FORUM FOR DISABLED BOATERS
MANY within the boating community will know Tracey and Tim Clarke and their guide dog Oakley, the continuously cruising roving canal traders who live and work aboard their narrowboat Sola Gratia.
The couple first began their liveaboard life back in 2014, three years after Tracey was registered disabled due to sight loss. Many, including the couple themselves, were unsure if a life afloat was the best thing for someone with such a significant disability. However, seven years later, the couple continue to enjoy their life on the canals.
Together with Tim, Tracey now not only trades as The Doggie Boat, selling a range of dog treats and a wide range of other canine accessories, but is are also involved with the Canal Ministries charity. The couple are part of a team of 19 evangelists crewing and living aboard a number of boats on the system. In addition Tim is a photographer who also runs a web-hosting business from Sola Gratia.
As a canal trader, Tracey is acutely aware of the impact the lockdowns have had on businesses. She said: “The pandemic has been difficult for many canal traders,” however it would seem the lockdowns have allowed her and Tim to make their business more mailorder. As a result, they have come out of the period with a revised format, one that would seem to be proving successful.
At a locally held, pre-pandemic Canal & River Trust annual public meeting, Tracey was first approached to stand in the council elections. Despite missing election by the slimmest of margins, she was subsequently co-opted on to the board.
Now in place, she is looking to bring the needs of those who struggle to use the waterways due to disability to the forefront of any discussions.
As a former parish councillor, Tracey would seem to be an ideal choice for the role.
Facebook group
We caught up with the couple while they were moored in Market Drayton, shortly before setting off to begin exploring more northerly canals. In addition to our discussions about those trying to make a living on the canals, we discussed the setting-up of the Inland Waterways Accessibility Forum (IWAF) Facebook group. Both of these new roles were taken on in an effort to champion the needs of those for whom using the waterways (be they boaters or not) has become increasingly difficult.
Her own particular sight problems provide her with first- hand experience of disabled boating and she acknowledges: “With a system, built 200 years ago, long before people considered health and safety important, it isn’t easy to accommodate everyone’s needs.”
She also made the very valid point: “The system was built by, and for, fit individuals for whom using locks and operating boats wasn’t a problem.” A far cry from what is sometimes the case nowadays.
Despite the canals being used by people with a wide range of abilities, she quickly added that CRT has a difficult situation to manage and, in her opinion, ‘inherited a mess’ when it took over. Now the trust has to address and balance the needs of modern society with the need to retain the waterways’ heritage. Not an easy thing to achieve.
Tracey highlighted some of the problems she personally encountered as someone with significant sight problems and for whom depth perception is almost impossible.
She has found that some lock gates prove difficult, and she would like to see changes made to the design of some elements of them to make them safer for everyone to use. However, new gates tend to replicate the old ones with, in some cases, all of the problems they can pose.
It is with these thoughts in mind, and after talking to other towpath users – as well as after a less than pleasant encounter with a cyclist – that she looked at setting up the Inland Waterways Accessibility Forum. This private group on Facebook has been established “as a means of ongoing discussions between the trust/other waterways authorities and users of the canals, rivers and towpaths who have accessibility issues”. The forum is also open to carers if they are interested.
The group would seem to have been generally well-received. However, Tracey would like more involvement from groups like the IWA, National Trust and the Environment Agency but said that disabled angling and rambling groups have already joined up. Live chats on social media and the use of Zoom have provided members with opportunities to catch up with each other during the pandemic.
However, she looks forward to the opportunity to meet up properly to discuss issues. Until then, if you would like to know more about the Inland Waterways Accessibility Forum, please visit www.facebook.com/iwaf1