Ian Rankin: 'The streets of Edinburgh are a crime for my wheelchair user son'

​What's really criminal about Edinburgh, says 'Rebus' creator Ian Rankin, is how tricky it can be for wheelchair users to navigate. Here, he explains the problems faced by his 21-year-old son, Kit, and how the family has learnt to plan days out

Thinking ahead: writer Ian Rankin find that going on days out with his son Kit, a wheelchair user, takes a lot of forward planning (Sean Bell)

My son Kit celebrated his 21st birthday in July. We wanted him to have a party, so began the search for a venue in Edinburgh that could accommodate a dozen or more dancers. Fairly straightforward, except that these dancers would be in wheelchairs, so they would be accompanied by carers who'd need plenty of space to push, pull and spin the chairs while the ceilidh music played.

Kit has always used a wheelchair. He's unable to operate one by himself, and most of the young adults he knows are in a similar situation. We struck lucky with the Columcille Centre – not far from where Kit lives, wheelchair-accessible, and with a nice big dance floor and an adjacent café area. The party was a resounding success, though had that particular venue been unavailable, we'd have been left scratching our heads.

This is often the case when you're the parent of a wheelchair user. You learn (often by trial and error) which bars, restaurants and cafés are accessible. You think long and hard about what sort of holiday might be best, which cinemas and shops are user-friendly, which walking routes are feasible without inducing a hernia in the person pushing the chair. Recently, an initiative in North Berwick began providing buggies and wheelchairs that could be used on the local beach. In place of standard wheels, there are rubber spheres – an ingenious but really simple solution to a huge problem.

Edinburgh presents particular issues to the wheelchair user. The pavements can be narrow and the steep inclines problematic. Quite a few of the buildings are listed, meaning they don't (or can't) provide amenities such as ramps or lift access. Outside Edinburgh, I've seen us book disabled-access hotel rooms… which happened to be up a short but difficult flight of stairs, or at the end of a corridor hampered by several sets of fire doors. One time, we took a summer cruise. The disabled bedrooms had already sold, so we took a chance on an ordinary room, only to find that Kit's wheelchair didn't fit through the doorway. He had to be decanted in the corridor and left to crawl into his room. But hey, we managed. And a cruise was a pretty good holiday, apart from the few stopovers where passengers reached the mainland by tender (near-impossible in a wheelchair), or, in the case of Venice, where we took fright at the idea of trying to manoeuvre Kit over so many bridges.

On the other hand, thanks to the volunteers at Disability Snowsport (and other organisations), Kit has been skiing, both on the dry slope at Hillend and on the mountains around Aviemore. He's gone horse riding thanks to Riding for the Disabled, and he's been taken around the car park at TouchBase in Glasgow on a motorbike. He seldom seems to have a care in the world – it's his family who do the fretting. How much space is there between the tables in the restaurant we're going to? (Kit has the reach of an octopus and your food is his food, whether he knows you or not.) Are the disabled changing facilities up to scratch? (This is a grown man we're talking about – an infant changing-table doesn't cut it.) Do we dare to risk a Lothian bus?

Recently, Kit was invited to Ireland with his brother so they could act as godfathers at a christening. The ferry from Cairnryan had no lifts, so we had to push Kit up several of the car-decks. Then, at journey's end, we had to wait until all the other vehicles had disembarked, as there wasn't enough room between them to wheel Kit's chair back to our own van. Positioning the van next to the door to the passenger seating area would have been a solution, but that wasn't how the crew worked. It was worth the effort, though – Kit had a great time at the christening, and we took him to a theme park called Tayto Park (near Drogheda) where even the roller-coaster was wheelchair-accessible.

When a lesson is learnt, you pass it along to other families. You ask them which vans are best, which facilities have disabled parking, which brands of wheelchair have tyres that aren't going to be dislodged as you manhandle chair and passenger off and back on to the unforgiving Edinburgh pavements. Holiday ideas are exchanged. If some amenity suddenly becomes viable because ramps have been introduced, word gets around. Thanks to the Euan's Guide website, which features disabled-access reviews from disabled people and their friends and families, I learnt that Edinburgh Castle has a vehicle that can ferry wheelchairs around various sections – not something I've ever heard trumpeted, yet an absolute necessity for wheelchair users.

And so it goes. We live and learn, and Kit goes on enjoying life to the full. He was in Princes Street Gardens in August to enjoy a rock concert, and he's been to T in the Park and Party at the Palace. His carers at Forward Vision seem dauntless – more power to them! And having alerted them to Euan's Guide, maybe further adventures await Kit. If and when they happen, I'll be happy to report back.

euansguide.com

Useful equipment for hitting the road

Since my husband, Nick, became a wheelchair user (attendant-propelled) last year, writes Rebecca Armstrong, we've found the following gear useful when we're out and about.

Portable ramps

Although kerbs can be mounted and shallow steps overcome, front doorsteps are a constant pain – and as for the pub that has been “getting its wheelchair ramp fixed” for the past four months, its lack of access means it's lost Nick as a customer. We have a pair of unwieldy ramps, but I'm coveting a Roll-a-Ramp from theramppeople.co.uk. Prices start from about £300.

iPad mount

I started by looking for mounts designed for wheelchair users, and found that by putting “disabled” before any product, you can expect to pay through the nose. For around £20, Bestek (stocked by Amazon) sells “gooseneck” mounts with clamps that can be attached to different elements of a wheelchair. Having his iPad makes journeys less boring for Nick, and I also attach one to his bed as he can't hold an iPad himself.

Cup holder

I've just bought one from pimpmychair.com for Nick. For less than £10 including shipping, this means Nick can have a soft drink when we're out without having to ask me whenever he wants a sip. I've also found it impossible to hold a coffee while safely pushing his chair. I'll be making another order asap.

Carabiners

My husband doesn't like holding anything when he's in transit so I shove everything into my backpack, but manoeuvring in tight spaces can be tricky. There are cargo shelves available (the kind some baby buggies have), but a cheaper alternative is a handful of carabiners (the little rock-climbing clips) that can slip on to various parts of a chair and hold the weight of shopping bags. The cheapest I've seen on Amazon were five for little more than a pound.