Fury as wheelchair users sold tickets on premium rate lines
Sunday 26 August 2012
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EmailParalympic organisers came under fire yesterday for squeezing wheelchair users by making them book Games tickets over premium-rate phone lines.
The only way to get wheelchair tickets is by ringing a 41p-a-minute 0844 number, while everyone else can book online and skirt the fees.
And some disabled people have been kept on hold for ages before being told that there aren't any tickets left, racking up enormous phone bills.
Wheelchair user Sarah Bard said she called the hotline from her specially adapted mobile phone six times, each time being put on hold for 15 minutes.
She has now given up attempting to buy tickets and called it "discriminatory towards the disabled."
An online petition by Beth Davis-Hofbauer that calls for the rules to be changed has already attracted nearly 40,000 signatures.
The disabled mother-of-two said she wanted to sit with all of her family but was shocked to find they would be split up.
A spokeswoman for organising committee Locog said: "All spectators were able to apply for tickets online for more than a year.
"From November 2011, we provided a bespoke phone line to ensure customers could discuss their individual accessibility needs."
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