'Parliament building inaccessible to me,' MP says

"Tidball was born with a congenital disability, which affects all four limbs. She has foreshortened arms and legs, with one digit on each hand. When she was a child she missed three years of school because of the critical surgeries she needed. The disability campaigner was elected as Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire last July, and says that while getting into politics is difficult, getting around the Houses of Parliament is hard when you have a disability."

"It is not long before we reach a heavy wooden door with one of the round, smooth door handles. "Within about five months of being here, I had about six conversations with senior people about door handles," she tells me. "And I said if I have to have another conversation about why we need to make the door handles more accessible I will chain myself to them - rather irreverently I might say.""

"A Parliament spokesperson says work is taking place to upgrade access for disabled people and the House of Commons Modernisation Committee is currently looking at how to improve things. But Tidball says there is a long way to go. "Twenty-two per cent of the voting age population are disabled," she says. "We absolutely need to make sure that the composition of Parliament reflects those numbers. It makes our politics much more rich.""

Marie Tidball was born with a congenital disability affecting all four limbs, with foreshortened arms and legs and one digit on each hand. Critical childhood surgeries caused her to miss three years of school. Tidball was elected as Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge and encounters daily accessibility barriers within the Houses of Parliament. Heavy doors, inaccessible handles and distant accessible toilets complicate movement between rooms and committee spaces. Some upgrade work and committee reviews are under way, but significant practical changes are still needed to ensure parliamentary representation reflects the proportion of disabled people in the population.

Read at www.bbc.com