Enjoying an outing today are we? This was a question I was asked when at my local garden centre recently. One small comment but one huge indictment on society’s perceptions of disability. The guy seemed nice enough, displaying well-maintained teeth in his wide, jovial smile, just another customer like me. Unlike me, he wasn’t in a wheelchair, and neither was my companion, who didn’t get asked if she was enjoying a nice day out.

On a ranking of awful things to say to someone this barely makes a mark in the thoughtful-to-heinous greetings scale but two things bothered me about this question: