38 which left her paralysed down her right side and with speech difficulties, yet despite her disability she is very independent, lives on her own with her dog and does everything for herself regardless of the extra effort and time that is required for her to complete her household chores. She wants to shop for herself and not to wait outside a shop in her wheelchair and have to send somebody else in to shop for her and she wants to pay for her own purchases at the counter.

This terrible incident has knocked her confidence and upset us all, she feels that she is not allowed to go into the pet shop and really never has been, she also worries now that other shopkeepers may feel the same way about her going into their shops!

If we said that we will never shop there again that would just be playing into the shopkeepers hands as that is what she said that she wants, for us never to go into her shop with a wheelchair again!!!

 I emailed these events to the Equality & Human Rights Commission, hoping that they would contact the pet shop owner and inform her of the law regarding service providers e.g. shops and disabled persons using their premises. However, from their reply it seems that they are only an information and advisory service and most of the info they sent me, I had already found out for myself from searching the Internet! 

They advised me that:  

Under Part 3 of the Equality Act, it is unlawful for anyone providing a service to the public in the U.K. to fail to make a reasonable adjustment without justification to the physical features of their premises if a disabled person finds it impossible or unreasonably difficult to access those premises.

I have returned to the pet shop since receiving the information on  Part 3 of the Equality Act and spoken with the shopkeeper and asked her to make the minor adjustments to allow my daughter access to the shop in her wheelchair e.g. removing obstructions such as the large cardboard advert, the freestanding baskets of sale goods in the middle of the aisles and the bags of bird seed stacked along the edges of the floor and in front of the counter.

Her reply was "that why should I move them when you are with her to move them out of her way".

I reminded her that the previous week, she had told me "to stop moving things in her shop".

She then said that "she would serve my daughter outside the shop rather than have her come in". 

I pointed out to her my concerns under the Equality Act 2010 in regards to my daughters wheelchair accessibility, to which the shopkeeper replied that " she did not want any disabled persons in wheelchairs riding around her shop as the floor would not take the weight of a wheelchair and would collapse into the cellar below"!!  

When I said to her "that if this is true,  then she should place an access warning sign outside her shop, with a weight restriction", she became angry and told us to leave her shop and refused to discuss the issues with us any more. 

So what can we do now?  

My daughter doesn't really want to start legal proceedings, or ask a local newspaper take up the cause, she  does not want to be thrust into the limelight, or anything else that might come about if this were to spiral out of control and she is not looking for compensation if she were to win a case in court.  She just wants treated like any other able bodied shopper and have access to Margate town centre shops, the way she used to before she had her Stroke.

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