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Treatment of disabled fans at TCS


Guest Devlin

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Guest Devlin

I NEVER want to witness the day that a **** sits in the home section of our stadium.....

Ha ha - had to laugh at this, thinking of the number of times this '****' has sat in the home end at your stadium due to the nature of my work. Can't say I've ever been impressed by a Caley performance there but hey ho! Certainly makes me thankful I'm a County fan instead :D

Over and out!

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How the feck can you see the game Devlin...no wonder you've never seen ICT play well - yer back is turned so you can watch proper non tink supporters in your nice yellow jacket.

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I agree with Mantis and others that the inner Moray Firth area can only support one SPL club.

Given that ICT, albiet with a fair bit of good fortune, got there first, the next few seasons may be a struggle for county both in sporting terms and financially.

I have some sympathy for them but am glad that it is them in that position and not us.

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Guest Devlin

How the feck can you see the game Devlin...no wonder you've never seen ICT play well - yer back is turned so you can watch proper non tink supporters in your nice yellow jacket.

A steward? Think not. :lol:

Only reason I can't see the game is due to you lot of knuckle-draggers standing in front of the disabled section.

The treatment of such fans by other 'fans' at your ground is the reason I'm glad I'm a Caley fan RiG, glad you find it hilarious. Maybe you would like to spend the game tonight where we are, maybe sit in a wheelchair and see how frustrating it is to attend a game at the fabled TCS? Please do come and see me tonight at the game and explain to me why you think this is funny, I'll be delighted to hear it. That goes for all of you.

Call us minks or whatever adolescent ***** you find funny, but we get better looked after at VP. Fact.

Looking forward to the end of a long season of let-downs by your club, arrogance, ignorance and generally being treated like 2nd class humans by yourselves. Give yourselves a round of applause. SPL team, pub league treatment :roll:

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What, so being disabled (but confusing everybody by not making it clear in your earlier rant) entitles you to post a lot of sarcastic tripe? You're as bad as any of the 'adolescents' you're lecturing.

Just for you, here's my favourite ancient joke:

What's the difference between a Ross County fan and a pint of Murphy's?

(hint- one of them isn't bitter) :idea:

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Guest Devlin

Just the kind of response I'd expect really.

No, I'm not disabled myself (obviously forgot how crystal clear I needed to be on here for you Mantis - trying taking off those 'dad-trying-to-be-cool-on-holiday' shades in your avatar when you read) but work in that area and accompany wheelchair users to your games. Therefore I refer to myself and my clients as 'we'.

When I accompany my clients to games, it doesn't matter who I support as I'm there for them in a work capacity. In all honesty, I followed Caley for years until I started taking wheelchair users to games and became so disillusioned by the lack of awareness and the amount of hassle we received from the home support and stewards that I began to follow another team, where the service was much better.

As for the sarcasm, can't blame me for being at the end of my tether after another season of this - I've posted on this board (in it's previous incarnation) politely til I'm blue in the face asking for a little consideration, but it always seems to go in one ear and out the other with the vast majority of you guys (but not ALL to be fair). Your reply epitomises what we have experienced this season sadly and reaffirms why we try and take our custom and support elsewhere as much as possible. If this happened at my club, I'd be unhappy with it. No-one took me up on the offer of chatting about it at the game tonight, strangely.

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Just the kind of response I'd expect really.

Aye, you're a regular mind reader :lol:

Nae offence mate, but a mind reader is what it would take to decipher what your first post was on about. I don't have a scooby about seeing your username in previous incarnations- remember I'm just a senile old dad....

The glasses were just a bit of fun. I'm sure you had some of that yourself once, way back before you came over all pompous :blah:

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The treatment of such fans by other 'fans' at your ground is the reason I'm glad I'm a Caley fan RiG, glad you find it hilarious. Maybe you would like to spend the game tonight where we are, maybe sit in a wheelchair and see how frustrating it is to attend a game at the fabled TCS? Please do come and see me tonight at the game and explain to me why you think this is funny, I'll be delighted to hear it. That goes for all of you.

Make your mind up chief. Either you are glad you are a County fan or you are glad you are an ICT fan. Given that you posted nothing like you have just posted with regards to wheelchairs et al. I can only post about what has been posted before and that was that you said you'd rather be a County fan than an ICT fan - a scenario not many folk would happily admit too as it is clear which club is going places and which one isn't.

No-one took me up on the offer of chatting about it at the game tonight, strangely.

Given that you no one a location of where to meet up with you for said chat I find it hard how you expected anyone to be there! Yeah I'll see you at the TCS for a chat....erm where?

Instead of repeatedly posting your bitter resent towards the club why don't you just come out and explain just why you feel such an intense disliking for ICT. Given the treatment of some disabled ICT fans at other grounds I would be pretty upset if a similar standard of service was being handed out at ICT but if you are just going to post thinly veiled attacks on the club with no real substance to thse claims then no one will take these claims seriously or do anything about them.

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Guest Devlin

Make your mind up chief. Either you are glad you are a County fan or you are glad you are an ICT fan. Given that you posted nothing like you have just posted with regards to wheelchairs et al. I can only post about what has been posted before and that was that you said you'd rather be a County fan than an ICT fan - a scenario not many folk would happily admit too as it is clear which club is going places and which one isn't.

Given that you no one a location of where to meet up with you for said chat I find it hard how you expected anyone to be there! Yeah I'll see you at the TCS for a chat....erm where?

Instead of repeatedly posting your bitter resent towards the club why don't you just come out and explain just why you feel such an intense disliking for ICT. Given the treatment of some disabled ICT fans at other grounds I would be pretty upset if a similar standard of service was being handed out at ICT but if you are just going to post thinly veiled attacks on the club with no real substance to thse claims then no one will take these claims seriously or do anything about them.

My bad, posted I was a Caley fan - some might say a Freudian slip :004: - but it should've said that's why I'm glad I'm NOT a Caley fan, that's what I get for typing fast! :015: For what it's worth, my client is a fanatical Caley fan and due to the nature of his impairments, he is unable to enjoy almost all of the things you and I would take for granted. So going to the football is something he repeatedly looks forward to, his one real pleasure in life and every single time it gets thrown back in his face.

No, I didn't give precise location to where I would be for a chat, BUT I'm banging on about the hassle we have in the section for fans with disabilities every game, and there was obviously no chance of us being anywhere else in the stadium on Wed night so do the maths. Where else would someone accompaning a wheelchair user be? I'm not trying to be sarcastic here. If we could have gone elsewhere in the stadium, we would've done so a LONG time back, therefore negating the need to come on here!

Instead of repeatedly posting your bitter resent towards the club why don't you just come out and explain just why you feel such an intense disliking for ICT. Given the treatment of some disabled ICT fans at other grounds I would be pretty upset if a similar standard of service was being handed out at ICT but if you are just going to post thinly veiled attacks on the club with no real substance to thse claims then no one will take these claims seriously or do anything about them.

Although I mistyped my response to your first point there which you quite rightly picked up on as it looks confusing, it stands corrected. I'm not an ICT fan because of our experiences with them. I bitterly dislike ICT for the treatment we have received the last few seasons. You say you'd be upset if ICT were handing out substandard service, well sorry but they are and have been for a while. I've gone the softly-softly approach and asked people nicely, and with no avail. So maybe I do have to be a ***** just to get some response and going by follow up posts it appears that I AM being taken as a *****. Fair enough, doesn't bother me if it highlights the poor treatment of fans with disabilities. I have spoken to the Club about this on more than one occasion and will continue to do so when I finish my degree in the next fortnight and have more time to follow this up, but it's not their job to make you aware of others and to treat them better with a little more respect. That's personal responsibility. I'm not coming on here to stir things up for no reason just coz it's an ICT board - I don't buy into the whole tinks/minks/dumpdwellers cross-banter.

Ok a few examples of our experiences, just to answer your point RiG:

My client has been called things I don't even care to repeat on here, related to his impairments at more than one game.

He gets stared at like he's from another planet, by kids and adults too. How degrading do you think that feels??

Refused entry to a covered section of the stadium during torrential rain.

We are given a different story regrading tickets almost every week.

I've been spoken to like the scum of the earth by members of Club staff regarding purchasing tickets for him.

I've been told that there were no tickets available for a particular game, when there were. So we missed a game he had his heart set on seeing.

He gets jostled in his chair because supporters would rather step over him on their way to seats / the exit / the queue for the disabled toilets which means he can't use them. Can you comprehend how frightening that must be when you are that vulnerable?

The positioning of the wheelchair section means that even if he can see over the wall, he's at pitch level and it's difficult to see the game for the few seconds between folk walking past.

His view of the game is spoiled for the first 5 to 10 mins of the game as people take their seats. 5 to 10 mins before halftime, people are on the move again. 10 mins before the game ends, people head for the exits and then stop and stare as Caley attack and therefore are standing in their droves at the wall and blocking the view. When I politely ask people to move, I have been verbally abused and even threatened, and told that 'folk like him' should be in a cell and not out in the public.

I could go on and on but really don't feel like I have to, this brief selection of 'favourite' moments should illustrate my point.

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I remember reading this complaint before on the old board from some of our own fans. I think it's bad that the club have done nothing about it in over a year. The bad information about tickets has also been a problem for a lot of fans disabled and fully abled. Outwith the top games we aren't filling the ground so you'd think the club would be doing everything they could to get people in but people are missing games purely through being wrongly informed. I really hope that over the summer the club do something about the way information is given to us, the fans, and they come up with a way where people can go to them with complaints and be dealt with satisfactorily. As for the people that walk in front of the disabled section, PLEASE show some consideration for your fellow fans. Have to say though, nothing could ever annoy me that much that I would become a County fan! :003:

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Guest Sam

Devlin, the confusing aspects to your original posts aside, I think you raise a valid point.

However, I think you could make some of those points in relation to the majority of businesses in Inverness.

I would hate to be "disabled" ... looking round Inverness makes you realise just how difficult life must be. Pavements, heavy doors, steps, not to mention the fact that the bulk of buses still cannot accommodate wheelchair users (though, admittedly, being "disabled" should not be synonymous with a wheelchair). So, assuming someone can make it into Inverness, they can't then move around the city.

Clearly, there is not much that can be done if a property is on a hill... but there is no need for steps or heavy doors at the top of such hills.

Further, the majority of your points relate to fans of ICT and not the club itself. Quite honestly, it is appalling if people are doing as you say, and quite sad to see that people cannot look beyond themselves when passing comments about the perceived "disability" of another. Sadly, people are people, regardless of the environment - just walk through any carpark and see how many people suddenly develop a disability when they realised that they would have to walk 2mins to the shop.

As for the comments in relation to the club, I really am quite disappointed since it really is not hard to spend an extra few minutes trying to help you out.

Whilst not one to generally advocate letters to the Courier etc (when the club are concerned, since a complaint should primarily be formally addressed to the Chief Exec) I really don't see the harm in a letter to the Courier pointing out the pitfalls of being a "disabled" fan at the TCS, and what your fellow fan has to put up with, abuse-wise and inconvenience-wise.

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You make this thread on purpose to have a go. Your on your high horse because you work with the disabled. Yes good job you must have a kind heart, but don't think your some sort of Jesus character that can use it as an excuse to spout some mindless dribble. Now go away and form your own cult or something. :014:

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Devlin. your first post on this thread was not the most clear in relation to the title of the thread so I'm not surprised at some of the responses you got. However, that is no reason for the treatment you and your client appear to have experienced. As a carer you should be aware of the actions you can take if you feel your client is being unfairly treated by this club. Some of your complaints refer to the treatment of your client by individuals. i.e being stared at by children. Sadly that is a fact of life and of the society we live in and not unique to ICT fans. This sort of treatment is a legacy of the days when disabled persons were hidden away from the mainstream community. Thats not to say its right but people need to be educated into being more considerate and that takes time.

As to your complaints against the club. You should be aware that such treatment is illegal under the equal rights act and as such, if you make formal complaint there is a legal obligation for the club to act. One question. If not at pitch level, where could your client be positioned? Anywhere involving stairs could be detrimental if a major incident were to occur. Football stadia are not obliged to provide means of access for less able people to the stands.

Devlin, I admire you for given your time to make this persons life a bit more enjoyable and I can empathise with your situation but I would suggest that, in the first instance, you make official complaint to the clubs managing director and not on a fans forum. If you are abused by individual fans at a game then there are police in the stadium who must act on any complaint.

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Guest Devlin

You make this thread on purpose to have a go. Your on your high horse because you work with the disabled. Yes good job you must have a kind heart, but don't think your some sort of Jesus character that can use it as an excuse to spout some mindless dribble. Now go away and form your own cult or something. :014:

Thanks, the comments of a 16 year old geek wannabe mourning the loss of a talentless rapper thousands of miles away that he's never met before mean so much to me. Are you gonna go and tie a bandana under your squint baseball cap and pop a cap in someone's *** now coz you've lost your homie? I'll bet you pretend you live in Detroit, gangsta :015:

Thanks to everyone now that has posted seriously regarding this issue, it is unfortunate the initial posts coming across wrongly before but, as you can imagine I was at the end of my tether and let emotions get in the way of posting.

I have been in contact before with the Club regarding these issues and once I have finished my degree, I will be taking them up on their offer of meeting. The only reason I brought it on here is because it's a fans forum and a few of the problems relate directly to the fans.

Sam, totally agree that access is a major problem in many businesses in and around Inverness. However, with a major construction company backing your team and building the North and South stands (is that correct, the North and South are behind the goals right?), it would just have taken a little more thought about where to put the wheelchair section instead of just getting the stands up as quick as possible. You are also totally spot on if you are referring to people using disabled parking speaces or the drop-off point. And yes it is sad when people still look at people with disablities as different. I'd actually rather not go to the newspapers with this, as I'd rather sort it internally with the Club and fans. So I'm not simply interested in tarnishing ICT's name.

Sneckfan, thanks for your input. And walking away from Caley was not something I did rashly, so maybe this shows how bad it was. I realise stating that I'm a County fan now and then criticising ICT was a bit like kicking a hornet's nest, but I only wanted to show that at a lower level club with all the well-publicised problems that County have, they are spot-on in terms of service to those less able. Ok, hands up, I went about it the wrong way initially. As I said, the emotional connection got the better of me but there's no way I'm going to make any apologies, given the abuse we have faced.

Alex MacLeod, thanks also for your feedback. Maybe I should've gone to the police regarding the verbal abuse to myself and my client, but to be honest I was too sickened by the comments they made. It might be a thing to do in the future though.

Regarding the pitch level thing, in previous seasons we were allowed into one of the platforms in the main stand where the veiw was fantastic for him. To cut a long story short, one midweek night game this season, the rain was so bad that stewards were encouraging fans in the North stand to move towards the back so they were sheltered. At the front, we weren't covered and when I moved my client to the snack bar area at the back of the main stand and asked if we could perhaps move up to that platform it took 35 minutes and 4 changes of story to eventually be told we couldn't get up there as there was no lift, after the steward telling us initially that the lift wasn't working. Had this lift been removed during this time as the game was going on?? I think the answer might be to have the wheelchair section paralell to one of the touchlines, like in a lot of Premiership grounds or to have a raised platform simialr to the TV thing on the far touchline, just a smaller scale. Surely one of the biggest construction companies can do this?

So thanks to all the serious replies. ITN Jr, you can go back to copping a quick shuffle at your Eminem poster before you have to get ready for school tomorrow :021:

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Devlin that's all you had to do. Instead of having a go at the club and then not giving a reason all you had to do was post why you felt so badly let down by them. By bringing this to light more people will be aware of your 'plight' and perhaps react differently if such a situation should ever crop up again. Indeed some of your complaints are ones experienced by many ICT fans but that does not excuse them.

The location thing - AFAIK there is a disabled section at the bottom of the Main Stand and there are some in the North Stand isn't there?

One other query though - was this in the new stands/hay barns or the terracing?

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ITN Jnr - if that's what you call sarcasm you need to take a serious look at yourself - or maybe I'm just a "retard"

The content of your post is nothing short of disgusting. Being a carer and giving up a part of your own life/time to help those less fortunate than others is more than I imagine you will ever achieve (degree or no degree) if your post is any indication of your attitude towards such issues.

Time to wind your neck in a bit.

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Guest Devlin

Thanks CaleyD.

Seems I missed a pearl of wisdom by ITN Jr, but if you used the word retard in your response please enlighten me by sending a PM with what you said if you thought it was important enough to post publically first time round.

Point taken RiG, but I have posted my issues before on the previous site. May have been under a different name, can't remember. Fact remains, nothing changed. If you mean the stand behind the goal, then yes. That's where we are situated. We've been told that's the only wheelchair section for home fans.

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Guest Devlin

Thanks CaleyD.

Seems I missed a pearl of wisdom by ITN Jr, but if you used the word retard in your response please enlighten me by sending a PM with what you said if you thought it was important enough to post publically first time round.

Point taken RiG, but I have posted my issues before on the previous site. May have been under a different name, can't remember. Fact remains, nothing changed. If you mean the stand behind the goal, then yes. That's where we are situated. We've been told that's the only wheelchair section for home fans.

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It may well have been posted on the old forum but I can't mind it just now but it certainly does not excuse the club from what appears to have happened here. Must admit I am also suprised that there are no disabled spaces in the Main Stand. I was sure there was?

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after reading aLL THE comments iam suprised devlin and his client have been abused by kids,i have a "disabled" son who is in a wheelchair(but isnt totally wheelchair bound)and i have found that kids are very undertsanding of why his legs dont work,but its the adults who stare at him,someone in marks+spencers even asked me why he was in a wheelchair?! just because he looks "normal" doesnt mean he is)i think inverness and the north on the whole is pretty cruel to disabled people,maybe because there not as common as in big cities who knows? devlin you do a great job,dont let them grind you down,i have yet to take my son to watch ict or any live football match(although he adores football on tv)i sit in the main stand and after hearing off your bad experiences i dont think i,ll ever take him either

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