AFTER spending the best part of a year in a wheelchair after an airsporting accident, I can sympathise totally with Graeme Rudd's frustration at the general lack of access to everyday services which are taken for granted by the more able (Letter, August 19).

My short glimpse of life from the chair was very sobering.

I think the permanently disabled do not bang their drum enough and should be constantly hounding local councillors, MPs and the like until real changes are brought about.

Obviously, there are buildings that do not lend themselves to being knocked about for wheelchair access, but while muchground has been gained, there is still a long way to go.

If our elected bodies were to spend just one week of going about their everyday business in a wheelchair we would see some real changes.

Bob Waite,

Windmill Rise,

Holgate, York.

Updated: 10:00 Monday, August 29, 2005