'Buffer Boys - Be Warned! Only Duffers Ride on Buffers Don't Do This for Sport and Be Crippled for Sport - for Life!'

Please note: This object uses outdated language in relation to disabled people / disability. ID: Poster that reads: ‘Buffer Boys- Be Warned! Only duffers ride on buffers! Don’t do this for sport and be crippled for sport- for life!’ There is an illustration of a tram, with a young boy climbing on the back, and another young boy falling off the tram and on to the track. Liverpool Corportation Passenger Transport produced a series of around 50 of these information posters for travellers 1957-58. They primarily promoted safety messages and events. This poster warns children of the dangers of jumping and hitching a ride on the buffers of trams. The language, deliberately aimed at boys, warns of the dire consequences of ‘becoming crippled.’ At this time, becoming disabled was viewed and treated by wider society as life-ending, rather than life-changing. In a world where we recognise that we should adapt our environments to make them more accessible, the concept of a person's lived experence ‘crippling’ them is both outdated and offensive.