In the beginning I cried because my baby was broken. It was difficult taking him to Baby Sensory because he wasn’t doing what the other babies were doing.

I persevered because I knew he was getting something from it. He was experiencing the sounds, the textures, the stories and all the amazing effort that was put into each class.

Although we stayed a little longer than most I also knew when it was time to move on. Quinns needed the next stage just like his peers.

I cried more when I realised we would have to move because our house had so many stairs. Even although I loved that house it didn’t work for our family and had to be changed. Now we’ve moved, our new house works for us all and we love it.

I’ve recently graduated from the Partners in Policymaking course run by In Control Scotland. It’s hard to describe what the eight month journey entailed. There were many many lessons but my main takeaways are as follows.

Quinns is not broken. My instincts were right, he was perfectly placed in that Baby Sensory class for the time we were there and ready to move on to toddler group when we finished.

Now I do nothing but smile about my beautiful boy and all the amazing things he’s doing. He’s part of our community. His smile spreads joy throughout the village. We really appreciate the efforts being made by everyone around to make activities more inclusive for him. In general, I feel like we’ve got this!

My challenge is in supporting Quinns’ inclusion with his peers while inaccessibility works against us.

I don’t cry about Quinns now but I still cry about stairs; how he can’t get to the places I want to take him; about steps that make it harder for us to access things; about non-existent or abused disabled parking; and about the lack of changing facilities. All of which restricts us.

The problem isn’t just ours to fix. Any one of us could need a wheelchair at any time and find ourselves excluded from many things we take for granted. Inclusion would undoubtedly be easier with better accessibility.

Quinns definitely does not need fixed but our inaccessible environment does and not just for Quinns but for everyone.