This Is Me
by Jill Clark
This is my first article as a Clydesider volunteer and Iʼm excited to tell you about myself.
My name is Jill Clark and I am 34.
I live in Knightswood in the west end of Glasgow with my Mum and Dad.
I have a big sister, and I am an aunty to a nephew and a niece who I love being with.
I have so many hobbies and interests…
I love to go swimming and to the gym at Strathclyde sport centre.
I go to Guides every second Monday where I am a young leader.
I am a big country music fan; my favourite country singers are Nathan Carter and of course the queen of country music herself Dolly Parton (she is my hero).
I love going on holiday - my favourite place is Orlando Florida where I love the shopping and the restaurants there.
I am the biggest Mr. Blobby fan ever!
I love to write and at the moment I am studying Journalism through the NCTJ.
Fulfilling Life
I have a physical disability called Cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy is a group of conditions that affect a personʼs ability to move and maintain balance and posture.
It is caused by damage to the developing brain, usually before or during birth.
People with cerebral palsy may have muscle stiffness, weakness, or difficulties with coordination and speech.
It is a lifelong condition, but with therapy and support, many individuals can lead active and fulfilling lives.
My cerebral palsy affects my muscles, my movement and my speech, therefore I use a wheelchair all the time.
Even though I canʼt speak myself that doesnʼt stop me getting my word across as I am an AAC user.
This stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, it just means communicating in a different way.
This could be through a communication device or through a symbols book/sheet or through sign language.
I use a communication device to speak or ʻtalkerʼ which is what I call it.
My talker is called Accent 1000.
I use a tracker dot to access my programme on my device.
The dot is on my head, it is just like infrared.
An interesting fact - I was the first person in Scotland to try the head tracker.
I use a programme called LLL 144. That stands for Language, Living and Learning.
On my talker there are 144 boxes and under these boxes there are subject words.
So, for example under the ʻburgerʼ is all food or under the ʻhouseʼ are all places or under the ʻjudgeʼ are all sentences, and so on.
My talker isnʼt just my voice it is my hand too and it also a computer so I can use it to send emails, and I can use a word document.
Also, I mirror a mobile phone to my talker which allows me to control a mobile phone on my talker.
Disability is an Ability
One of my favourite quotes is “a Disability is an ability to do something different” and I believe that my Disability has given me the ability to campaign for disabled peopleʼs rights.
About 12 years ago I discovered I was very limited in where I could go because I couldnʼt get to the toilet when I was out as I require a hoist to get to the toilet and there was a huge lack of changing places toilets.
So, I decided that I would start my own campaign for these toilets.
My campaign is The Toilet Woman.
Standard accessible toilets do not meet the needs of all people with a disability.
Over ¼ million people in the UK with a disability need extra equipment and space to allow them to use the toilets safely and comfortably.
These needs are met by changing places toilets.
These have all the right equipment in such as a hoist, a changing bed and it is very big to move around for a wheelchair user and two carers.
With this campaign I started off a petition which I got over 100 signatures.
I have made two videos about changing places toilets.
I was in the Glasgow Evening Times a few times and I appeared on STV and BBC news.
Back in 2021 I was on the programme inside Central station where I was talking about changing places toilets.
Back when I started my campaign there were only two changing places toilets in Glasgow but now there are 26 this includes Central station, Queen Street station, Riverside Museum, the Burrell Collection, Science Centre, Kelvin Hall and many more.
These toilets have made a huge difference to me and to other peopleʼs life.
But the greatest success of my campaign was getting a changing places toilet installed in Clydebank shopping centre.
As Clydebank is my local shopping centre, I am down there a lot, but my time was very limited as there wasnʼt a changing places toilet, so I decided to campaign for one to be installed.
Even though it took six years, I am very proud to say that Clydebank shopping centre opened their changing places toilet in December 2023, it is great to have it here in the town centre.