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I'm almost ready to get going on the biggest life change of my life. Leaving home for the first time to go and study at university. I am very excited about starting my course but naturally I am also a bit apprehensive, it has been a very rocky road to even get this far so I am determined that it will all work out ok.

I have however had a few problems along the way. Trying to sort out a student loan equals a huge amount of forms to fill in. As a disabled student you have a few extra forms to fill in and if you have a disabled parent like me, you have yet more forms to fill in and in some cases, like mine your poor disabled parent has to go to the job centre and get the people there to fill out yet another form!

On the for mentioned forms I distinctly remember being pleased when I ticked the box requesting all correspondence in large print. Unfortunately this has caused me more problems; the correspondence I have got through the post has been intermittent, it would appear that I sometimes get the large print and sometimes don't. Furthermore a week ago I rang up the student loans people to find out how my application was going because I had not heard from them in quite a while. I discovered that on their system they had my address down as somewhere in Glasgow, a whopping 445 miles away from Gosport in Hampshire where I live. The explanation for this was that I had requested information in large print, unfortunately somewhere between them and Glasgow none of my paperwork was making it to me. I have now abandoned the large print and have asked them to simply send things to me.

On the other hand my disabled students allowance application has run really smoothly I requested large print and have received everything I asked for in large print. My assessment was really relaxed and it was obvious from the outset that the assessor was out to insure I receive all the help and support I need at uni. There was at one point a small hiccup with the budget for my DSA but that was resolved quickly and I will be receiving all the equipment I'm being provided with later this week, a few weeks before the start of my course.

So I'm all ready to go, well almost... there is one small issue in that I have not done the route to and from where I will be living and I don't know where the nearest food shop is, I am working with the trainer that has been training Gus and I to sort that out though.

Southampton Solent University themselves have been utterly fabulous! The have looked into transcribing important documents into DAISY format for me, allowed time for me to visit for several orientation sessions, and built Gus two very luxurious spending areas for him to go to the toilet in, they even have a rain shelter so he can wee in the dry when its raining.

Walking around campus it was evident to see that they really have thought of people with disabilities whilst designing and maintaining the campus, the signage is all very clear, in high contrast colours that even I can read. Every single step I saw on my tours had a clearly marked edge so it was easy to identify. There where tactile markings at each flight of stairs inside and out. Outside the students union building there is a small road with a zebra crossing, the pavement is completely flat which would cause a problem for a visually impaired person, but know the university thought of that and installed tactile markings to show where the pavement ends and the road begins.

Overall, as you may have gathered I am extremely impressed by the university's attitude to disability and I can't wait to get started and stuck into my course.

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Anyone remember Celebrity Blind Man's Buff and Celebrity Wheelchair Challenge? Go on, cast your mind back ... yes, it's coming back to you now, isn't it? Various 'celebrities' (ahem) experiencing a few days as either a blind person or a wheelchair user, and from this experience discovering empathy with - and understanding of - disabled people. Frankly, it still gives me nightmares.

Well, now we have a journalist from The Guardian writing about over this summer, as a result of breaking a bone in her foot, and how it's opened her eyes to the problems that "old and disabled" people face, and the reactions they receive.

To be fair, it seems quite a thought-provoking article, but I'm always uneasy about exactly what able-bodied people learn from these brief experiences of temporary disability. That's the important thing - the experience is temporary, and they know well enough that once their injuries have healed, they'll be back out in the world as a non-disabled person. And the big question is: will the experience stay with them then? Will their attitudes towards disability have changed permanently? Will they retain their knowledge of what life is like for us on a daily basis? I remain to be convinced.

But I've got a further bugbear with this article, and that's the journalist Jackie Ashley's identification of being old with being disabled - even the title describes "an edifying trip into Oldie World". Of course there are many older disabled people, but there are many younger ones too - including lots of readers of Ouch!

This summer, Jackie Ashley has been using crutches to get around. I use crutches too. I'm 37 years of age. I may be able to clearly remember the lyrics of obscure early '80s pop songs better than I can recall what I was doing this time last week, but I don't yet regard myself as old. Disabled, yes. Old, no.

Just under two weeks ago, I posted here about the coverage of record-breaking Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps seeming to omit reference to top Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, who has an equal tally of 11 gold medals to her name.

Well, it's amazing what facts you discover when you're least expecting it. Here's one I came across last night, whilst rounding off the long Bank Holiday weekend watching ´óÏó´«Ã½ comedy quiz show Mock the Week on iPlayer.

Michael Phelps is disabled! He has ADHD! He was diagnosed when he was 9 years old!

You can read more about Michael Phelps in this long article from , including how he handled his ADHD while he was growing up.

The new site has all the trendy social media clichés covered. You can watch their videos on YouTube, even follow the PM's Twitter feed and like all good 'web 2.0' sites it's in BETA!
However, they've been so busy getting 'down with the kids' they seem have forgotten about making the site accessible to disabled users.
has found a whole gammut of failings that make the new site difficult or impossible for people with some impairments to use. It's the sort of thing you might expect from some small startup but not from the Prime Minister's office and the disabilisphere is already , let's make sure they consider access first before image in future!

In this week's Disability Bitch column, Ouch's favourite bitter and twisted personality has been writing about how she hates celebrity impairments. Superstar pop singer Justin Timberlake comes in for a mention. He revealed a while back that he has - though, like many of the celebs who comes under DB's withering gaze, he's yet to use the 'D word' and describe himself as disabled.

Except - he has now!

Unfortunately, it's got nothing to do with his OCD. In fact, it's debatable whether Justin's announcement that he is disabled is actually admissible under the International Rules of Disability Acceptance, Paragraph 17, Sub-section 3. (What? You haven't read the famed IRDA document? Where have you been all this time?!)

You see, Justin - bless his cotton socks - has said that he . He says:

With romantic relationships, just like friendships, it's all about confidence, connection, and - again, and most important - communication ... But what do I know? I'm just a man and everyone knows we have a learning disability where women are concerned.

Er, right. Thanks, Justin. Really. Thanks for that.

He's just not getting it, is he?

So, all you males out there - get ready to claim Disability Living Allowance if, like Justin, you're rubbish with the opposite sex! Ouch is sure that your application will go through without a hitch ...

Whilst you might have heard about the boxing-style tussle that was going on at the front of the race during the Women's 10k Open Swim.

...An equally significant event was taking place for disability sport in the water as South Africa's who had one leg amutated at 17 became the first athlete to compete in , she finished the marathon race in a .

With so much talk pre-games about whether compatriot Oscar Pistorius would compete, now Natalie had made this historic leap it seems fair that she should take the spotlight!

An ongoing story of the last few years has been the rise in disability hate crime. We've covered it here on Ouch - check out the links at the end of this post - and notice it frequently when updating our news page three times a week, as more and more stories come to our attention.

Tonight (Tuesday) on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 at 8.00pm, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website's disability affairs correspondent Geoff Adams-Spink presents The Hidden Crime of Hate. In spite of some disturbing high-profile cases, the criminal justice system is failing to address the problem and apply the law. Recent legislation gave courts the power to increase sentences in cases when a crime can be demonstrated to have been motivated by hostility towards someone's disability. In reality, this sentencing provision has hardly ever been used.

That's tonight at 8.00pm on Radio 4. And don't forget that, if you miss it, you can catch up via the iPlayer.

Related Ouch links:
• An old word for a growing problem by Tom Shakespeare;
• Tackling crime against disabled people by Ian Cook;
• My story: deafblind street attack by Liz Ball;
• Ouch Q&A #12: Bullying by Rob Crossan.

I've been interested - but also rather irritated - by the coverage of US swimmer achievements at the Beijing Olympics this week. For those of you who don't know, he's just broken the record for winning Olympic gold medals by winning his 10th and 11th early this morning (Wednesday). By all accounts, he's going to rack up some more too - and the next record he's aiming for is the most gold medals won during one Olympic Games.

It's impressive stuff, and the news coverage keeps telling us that he's surpassed the nine golds previously won by names such as Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz and Larysa Latynina, making Phelps the greatest Olympian ever. Even Sir Steve Redgrave got a mention in some reports, despite the fact that he won a comparatively paltry five Olympic golds.

Hmm. But isn't there a name missing? What about Tanni Grey-Thompson?

Tanni won 11 Paralympic golds during her illustrious career, yet her name doesn't seem to have figured in these comparisons at all. Is this where the Paralympics stops being part of 'the Olympic movement', and becomes that 'other' Games that takes place after the main event, and is for (whisper it) disabled people?

So I'd like to offer Ouch's congratulations to Michael Phelps - on equalling Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson's tally of golds. Just for the record, you understand.

• The nurses and doctors shout your name, you stand up and they still miraculously expect you to find them across the room!

• They give you a tiny appointment card and handwrite your next visit in that of course you can't see!

• All the magazines are in tiny print.

• The more mature people around you start having a conversation discussing how awful it must be to be young and have eye problems whilst looking at you with immense sympathy.

• You have orange panda eyes, because they have put orange eye drops in your eyes and not provided you with a tissue.

• The doctor informs you that you can't see as much as a normal person... funnily enough by the age of 19 having been VI all my life I already knew that.

• They tell you that you have done really well when you manage to read the top letter of the eye chart from 2 feet away.

I bet the Ouchers our there have more - please add them! I found these at a forum for VI people called .

As The Arran Banner reports, a blind puppy is apparently causing a stir on the Scottish Isle of Arran as it arrives for its summer holiday.

In a scene reminiscent of the squabbles on Britain's Missing Top Model, some have claimed he has an 'invisible disability', as Bobby seems to be playing just fine with the other dogs:

At first glance it is difficult to tell that Bobby is blind as he runs about in the garden but suddenly he will bump into something that he cannot see.

D'oh, Well at least that's cleared things up...

Read the full story in (And yes, that headline is for real!)

I went along to '' the first of what will be a quarterly club night for young people with learning disabilities.
The dance-floor was the main attraction, with headliners The Fish Police rocking out with tracks including Chicken Nuggets and Japanese Girl. Whilst allcomers had a chance to get involved performing DJ or VJ sets.

Elsewhere carers could relax with a free massage, gamers could play on Nintendo Wii, or interact with sensory toys in the chill-out area.

What really impressed me though where some of the access considerations. Forget large print, it was all about large pictures! You were given a picture map on entry, with the corresponsing pictures printed at each part of the venue (e.g. a drink marking the bar.) Even I didn't get lost (which is saying something!)

With all bases covered, as word spreads I'm sure this night can only grow and even more people will be !