I popped into my local shop earlier to get a drink.

It’s a big shop with level access and wide aisles, but despite this when I left I felt frustrated and annoyed.

The aisles would be plenty wide enough for my wheelchair but for the fact that there are always boxes of stock on the floor making them too narrow for my wheelchair to pass along. Today, piles of bottled water and beer prevented me getting anywhere near the drinks cabinet. When I pointed this out to the shopkeeper he asked which drink I’d like, but I didn’t have a clue, because I didn’t know what the choices were.

Where improved access involves expensive structural modifications, specialised equipment or lengthy battles with bureaucracy, I have some sympathy. But this is a perfectly accessible shop made inaccessible by the decisions of the people who work there.

They were very accommodating when I asked them to move the stuff, but had this been thought about before I wouldn’t have left feeling hot and bothered – I’d just have left with a drink.