Disabled Gardening

I agree, something descriptive like 'Disabled Gardening' or 'Gardening with a Disability', nothing worse than prettying something up to read non descript. Although 'Gardener's question time with Mr O'Leg Mc'No-Leg' , would be a triumph for PC liberation.:gnthb:

 

I dont agree (no surprise there then) and I dont think anyone is actually getting the point here, your categorizing people into an area...I dont see an able bodied people section anywhere here, so why have a disabled section. Sure, I'm right behind the idea and can and will contribute what I know and have learned about gardening for the less mobile in any new section, but why label it and segregate people into one area? People who through no fault of their own are already segregated, ignored and generally forgotten about. Can a disabled person not post in the edible or general section here?

Having "disabled" in the forum description wont bring people flooding in or higher ranking on google...the word is used once! However, if someone starts a topic in the new section and says.."I'm disabled and due to my dsiability I cant...", that would score much higher on google, and a succession of topics such as that would increase that score.

If there is a new forum area and disabled is mentioned in the forum title or description then can we have forum areas for the short sighted, or the colour blind too. Maybe even an "Hal-al" section too...

The point would be brought over well enough with a "gardening made easier" section, and a byline or description such as or similar to "Gardening help for the less mobile or infirm"

But please, lose the disabled lable..its not necessary or beneficial at all. Its not prettying it up at all, its accepting disabled people into normal society...somewhere they have for many years been excluded from.

Steve...

 

"our categorizing people into an area"

I can understand, and deplore the fact, that someone in a wheelchair will encounter people who are "unhelpful" in the street.

I don't think that is the case in a forum where there is no face-to-face encounter (just my view though, I have no evidence to back that up).

I just can't see stigma being attached by asking a question in a forum called "Disabled Gardening" or indeed someone asking the question, or answering it, being similarly treated. Any more than someone asking a question with the word "Disabled" in the subject.

Come to think of it, there are always people who will get heated and overstep the mark in any forum, sooner or later. The Mods step in and sort things out. That seems, to me, like a suitable solution to any form of prejudice.

I don't agree with your view on Google ranking not benefiting from a Forum name including the word "Disabled". The word may only be used once, but the links within the site, right from the home page, contain the forum name as well as the breadcrumb link (the "back" links at the top of each post), and Google will give extra weighting because of that (but improving the search-engineering of sites is a whole lucrative industry and Google doesn't publish anything much about how their systems work! so I'm only going on what experiences I have in the web engineering industry, I make no cast-iron promises )

"Gardening help for the less mobile or infirm"

FWIW If I became disabled tomorrow I cannot imagine for one moment that I would think to search for obscure terms like "less mobile".

But I speak as someone able-bodied and with an able-bodied partner, so I clearly cannot speak for someone with disability. Nevertheless I am astounded, and deeply saddened, at how you describe that people posting in a forum would feel based solely on the labelling of the forum :(

 

Everyone...

It has been deemed a useful suggestion and a new Sub-forum will be created at some point in the near future. As with all forums use what is useful, ignore what is not.

In terms of the name, as I understand it this has yet will be decided. However, I see no problem with the motive/name of its creation being to tackle gardening problems arising from some sort of restraint/constraint or disability beit certified, registered or otherwise.

Within GC we could lump lots of sub forums together, but in the interests of meeting users requests and highlighting a forum of particular usefulness it's nice to separate out, even if this does cause a degree of repetition or overlap.

Please take a chill pill peeps, I am father to a disabled child and have a brother in law with down syndrome. I am more than familiar with the hilarity and frustration of labeling, assumption, 3rd party offense taking etc etc etc etc. None of that matters, the important thing is that we will have created a reference point for gardening tips aimed at assisting the disabled. I hope Pete finds it useful and I hope we can all contribute and benefit from it.

Thank you:gnthb:

 

Mostly that does not happen, help is readily available almost everywhere and by everyone, which is great..to a point as it becomes over helpful...yes thats right Over helpful...remember I said disabled folk just want to be treated as normal as possible. If we where in your garden and you wanted to lift a sack up somewhere, you'd say "Steve, can you help me with this" You ask for help rather than being pestered do you want any.

Kristen, I'm doing my best to explain it to you, eiother my words are not written correctly or something else. You strike me as the kind of guy who would give up his seat for an elderly lady on a bus...like most people would..its just a common decency and one that most of us where brought up to do as the right thing. Carparks: no one really thinks about parking a little stroll away from their destination, but will park as close as possible to where they are going, which is fine. But now its necessary for carpark spaces to be "labeled" for disabled people to ensure they can park within easy reach of things...a label! I wish it was not needed and common decency would make people think. "I'll park a little further away in case someone who struggles with mobilty needs that space"

Even without a face to face encounter, that person is still labeled and therefore restricted to one area, they are disabled by ill health of some sort, but wish to remain as normal as possible. Sheperding disabled people into one area is indeed a mild form of segregation that could be considered discriminatory...which is a whole new can of worms.

Then please "ggogle" "disabled" and see the results...all 146,000,000 of them...thats 146 million to save you counting zeros...appearing that many times on the internet would score very very low page rank wise, so low its insignificant and no extra wieghting at all...

Trust me on this one, if your mobility was affecting you would be searching for that or similar terms. And as such when I used those words I did say "such as or similar" it was not a definitive or final statement.

Not solely at all, its the whole thing Kristen, the labeling, segregation and not being fully aware of what disabled people feel or think.
I cannot and would not dream of speaking for all disabled people but can and will speak out for those who I know and whose thoughts I know of. Let them be normal people, dont shove them into a corner, if they have mobilty issues let them voice them in a suitable area "Gardening made easier" or some such. Leave the "disabled" tag for the disabled person to mention if they wish to...its a choice thing.

Steve...

 

"Then please "ggogle" "disabled" and see the results...all 146,000,000 of them"

You'll need to give me a little more credit than that then!

I hadn't tried any research using Google, for this thread, until now, so I thought about what I might be likely to Google and I had a go. Here are my results:

I started with "disabled gardening forum" and restricted it to the UK. 69,500 hits, and this thread is the first in the list - so, so far, we've done a good job of publicising this site!

The results of that search were mostly what I considered to be useful, in this context. It turned up councils and trusts that assist disabled people (which was heartening to find), and useful sites like Carry On Gardening, Ableize, Gardening for Disabled Trust and so on. Not surprisingly, given the search terms I used, these all have the word "Disabled" featured prominently on their page.

Similarly I tried "Gardening help for the less mobile". Very few of the results appeared helpful / relevant. Unless I missed anything the first useful link was number 25 which had garden tools. There were a few links higher up that offered assistance to folk visting gardens, but that wasn't really what I was looking for.

Simarly "Gardening mobility forum", which I thought might be better targetted, didn't turn up much that was relevant, and "Gardening infirm forum"

I would like to run some more tests, but I'm tight for time just now. I'll report back if I have a breakthrough with other search terms.

 

Then my insight into google, keywords and the necessity for "disabled" in the forum description are quite correct as "disabled" does not appear to be in this forums description..but in the topic itself...which seemingly is more than adequate for top place on google. So leave the disabled label out and leave the choice open to members whether or no they decide to say disabled or not.

Thanks for that.

Steve...

 

Carparks: no one really thinks about parking a little stroll away from their destination, but will park as close as possible to where they are going, which is fine. But now its necessary for carpark spaces to be "labeled" for disabled people to ensure they can park within easy reach of things...a label! I wish it was not needed and common decency would make people think. "I'll park a little further away in case someone who struggles with mobilty needs that space"

Even without a face to face encounter, that person is still labeled and therefore restricted to one area, they are disabled by ill health of some sort, but wish to remain as normal as possible. Sheperding disabled people into one area is indeed a mild form of segregation that could be considered discriminatory...which is a whole new can of worms.



Hi Steve, just found this thread and find it interesting and as an Aunt to The Beautifull 11 year old Carly who has Celebral Palsy (not in a Wheelchair) I would NEVER Label her Disabled, She's just different.... But Im wondering about the above statement about Parking, What is the Alternative? because Carly's Mum and Dad are Happy and relieved that they can park a few yards from wherever they need to go with Her whatever the Sign's say...Dee...

 

"which seemingly is more than adequate for top place on google"

Sadly not (i.e. word in topic alone). The number of times that the word has been used in this thread, and the varied nature of the prose (i.e. as compared to just repeating the word over-and-over hoping to fool Google) is what will have achieved top-rank.

Top-rank is a difficult target, of course. What most companies strive for is first-page, so that prospective "customers" see their site before they get bored scrolling down, and paging though the list.

 

Exavtly, discussing it in a topic raises its rank...finally we agree. One word in topic description does nothing more than label...discussing does the whole thing adequately.

So to re-cap, having a forum with Gradening made easier and discussing disabled gardening within it will see GC listed on google, thereby bringing those who are interested in that...to here where they can receive help and assistaance..without being labeled or segregated into an area and having the freedom of the whole of Gardeners Corner...everyones a winner.

Steve...

Steve...

 

Sorted?
I do hope so
robert

 

Maybe we could have a poll on the name???

I don't mind being called disabled in fact I seem to have to fight to get my illness recognised as disabled so I can get access to the extras I'm entitled to to make my life more liveable. Anything that helps me live as normal life as I can is welcomed and I hope i pick up some more tips

 

One person, one vote, no arguments :gnthb::D