Geekfest: Wheelchair Using Fans Not Wanted?

UPDATE

Nine Worlds/Geekfest were very quick to reply and address my points, which I'm genuinely very impressed by, and where they had missed out on an update (the FAQ page), they quickly adopted my suggested wording for making it clear that the suggestion wheelchair users should consider the Marriott was room availability,  not a general recommendation. (I think there was an under-estimation of how seriously wheelies might take being 'advised' to use another hotel, most walkies don't understand just how unaccessible the built environment still is to those of us who come with wheels attached). The agreement to reimburse wheelchair users for taxi fares between the con hotels is a good compromise to the accessibility problem.

So am I completely happy and am I going now? Not entirely and probably not. Geekfest have fixed the access problem, but the problem still existed until a month before the con without being addressed, that's something that needs to be addressed for Geekfest 2016. The issue splits into two linked points, with the first of these being the attention given to access in the initial con hotel choice. It looks awfully like that got overlooked this time around, with the result that attendees were booking into hotels it was physically impossible for some of them to get between. That's a pretty fundamental problem. Either you pick hotels wheelchair-using fans can get between, or you make sure there is some accomodation in place and publicised in time for people to make informed hotel choices (and that second option is very much the worse of the two). The second point follows on from that, access information needs to be in place from the moment booking opens, if not before, because wheelchair-using, and other disabled fans, have to make serious decisions about whether their needs are being addresssed and whether getting between places will still leave them able to enjoy the con. Access isn't something you can leave until the last minute.

That last point is why I'm probably not going. I'm neurodiverse as well as a wheelchair user, and for various reasons taxis stress me badly. The solution will work for most people, but for me it just creates more problems. When I found myself thinking "well maybe I could use my wheelchair as a walker between hotels, that'll get me past the lack of kerb cuts and avoid needing to use taxis" I realised that I needed to say no, because either I was going to wear myself out physically or mentally. (And to be fair to Geekfest I've also thought of another way to use the money, it's likely a combination of both reasons, rather than solely one on its own).

I hope Geekfest 2015 goes well. I trust Geekfest 2016 will do it better still.

*****





When a friend noted she was planning to go to 9 Worlds/Geekfest, due to be held 7-9th August at Heathrow, I was initially excited, I'd missed going to Eastercon for health reasons and this looked like a good substitute. Heathrow is a bit too far to commute from Kent, so I went to check the con hotels for accessibility, and that was when I was left with a nasty taste in my mouth.




How to Book A Hotel Room
The convention hotel for 2015 is the Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow, on Bath Road just north of London Heathrow Airport. Rooms at the Radisson are now sold out. We've agreed convention rates at two nearby hotels:

• Renaissance Heathrow - £89 / night for one person or £99 for two. The Renaissance is on the other side of Bath Road. It's close to the Radisson, but you have to cross over pedestrian crossing points as Bath Road is a large dual carriageway. The crossing points are unsuitable for motorised wheelchairs as they are not properly lowered. It's about a five minute walk at 'standard' walking speed. Google Maps walking directions are incorrect for this route as you can just go straight between the two sites.
• Park Inn Heathrow - £86 / night for two people, or £77 for one person. The Park Inn is also on Bath Road, on the same side of the road as the Radisson, but there are a couple of junctions, a few unrelated buildings, a petrol station and a McDonald's between the two hotels. It's about an eight minute walk at 'standard' walking speed​​.

Both hotel rates include free breakfast and in-hotel wifi. Bookings are made with the hotel rather than Nine Worlds, and they can take bookings over the internet or by phone. For wheelchair users, we would advise considering the Marriott hotel. The Marriott is slightly closer than both of these - it's further down Bath Road on the same side as the Radisson, has good access facilities, but we were unable to agree an affordable room rate with them.​​​​ It's about three minutes walk at 'standard' walking speed, with one junction to cross.

(my italics, note that the pricing information given for the 'official' con hotels isn't repeated for the one wheelchair users are being advised to use - too embarrassed? Note also that there is no indication as to whether the junctions between the Park Inn and the Radisson have kerb-cuts - and the petrol station and McDonalds are also likely to be a problem for that. And if the route from the Renaissance isn't suitable for motorised wheelchairs due to lack of kerb-cuts it probably isn't suitable for most manuals either, not all of us can wheelie up a 6" kerb.

I need to know distances, not 'x minutes at normal walking speed' - here's a clue, people who need to know don't walk at 'normal' speed, and I need to know if every junction and entrance (McDonalds, petrol station) on the route between hotels has a kerb-cut, because falling arse over tit out the back of my chair into a busy road trying to wheelie up a too high kerb does not appeal).

 

From the access page
 

Whoa there! This policy is from Nine Worlds 2014. We're at the same hotel for 2015's Nine Worlds, but we're still reviewing all of the content on this page.

 (my italics, it's a month to the con, and you still have accessibility covered by a placeholder? Seriously!?!)

 
In summary

We’re running at the Radisson Edwardian, Heathrow. We have step-free access, accessible toilets, gender neutral toilets, designated quiet space, car parking, kid-friendly content, a minority of clearly marked 18+-only content, and space for feeding and changing. We’re running as 75-minute sessions with 30-minute breaks, and attendees can enter and leave sessions as they like. The Radisson has a limited number of wheelchair friendly / accessible hotel rooms. We recommend the Marriott next door as an accessible alternative if the Radisson books out.
(my italics, they recommend the Marriott, but don't mention it isn't a con-hotel)

Hotels

Nine Worlds 2015 will be held at the Radisson Blu Edwardian, Heathrow. The following is a brief overview of some of the hotel's features from an accessibility point of view; if you have any specific access queries please contact access@nineworlds.co.uk, tweet @9Waccess or contact the Radisson hotel directly.
....
The main circulating and social space for Nine Worlds is in the atrium at the top of the building. Access from the lobby is by climbing 38 steps (with four landings) or by lift; the lifts are not directly in the lobby/atrium but are clearly signposted along a side corridor. Lifts are big enough for a standard wheelchair plus companion, although users of larger wheelchairs or scooters may have difficulty. The lifts contain mirrors to aid reversing out.
The atrium is naturally lit from a glass ceiling and consists of smaller self-contained areas. These are connected by walkways and shallow ramps (including temporary ramps which will be in place for the duration of Nine Worlds where necessary).

One area is earmarked for possible use as a children's area; access here is down two steps which may not be possible to ramp. More information on this will be available in due course.

The main entertainment and vendors areas are in a large room off the atrium. This room is a couple of inches below the level of the corridor, with a carpeted ramp in the doorway. The entertainments and vendors room, along with most side rooms, are carpeted. Access to this room is through double doors which are held open when the room is in use.

Direct access to the main convention bar is down two steps from the atrium; step-free access is via a ramp at the opposite end of the atrium.
....
 
 (my italics, people with powerchairs or scooters may have trouble accessing the main con area? WTF? Why are they in this hotel with so basic an access fail?And as for scored-through access information, does that mean it's no longer relevant, no longer accessible or what? Access to the bar is pretty damned fundamental as far as I'm concerned!)
 

Hotel layout - Marriott

....

 (Note, no mention that the Marriott isn't a convention hotel, in fact no explanation why it's mentioned at all - if you can't even list the relevant hotels?)

Hotel layout - Sheraton Skyline

....

(Note, no mention that the Sheraton isn't a convention hotel, in fact no explanation why it's mentioned at all - if you can't even list the relevant hotels?)

Restaurant layout - McDonald's

As a lot of Nine Worlds attendees use the McDonald's on Mondial Way outside the Radisson, we had a brief look here too. The step-free route from the pavement has narrow chicane barriers across the footway which would block access for users of most mobility aids including wheelchairs; the only way of avoiding these is via the roadway. The building has automatic doors opened by push buttons, although these were not working when we visited. Assistance dogs are welcome.
 

(my italics, this seems to confirm there are access issues between both secondary hotels and the main con hotel)

 

No access information is given for the two actual secondary con hotels, the Renaissance and the Park Inn. The price difference between the official con hotels and the one wheelies are being advised to use is marked: Radisson Con-rate: ? (not stated in faq, presumably as sold out), Renaissance Con-rate: £89, Park Inn Con-rate:£77, but Marriott £127. So that's between £38/a night and £50 pound a night extra, a minimum of £114 extra for a wheelchair user who wants to stay three nights to ensure they see the whole con.
 

It looks awfully like Geekfest have stuck with a semi-accessible hotel rather than look for a better one as that's convenient for them, then negotiated con-rates with different secondary hotels to last year without giving any thought to accessibility, then stuck up an oh, wheelies had better stay at the Marriott excuse when they realised it's an issue, and just hoped they could keep quiet about the cost issues this imposes on wheelchair using con-goers.
 

Not impressed, don't know half the information I need, have no confidence in the rest, refuse to be exploited for being a wheelchair user, probably not going :(

Disability Confident in its Own 'Inspirational' Words

I went through the tweets from attendees at the Swansea Disability Confident event yesterday, pulling out the tweets that show how the attendees see disabled people. Individual names and twitter accounts have been redacted, corporate accounts left intact. I have added commentary below some of the tweets in italics, reflecting on what they tell us about how the attendees understand disability.

Inspiring tales

A moving story from <redacted>, telling the room about his personal journey to employment

- speaker had a learning disability, let's get the pity party started!

<redacted> shares his inspirational story - internships play a big part

Inspiring and powerful stories and such a positive atmosphere

Inspiring morning at #disabilityconfident

<redacted> shares her inspiring story from the TREAT trust

- wheelchair user, 'inspirational' goes into overdrive

<redacted> of  Treat trust giving an #Inspirational talk

@equalapproach <redacted>, Treat trust discusses her personal journey. Never judge a book by its cover

 - sounds okay at first glance, but referring to a wheelchair user? Little creeped out by this one.

Being inspired by <redacted> from TREAT Trust Wales

- that makes four inspirings for a single speaker, interesting, if *headdesk*worthy, reaction to the wheelchair

@indycube "Focus on ability rather than disability" - Inspiring words from <redacted>

- but what about the needs that result from our disabilities? (and five inspirings)

@equalapproach Review your recruitment processes to check they are #inclusive and #accessible

- might want to review your recruiters and managers too, a non-discriminatory process is only as non-discriminatory as those who run it

@CardiffREEDHR Fantastic morning with @Delsion_ in Swansea. 1/3 disabled people WANT to work... #disabilityconfident

- worried a leading national recruiter sounds so surprised!

@CardiffREEDHR THANK YOU for inspiring us to enable the disabled. "our greatest need is to feel needed" 

- What the Actual Fuck?

@CardiffREEDHR Inspiring to hear <redacted> talk about the struggles & frustrations of students with learning disabilities.#disabilityconfident

- Scary our leading recruitment firms are so out of touch on disability

@AdmiralJobs: Amazing Inspirational speakers at #DisabilityConfident #Swansea

- Scary our leading recruitment firms are so out of touch on disability

Fantastic #disabilityconfident employer event today in #Swansea and inspirational speakers

Attended #disabilityconfident seminar in Swansea today #inspirational

@CodenSolutions awesome conference bringing disability on the employment agenda for our city #disabilityconfident #SwanseaCity #inspiration

- another recruiter

And because none of the attendees will understand why this is an issue, the late, great, Stella Young and I'm Not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much

Is Disability Confident Too Embarrassed To Talk About Disability Discrimination?

We see it time and again, some DWP apparatchik or businessman tweeting that the only cause of the disability employment gap - the 2 million or so disabled people who should be in work if we were employed at the same rate as non-disabled people - is that business is embarrassed by disability.

Now that would be bad enough, it would be like employers being embarrassed that a job applicant is black, or a woman, or gay, or Muslim, and denying them a job because of that. But when we talk about people being denied jobs over their ethnicity, their gender, their sexual orientation or their religion, we don't call it 'embarrassment', we call it discrimination. Why is disability different?

In part this may be a historical problem common across the whole non-disabled population. I've had non-disabled people tell me I'm lying when I describe on-street harassment, up to and including physical assault, that has happened to me personally and where disability was clearly identified by the perpetrators as the reason for the attack. For some endearingly naive people this is part of a refusal to believe that anyone could attack disabled people, though sadly this is usually often coupled with a perception of us as less than adult. For others the reasoning seems murkier, perhaps because harassing disabled people as 'scroungers' and 'frauds' is something they feel encouraged towards by right-wing media and the scrounger rhetoric it has rammed down our throat for five years now, and to admit that that is discrimination would be to condemn themselves.

It may be that the designers of Disability Confident at the Department of Work and Pensions shared that problem, and sought frantically for some reason that would explain 2 million disabled people denied work without needing them to use the discrimination-word. But shyness and sensitivity are not qualities typically associated with DWP, so why 'embarrassed'? Why not 'bias'? Why not 'widespread contempt for Equality Act 2010'? Why not 'bigotry'? There are plenty of options that could have condemned the failure of employers to employ disabled people at the same rate as non-disabled, yet DWP chose to go with 'embarrassed'.

So when an employer bins a CV because it mentions disability, he's embarrassed?

So when an employer discounts a disabled applicant because they turn out to be disabled at interview, it's because he's embarrassed?

So when an employer forces a disabled worker out for daring to ask for a reasonable adjustment under EA2010, he's embarrassed?

So when an employer bullies a disabled person until finally they can't take any more, it's just a little light-hearted embarrassment between friends?

Let's remember that the latest Workfare figures show that employers would rather employ an ex-con (14% with a 'Job Outcome') than a disabled person (10.2% with a 'Job-Outcome', 5% if they are ex-Incapacity Benefit recipients), against 24.7% for the scheme as a whole.

Let's remember that a recent survey by the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI)  showed 37% of disabled people felt they had been discriminated against in the recruitment process, and the real figure is undoubtedly higher given the impossibility of knowing if your CV was binned for mentioning disability.

Let's remember that a survey of employers just before the recession announced it a triumph for equality that around 26% of employers would consider employing a disabled person who had been in receipt of Incapacity Benefit, never mind that that meant 74% of employers had declared they would rather break the law than employ a disabled person (it being illegal to consider disability in an employment decision).

Is it just possible that 'embarrassment' isn't an appropriate description? Did anyone at Disability Confident think to ask actual disabled people what we think? It's not as if 'Nothing For Us, Without Us' is the fundamental tenet of disability rights or anything. Oh, hang on, yes it is. So imagine how disabled people feel when Disability Confident dismisses 2m disabled people who should be in work but are denied that right as just the result of a little embarrassment?

I've been there on the front line of disability discrimination, having the manager responsible for my career development tell me (when he was sure there were no witnesses), that my disability made me an unacceptable risk to his schedule and that under no circumstances would he put me into a job at my own grade. And when I was finally forced out of the company after a four year fight I had the very senior recruiter handling my 'outsourcing' take me aside and say "You need to understand that with your level of disability there is no chance of your getting a job in the private sector, and next to none in the public sector", a statement other recruiters later confirmed.

None of these people seemed 'embarrassed' about my disability, thought to give the recruiters their due they did seem embarrassed at acknowledging the discrimination I faced as a disabled job hunter. And I've talked to far too many other disabled people, who had faced identical contempt for our rights in the workplace, to believe that I am some kind of anomaly (the only anomaly was my ex-employer 's claim to be a national leader on workplace equality).

So here's a novel idea for Disability Confident, let's show the confidence to call it what it is: Unembarrassed, unpunished, institutionalised Disability Discrimination.

And until we challenge it, whether through Disability Confident or a scheme that actually addresses the needs of disabled workers and job seekers, rather than one that tries to drape a veil of embarrassment across the whole, horrible, discriminatory truth, we won't actually do anything to change the reality and allow disabled people to compete on an equal footing in the jobs market.

If 2 million people in any other minority were denied work through discrimination then it would be a scandal in every newspaper and news report in the land, but because it's disabled people being victimised people just try to write it off with an excuse: 'they'd be more trouble', 'they cost more', 'they can't be relied on'. Take those words, now imagine applying them to a worker who is black, or gay, or Muslim. Unpleasant taste in your mouth? That's the taste of discrimination, now imagine the stench of it from our side of the divide.

So long as industry, and Disability Confident, pander to the perception of disability as a problem, it will remain a problem, and the truth we face will remain not 'embarrassment', but open and winked and connived at Disablist Discrimination.

The Problem With Disability Confident

The Minister for Disabled People, blowing his trumpet for Disability Confident, tells us (those of us on Linked-In anyway) that the number of disabled people in work is up 238,000 year on year, that's good. Not mentioning that the number of disabled people who are economically inactive also rose, up 49,000, or that the number of disabled people who are unemployed only fell by 73,000, that doesn't inspire confidence, disability or otherwise. In fact if we assume those extra economically inactive disabled people were previously unemployed, then the overall change in non-working disabled people is barely 24,000. The disability employment gap, between number of employed disabled people and what it would be if disabled people were employed at the same rate as non-disabled is about 2 million, Even if we accept the minister's 238,000 figure, that means we need 8 years of similar progress to eliminate the deficit. If it's the fall in unemployed and economically inactive we should really be looking at, because of disabled people being squeezed out of the benefit system (I'm one) then we're actually looking at more like 80 years before equality. I don't know about other people, but I'm really not prepared to wait that long.

The problem with Disability Confident is that it isn't actually confident about disability. If we want equality in the workplace then we need employers to perceive disability as normal, but Disability Confident, and indeed all DWP disability initiatives, are heavily based around inspiration porn (the portrayal of disabled people as somehow 'inspiring', which is uniformly loathed by disabled people), this isn't normalising perceptions of disability, it's actively denormalising perceptions, and trotting out Paralympians at Disability Confident events (or war veterans like Simon Weston) simply serves to further denormalise expectations of us. Beyond that it's clear that Disability Confident perceives disability as a 'problem' that needs to be explained away to employers. If you pander to the perception of disability as a problem, then it will remain a problem.

What has been clear from the outset is that Disability Confidence lacks the confidence to challenge established views of disability, that it does not want to confront employers over workplace disablism, the reality so many of us face in our careers, the reality that ends careers (mine is one), or prevents them from ever starting. When Disability Confident says 'look at how much longer disabled people remain in post' and tries to sell that as a positive attribute, then how many of us stop to think, to realise that disabled people like me stay in post longer because our careers are held back, because we fear being unable to find another post, because we can't find employers willing to take us on. Staying in post longer isn't a virtue to sell us by, it's a symptom of the discrimination we face.

Ultimately Disability Confident lacks ambition, or is that aspiration? It has targeted the low-hanging fruit, employers who are already willing to employ disabled people, but just aren't very good at it. I had an employer tell me the other day that disabled people campaigning for equal employment rights were 'a cancer', that he would only employ disabled people if he could pay them a lower rate, and that he would rather relocate abroad than obey the Equality Act. You may label him an exception, but it was a manager saying much the same who brought my career to a halt, and I've met an awful lot of disabled people with similar experiences. If Disability Confident truly wants to make a difference, then it is going to have to challenge this sort of ground-in, embittered disability discrimination in employment, because, until it does, disabled people's CVs will keep on ending up in the bin.

Wheelchair Services - the Current Intolerable Situation

So I've been working on a larger piece about my experiences of being a new wheelchair user, and that necessarily includes talking about the problems I have had with Wheelchair Services, but the issues with Wheelchair Services are really national ones and I owe it to myself to address those too.

My Own Experience

Here is a quick summary of my own experience:

My initial application for a wheelchair assessment in September 2014 was immediately refused, there was no response to my second application for an assessment in December 2014 until I got a call from a contractor in early February 2015 saying 'Can we deliver a chair tomorrow?' - in other words I have now got a chair but I still haven't had an assessment.

The chair delivered is a heavy folding design, despite my noting in the application and at length in the covering letter that I have Hypermobility Syndrome, particular issues with seating, and problems with my shoulders, and really needed to talk about postural support. The lack of rigidity is so bad I have actually partially dislocated a hip when the chair flexed under me as I crossed a kerb-cut. On top of that the chair's wheels aren't quick-release while the footplates were held on with cotter-pins - Wheelchair Services seem to be adamant if you want to get it into a car you should lift the whole 20Kg at once, or not at all (and never mind the whole disabled thing).

There was no training provision at all - the guy who delivered it was in and out the house in 10 minutes, most of that adjusting the footplates to the right height - never mind that crossing raised kerbs can easily become a safety issue - I've already flipped the chair at least twice while working out how to do it, in both cases that involved me being ejected ass over teakettle out the back, in the second case directly into a door post - a wheelchair using friend, with an identical disability to me, suggests that the set-up of the chair is partially responsible. I've done Quality Assurance work, if I came across a situation like this in my professional capacity I would have had to advise the organisation responsible that by failing to provide even basic training they potentially had a serious legal liability exposure if users injure themselves.

Nor was there any follow-up. I've been having a lot of hospital appointments lately for various reasons and after every one I'm immediately pestered for follow-up: was the service good, was I seen on time and so on. After Wheelchair Services, nothing. Of course I've still not actually talked to anyone at Wheelchair Services to have an opinion of them.

The Nationwide Situation

There are 1.2 million wheelchair users nationwide, two thirds of those rely on a chair for frequent use. The core issue is that Wheelchair Services nationwide are run at a fraction of the budget they need, and with a less than adequate level of service.  There are some points that seem true nationally:

• It's a Post Code lottery, the service you receive will be heavily dependent on which NHS Trust/CCG you fall within.
• Unless you fight, you will be fobbed off with a cheap, low-end chair that may not be suitable.
• Similarly a wheelchair cushion is likely to be thin and cheap, if one is provided at all. Non-wheelchair users don't appreciate how vital a cushion is to a wheelchair user, if you develop a pressure sore it may mean up to a year in bed, in the worst instances it can kill. The NHS say approximately 50% of wheelchair users will get a pressure sore at some point in their life, at potentially massive cost, and then provide the cheapest cushions they can find.
• You will frequently be told the cheap, low-end chair is a 'lightweight' chair, this is a blatant lie. The chair I was supplied with (Sunrise Medical Lomax Uni 8) weighs 19Kg (probably nearer 20Kg given it was supplied with solid tyres), this is even worse than the 15Kg Action 3 or 4 most people predicted I'd get. A true lightweight chair can weigh as little as 6Kg, 4Kg if you pop-off the quick-release wheels. 
• If you can stand, even if you can't walk, a very large proportion of Wheelchair Services departments will not consider you for an electric wheelchair, even if you are physically unable to propel a manual chair.
• The physical dimensions of your house will frequently be used to deny you an electric wheelchair, even if you actually need it for outdoors use, not indoors. I've even heard of one Wheelchair Services department that redefined what constituted a house to only include certain rooms.

Many people will have heard of the charity Whizzkids, which exists to supply disabled children with appropriate wheelchairs; rather fewer will have thought through what the existence of Whizzkids implies - a less than adequate supply of wheelchairs for disabled kids from Wheelchair Services. And carrying on from that, the question of what happens to those disabled kids when they grow up to be disabled adults.

I have heard a string of ludicrous stories about Wheelchair Services from wheelchair using friends, the worst tend to be from those who need powerchairs, but have some limited ability to stand, or live in a house which Wheelchair Services deem unsuitable, as Wheelchair Services tie themselves in knots to justify refusing them the only chair that might be suitable, but in the end it is difficult to beat the friend who was told the only cushion Wheelchair Services would provide was a thin 18x18" one, even though the seat on their chair is 15x17".

Waiting times for assessment are another issue. I would comment on my own experience, but that would presume I had actually been offered an assessment! I have been told in relation to a family member that the waiting time for an assessment in Wear, Tees and Esk Valley NHS Trust is a whole year. The NHS admit that, across the country, getting a chair from Wheelchair Services takes a full year for 15% of service users, but for just the assessment to take a year suggests a substantially longer wait for delivery in the Dales.

Fiddling While Rome Burns

There are attempts to improve the service underway, however seeing as attempts to improve Wheelchair Services have been nearly constantly underway since 1986, with no demonstrable effect, we probably shouldn't hold out much hope. According to this BBC piece NHS England says that since last year it has been working towards three targets:

• improving the data held on wheelchair provision,
• piloting a new way of paying for them,
• providing support and resources to local commissioners

In a statement it says: "None of these areas are 'quick fixes' and each requires extensive testing and engagement to ensure maximum impact and success."

I'm not surprised none of them are a quick fix as none of them actually address the customer experience or the chair provided! The phrase that unavoidably comes to mind is fiddling while Rome burns.

And that seems to be an optimistic interpretation given the opinion of one of the disabled people asked to be involved who states of his experience "Service users are generally treated and given as much respect as a piece of dog muck."

National Wheelchair Leadership Alliance

The NHS have also set up a National Wheelchair Leadership Alliance as part of the ongoing initiative, which is chaired by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. I'm encouraged that their terms of reference acknowledge "the current intolerable situation", and are supposed to lead to a campaign called 'Right Chair, Right Time, Right Now', but I can't help noting that there really isn't an explicit point of making the system more responsive to service users, ensuring that the range of chairs supplied is adequate (I'd really like to see a move to true lightweight 'active user' chairs as the default provision), and that appropriate training is supplied. The Alliance is supposed to produce a one page charter, but Baroness Grey-Thompson herself admits she can't see why it is taking so long, while Bert Massie (former chair of the Disability Rights Commission amongst other stuff), who is working on a related (but non-NHS) initiative around disability equipment provision in general is far more negative, noting “I think there is something very distasteful about this. I can’t work out what is going wrong. I can’t work out why it takes nearly a year to write a charter.” Concerns have also been raised about the influence of Whizzkidz in all of this as the charity is positioning itself as an adviser on wheelchair services in at least a dozen NHS trusts, while it's chief exec is pro-Conservative to the point of appearing in the Tory Manifesto (which earned the charity a slapped wrist from the Charity Commission for breaching rules on political endorsement).

It's probably too early to tell if the initiative will result in any real change, I trust Baroness Grey-Thompson to work for that, her ability to shift the attitudes of the entire NHS I'm not so sure of. But in the end for once we can leave the last words to the NHS, and trust (and hope) they won't allow the continuation of the current intolerable situation.

None So Blind as Those Who Refuse to See Disability

Regular readers will know I'm not a fan of Disability Confident, the DWP-run government scheme that tries to address the 2 million disabled people who should be in work, but are denied jobs by institutional discrimination in recruitment and the workplace, by desperately claiming that employers are just a little awkward about disability, not actively discriminatory.

One of Disability Confident's slogans is 'See the Person, not the disability' (a variation on the widely used, and equally problematical, 'See the ability, not the disability'), which is problematical at any time, but even more so when we're dealing with entrenched institutional discrimination, where it becomes an invitation to ignore everything that is wrong and needs to change. A recent Twitter exchange with a supposedly pro-disability charity got me thinking about this.

<Redacted> Diversity @<Redacted>Diversity
Remember to see the person and NOT the disability. #disabilityconfident 

David Gillon @WTBDavidG 

@RedactedDiversity Remember to see the person, AND the disability, or you deny a huge part of us. That's #disabilityconfident 

<Redacted>Diversity @<Redacted>Diversity 

@WTBDavidG of course that goes without saying.

Then why say the exact opposite?

How do you make needed adjustments unless you SEE my disability?

How do you recognise when your standard procedures disadvantage disabled people unless you SEE our disability?

How do you recognise disabled people are being discriminated against unless you SEE our disability

How do you recognise your HR department selectively binning any application mentioning disability unless you SEE our disability?

 

How do you recognise managers who bully disabled staff unless you SEE our Disability?

How do you recognise when access or attitude makes disabled customers go elsewhere unless you SEE our disability?

Ultimately, how do you meet your legal obligations to your disabled staff and customers unless you SEE our disability?

And if so much of our equality depends on SEEING disability, then ask yourself why Disability Confident is so keen you close your eyes to it? Which approach is generally regarded in management circles as the more mature and professional? Discussing an issue such as disability before it becomes critical to your success and reputation, or pretending it doesn't exist? A five-year-old with fingers in ears chanting 'Nyah, nyah, nyah, I can't hear you!' is not perhaps the image of management you might best wish to cultivate. 

When Disability Confident urges you NOT to SEE our Disability, it couldn't get it more wrong, or be less disability confident.

Worldcon: The Business of Writing

One of the deciding factors in my going to Worldcon (beyond the whole actually being able to get there thing), was my decision a few months back that I needed to get serious about my writing. With 150,000 words written in the last three months, a first draft novel sitting maturing on the shelf and several other projects underway, it was clearly more than time to start getting professional advice. So when it came to picking panels to attend, the choice was almost universally related to my writing needs, and fell into three groups: Young Adult Fiction, as one of my projects is clearly YA, but it's not an area I've been extensively exposed to recently; Diversity, as I'm clearly a diverse author writing diverse fiction (I'm disabled, and my writing tends to reflect that); and the pure Business of Writing.

I took a bunch of notes, though choosing to use my tablet without its keyboard wasn't ideal - it insisted on trying to spellcheck anything it didn't recognise as it was entered, which it doesn't do when used with the keyboard, and that drastically reduced my notetaking - particularly as my lousy coordination combined with needing a new pair of glasses meant I was hitting the wrong key on the screen more often than not. I'd have taken a whole lot more notes given the option, and next time I know to use the keyboard. This piece expands on those notes I did manage to take and hopefully it will be helpful to people who couldn't be there as well as being a vehicle for organising my own thoughts. As I was primarily focused on logging ideas, and fighting a word-processor that barfed over any name not in spellcheck, a lot of this is unfortunately going to be unattributed points, and quotes shouldn't be assumed to be verbatim. I wish I'd been able to get people's names tagged to points, it feels slightly disrespectful not to have them identified, but I'm stuck with my notes and my memory, so apologies to anyone whose points I'm using without appropriate attribution, and especially to anyone whose points I've mangled.

Finding An Agent

Betsy Mitchell (m), 

Jacey Bedford, 

Joshua Bilmes, 

Ian Drury, 

John Jarrold

A great query letter is all you need! Write a great manuscript and the rest doesn't matter! Network at conventions and you're in good shape! These nuggets of advice and dozens like them float around the writersphere as gospel. How many of these have a ring of truth? What is the secret to finding an agent? And what does an agent do once you have one? Our agents will decrypt the process.

The Finding an Agent panel featured a stellar line-up of editors, and when asked the question whether people in the room were looking for an agent, pretty much everyone in the room held up their hand, which made for a very focused session.

When it comes to genre publishing, John Jarrold has pretty much done it all, and listening to him speak you could understand why. If he is remotely as forceful in his opinions of why a book should be published as he is in saying what he expects from a prospective writer, then I want him in my corner! Joshua Bilmes of JABberwocky was more soft-spoken, but made a whole bunch of interesting points. Ian Drury seemed the quintessential agent's agent, everything about him confirming that his agency has been doing this for over a century, and knows the business inside out. Betsy Mitchell kept everyone in order as moderator, while Jacey Bedford was stuck with being the token writer on a panel of agents.

JJ: told us he wants a submission to "Wow me." And that when you're done with that first draft, put it away for at least a month before you even think of editing it.

JB: said he wants writers to 'Be interesting as a person'. As agents are effectively choosing workmates, I guess that makes an awful lot of sense.

It was emphasised that you need to be willing to work with the agent and chop entire characters and chapters if that is what they think the work needs. (And if you aren't willing to work with the agent, why do you really want one?)

The Absolute Write Water Cooler forum was flagged up as a useful resource - it's an online community of writers, editors and agents.

Research, research, research was emphasised in selecting agents to make a pitch to - there's little point in pitching a YA fantasy to someone who only handles factual books. Make appropriate choices.

A particularly interesting suggestion (from John Jarrold if memory serves) was to go and check the Acknowledgements in recent works. Not only does this identify agents working in the field, but it lets you see who they're handling and areas where they work.

Building on that last point, referencing what you found in Acknowledgements in your query letter will then help establish that you have done the research and have the genre background - but that doesn't mean you can make it longer than a single page!

It was heavily emphasized that you should individualise queries, and the need to get the agents name right was equally heavily emphasised - which suggests a lot of people are falling at this most basic of hurdles. A less obvious point was to tell the agent how many other agents the pitch is going to in this round. John Jarrold suggested half a dozen agents at a time is an appropriate number.

If an agent asks for exclusive submission then it was agreed that the writer should expect, and if need be demand, quicker turnaround.

There was pretty much unanimous agreement that agents should reply to a pitch, even if just to say 'no thanks', though it was clear that there are agents out there who don't.

Don't resubmit a reworked manuscript to an agent unless they explicitly say they want you to resubmit it given certain changes.

It was emphasised by several people that the industry is very subjective, agents will reject stuff others are desperate to represent, and rejection doesn't necessarily mean the story doesn't work.

Even if you're trying to market a book, you should always keep writing something new, though one suggestion was that you probably shouldn't write a sequel until the first volume is sold.

JJ: It took Iain Banks 14 years and six novels to sell his first novel.

JB: Younger/junior agents may be more willing to take a chance on an author, but eventually become more selective as they learn what will sell.

JJ:  70 per cent of the market is still print, and while epublishing is growing, self-publishing is a turn-off to agents.

Less obvious advantages of agents are that they know the business, and can cover you versus business errors, because they know the mistakes publishers make. Ian Drury noted he will sit down with a calculator and check what sales should translate to in royalties, and that in doing this he has caught errors being made by publishers in payments to his authors. Agents also provide access to foreign markets , which can add up to be multiples of the original deal, and can save you rights to sell elsewhere that you might not get if you try to deal directly with a publisher. John Jarrold noted that while publishers have standard contracts that will be offered by default, they will often have customised contracts with individual agents.

Some agents don't get heavily involved in the editing process, others do and are better for it.

JJ: sees 30 books a week, but only takes on 4 authors a year

If an agent wants exclusivity on a manuscript then three weeks is about appropriate.

Even if an agent wants to take on your work, it was suggested that you need to be sure that you want to work with them. The Writer's Market has a list of questions for agents, take a look at it and pick the ones that are most appropriate to your needs - but don't demand the agent answer all 20 of them.

We were reminded that agents are facing the same issues in dealing with publishers that writers can face in getting and dealing with agents. It can be 18 months for an agent to get a reply to a pitch from a publisher, and that reply can be a sale.

It's about a career, think about your long term strategy. In trying to develop our careers we can write all over different genres, but only until we're dealing with agent and publishers, at that point we will be locked in by the market.

Asked how many authors they represented, John Jarrold said 40, Ian Drury 34, while Joshua Bilmes said JABberwocky represents about 50 spread over four staff.

You can look for an agent and send publishers submissions in parallels.

In answer to a question I asked - how can we tell where the market is going, for instance the comment that Urban Fantasy is oversubscribed and contracting, when we're only seeing decisions 18 months to two years after the publishers have made them when the books appear on the shelves - John Jarrold suggested analysing publishers' release listings specifically for books by new authors in order to determine market directions.

Many publishers no longer have slush piles and will only take agented manuscripts. This is pretty much across the board for the major UK houses, though some US publishers will still buy from the slush pile.

Master of Dark Arts: an insight into editing for writers

Stephen Jones, 

Lynda Rucker, 

Stephen Jones is interviewed by Lynda E. Rucker about editing short dark fiction, providing insight for new and current writers. Pointers and pitfalls will both be covered, as well as how the writer/editor relationship works, and what professional writers and editors should expect from each other.

Unlike the other sessions this was set up as a one on one interview, with Stephen Jones being interviewed by fellow writer Lynda Rucker. As a result all comments below are by Stephen Jones. The discussion opened with SJ discussing his career before moving on to talk about the details of publishing and being an author and an anthology editor.

You're not published until someone else publishes you!

It may no longer be possible to have a career as a writer, or at least as only a writer - so don't give up the day job when you make your first sale!

Think of your long term career goals. SJ noted in the opening discussion of his career that his initial goals had been to be published author, to be a published cover artist, and to be an award winner, all within his twenties - which he achieved.

Publishers no longer build author careers in the way they once did.

There's not a lot of money in writing.

Authors used to get a percentage of the cover price, they now get a percentage of what the publishers receive from the bookseller.

The lead time for a book is at least 7 months, mostly you're selling projects two years ahead

In constructing a story:

• What do you want to achieve with the story?
• Have an ending in mind.
• Always a compromise (unfortunately I didn't note down what it is a compromise between, apologies)
• Need subtext - Horror (and other genres) should reflect society around us. SJ says he isn't seeing a societal subtext in recent stories. Your aims should be 1. Entertainment, 2. subtext.
• Your target audience is a 13yo who doesn't read books and who you want to change to an active reader
  
  

Always have a professional goal

You need to read in the genre.

You also need to read outside the genre, we're not a ghetto.

When you're starting out, you don't need an agent - it isn't a difficult job to get one if you have a deal.

Short stories are a great calling card.

If you have a chance, don't be afraid to pitch in the bar, but buy them a drink!

Follow Locus Online.

Make it as easy as possible for editors and agents - get spellings and punctuation right.

Always have an interesting title

Always have a hook in the opening, and then another hook...

Get the best cover you can.

What Does an Editor Do?

Ginjer Buchanan, 

Lee Harris, 

Abigail Nathan, 

Steve Saffel, 

Jane Johnson

Publishing is like Rubik's Cube, only with more words and less logic. What exactly goes on in one of these publishing houses? Do editors do more than edit? How do sales and marketing interact with editorial? This panel will take a look into the hallways of publishing, pulling back the curtain to reveal the mysterious Oz that controls all the books. Is it a grand mysterious wizard behind there or just a bunch of word gerbils spinning their hamster wheels like the rest of us?

My notes for the editors' session somehow ended up split into two sections, with other stuff in between, I think I've gotten everything put back together as should be, but it's just possible something may have slipped in from another session. On the other hand everything seems relevant.

The session was helmed by Ginjer Buchanan, fresh from winning the Hugo for Best Editor - Long Form. Alongside her were Jane Johnson Publishing Director at Harper Collins, Lee Harris, who heads the new novella imprint at Tor.Com and is the former Senior Editor for Angry Robot (and was a 2014 Hugo nominee for Best Editor - Long Form), Abigail Nathan, who is a British freelance editor now operating out of Australia, and Steve Staffel, senior acquiring editor with Titan Books.

There was a discussion of the decisions in buying a book, estimating sales, involving production and sales staff, etc. Unfortunately my notes here are unintelligible, so I'm stuck with just the broadest brush of memory and no detail. Mea culpa!

Margin: Publishers used to aim for 53%. That's a dream nowadays.

You can have a massive ad campaign and associated reviews in the press all ready to roll for a book you're convinced will be massively successful and then the Queen Mum dies and your publicity campaign crashes and burns.

Editors/Publishers are thinking a year and a half ahead, they are already setting their 2016 releases, 2017 for series.

Bestsellers: the numbers required to make a bestseller list are very variable and depend on factors such whether the latest Pratchett is in the list. There is a big fall off in numbers between the Sunday Times number 3 and number 10.

The best-selling fantasy book last year was George RR Martin's latest Game of Thrones and sold 166k copies, the bestselling non-genre book sold 600k copies. The best-selling SF book sold 51k copies. ISTR it was noted in one panel, probably here, that Amazon (and other e-publishers?) won't release their sales figures, so these figures are print only, without e-publishing.

Epic fantasy is 43% of the market

For British publishers, the Commonwealth market is important, Australia and New Zealand represent up to a third of sales.

A lot of authors have day jobs....

E-books are now 40% of market, probably more for SF/F

Of books bought from Amazon for under a pound, 82% are never read further than page 10.

Lee Harris talked a little about Tor's new novella line, which he had literally just taken charge of, they are looking for work in the 17.5 to 45k word range and seriously looking at serialization.

It was noted (admitted!) that not all editors are good copy-editors

Editing was defined as a three pass process.

• Global edit pass - the acquiring editor will talk about the plot and characterization, so looking at structural changes rather than grammatical ones.
• Line edit - this looks at consistency, overuse of particular words, and may make minor textual adjustments
• Copy-editors - this is a detailed pass looking at grammar, spelling, continuity

In addition to Acquiring and Copy Editors, big houses may also have a Managing Editor who oversees and passes stuff around between the staff.

Abigail Nathan noted that copy-editors can end up doing a lot of fact checking, including physically going to places. Google Streetview was mentioned as something very useful for checking landscape/environment facts, which made me smile as I've been using it in my own writing for a while.

When we say 'Editors' we generally mean acquiring editors

We were pointed at Stephen King's Misery as a masterclass in characterization

Junior editorial staff are building a rep, so possibly a more accessible target. At the bigger US publishers they often have to look at the slush while senior staff often only take agented manuscripts.

The agent relationship is very intimate, the agent needs to be the right person for you. Editors can also be focused on being the right person with respect to the author.

Lee Harris commented that Angry Robot have an annual 30 day submission window for unagented manuscripts, last time they got 991 novel submissions

Editors need passion, they frequently spend all day project managing and often only get to work on manuscripts after hours.

End Notes

There were other business of writing panels, but there were times I had solid arguments as to why I should be in eight different panels at once (I'm not exaggerating, though mostly it was only three or four) and it was just impossible to get to more than a fraction of the panels I wanted to attend, particularly when I was trying to satisfy three different strands of interest. I found the three panels I did get to tremendously valuable and I hope these notes will be similarly useful for people who couldn't be there. I've linked each participant to their bio page on the LonCon3 website and if you're at all interested in becoming a writer then I'd strongly suggest taking a run through their websites and following those of them who are on Twitter.