In our limited experience, no two weddings are the same, as in each instance there are always different people, different venues, different budgets even, and each couple puts a different stamp on their special day. So each wedding is a new experience for us.
Recently, though, we had a completely new and unexpected experience, courtesy of a friend of ours, Disability Awareness Consultant Richard Shakespeare. Last year, Richard allowed us to use an article of his in this blog post Will you marry me. The article was about access to wedding cars for people with a disability.
As a result of that contact, Richard asked if we’d like to be involved in a video he was creating. Recent Government legislation, means that all Taxi and Private Hire drivers in England and Wales, have to undergo Disability Awareness Training, and Richard intends to use the video as a module in the Training Course he is creating to meet this need. We are always happy to help Richard, plus it gives us a chance to further show Betty off, even if out of context!
A small industrial unit was hired, and Richard, Betty and Terry Simmons, from eLearning Plus, who was in charge of the production of the video, met on a Monday morning to create the masterpiece! Hollywood, it wasn’t! There was no magnificent set, but by clever use of close ups, Terry made the background irrelevant, with the focus being on the process and the equipment.
The purpose of the video, and hence Betty’s involvement, was to show in specific terms for 
fellow TX Taxi drivers, and in general terms for drivers of all other Private Hire Cars, the basics of aiding people with varying degrees of disability, into and out of the Taxi. We’ve heard first hand from Richard, the negative experiences people with disabilities have when using Taxis, and hopefully this training will address that.
Knowing Richard, and with Terry’s filming and editing skills, we’re sure the video will be of great use and be an essential part of his Training package.
I’m ready for my close up Mr De Mille!
Credits:
During the booking process, we will have got from you all that we need to know about venues and the people involved. The small details, such as ribbon colours, drinks, music etc., can be decided on later. Once the booking is confirmed and the deposit paid, nothing needs to happen until a week or two before the date, when we will do a dry run of the whole route. This gives us the timings we need, and also we’ll be looking for any possible problems that could arise on the day, such as traffic delays from football matches or similar large events. We’ll talk to someone at the wedding venue about the best place to pull up, plus anything else that’s relevant.We will then feedback to you the time we would want to leave, to get you to the venue on time.
