Yesterday was a pretty normal, uneventful kind of day: I took myself on one of my usual trundles around the Olympic Park, typing yesterday’s blog entry into my Ipad as I went. On my way back on the Jubilee Line, however, I was joined by a fellow wheelchair user. He asked me whether I too had just come from the disability exhibition at the Excel Centre. Somewhat surprised, I replied that I didn’t know there was one happening, so he kindly told me about The Disability Expo, a huge showcase of disability equipment and services. Naturally this got me instantly interested. Luckily the guy told me that it was on for two days, so I still had time to see it.

That, then, is where I’ve just come home from. It was pretty amazing I must say, and there was a lot of new equipment on show, especially powerchairs and mobility aids. Mind you, I didn’t see much in terms of communication aids. I stayed there for a couple of hours, browsing the stalls and talking to people about things like accessible holidays. I bumped into a couple of friends and even got to try out some eyegaze technology, although I soon decided that it wasn’t for me.

I love it when London does this to me: The metropolis seems to have the ability to make such cool events crop up when I least expect it. It was really interesting to see all the new technology there now is for disabled people, although if I hadn’t bumped into that guy on the tube yesterday, I would never have known about it.