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Very much enjoyed your words, David. I've read on here that you are active (a licensiate or something fancy ) with a group for peoples with disabilities in Wales. Are there equivalent social/active groups in Thailand?

That's the Disabled Photographer's Society (I am also a member of the Photographic Society of America); I am not actually a Licentiate yet - my portfolio of 10 prints for it was supposed to be assessed this weekend but unfortunately owing to postal strikes in the UK I don't think I will make the deadline so will have to await the next round of assessments on April 15th in 6 months time.

As a rule I tend to not have much to do with disabled groups (other than a SCUBA diving group) as in my experience many disabled people talk about doing things but don't actually do them; I prefer to just get out and do the things I want to do...

I wanted share something about the 'handicapped' vs. 'disabled' language that you referred to in American vernacular. I agree that that word probably is a hint into the author being American... however, slowly people are changing from that. It's taking us a while. I teach diversity education at a university and cover Ableism and discuss language, etc. Our services on campus and in the city of Dallas that I coordinate with have all switched to 'disabilities' language long ago and we're starting to see some real changes in practice 'wheel chair accessible parking' etc.

I am not a particularly 'PC' person myself and I don't think most people I know would be too bothered about the 'handicapped' vs 'disabled' words, it just tends to point out whether someone is European or North American. The phrase used that tends to frowned upon here is 'wheelchair-bound', everyone I know would say 'wheelchair-user'.

I gave up driving just over two years ago (I have a free bus pass now and many local buses are accessible), partly because I'm not getting any younger and was finding it more difficult to lift my wheelchair in and out of my car and partly because I was getting so annoyed at the number of people that was parking in disabled spaces that had no right to. I have many times had people tell me that they have seen me get around in my wheelchair and that I don't need to park so close to facilities - this may be true but for many disabled people we use these parking spaces because they are wider. Often if you park in a normal space you find when you return to your car there is not enough room to get your wheelchair between you car and the one parked next to it.

David