A wheelchair is not a restriction!
It’s a tool for movement and living.
It’s societies lack of access that is the restriction!
I saw this meme pop up on social media a couple of weeks ago, around the time I had just experienced one of my more embarrassing moments in my life due to lack of access to a building.
I am not the kind of person that demands access to all areas. It would be unreasonable to expect a grade 2 listed structure to make a costly and detrimental change to the fabric of the building to provide access. However, a new build (from around the last 30 years or so at least) should have the basic provisions of an integrated ramp/stairs access if it cannot be a flat or level entrance. All doorways should meet the equality act’s minimum width restrictions, including accessible toilets with sensible door locks (Not bolts!) and red pull cords that reach the floor i.e. not tied up because they were “in the way”
A recent blog post by Dan Watts from “Elephant in the Room Disability Services” suggests that some organisations, venues or events suffer from an “Access Halo”, defined it as the overestimation of the accessibility of an event or venue. Dan explains it so beautifully in his blog post, “The Broken Halo”, that I won’t try and paraphrase it here, but I suggest you read it for yourself here.
This concept, however, got me thinking about my own experiences. My most recent encounter with the phrase, “Yes, we are accessible, we have a ramp” happened at a major event. After looking at the venue on Google maps and noting the steps into the building we enquired about access to be told the above statement. On arriving at the venue, we find that the ramp in question is a fold out metal ramp that stretched out across the pavement. Sadly, there wasn’t enough room between the end of the ramp and the kerb edge for me to turn onto the ramp. I had people push past me and complain that they couldn’t get into the building because the ramp was in their way. I am not sure how I managed to hold it all together without being rude to those pushing past me.
I can name too many venues and events where they haven’t thought through the access points to the buildings. When writing for my blog I do try and focus on the positive side of things because I want to remember my adventures with happiness and not despondency because I had to face a battle first.
A recent trip to the cinema nearly ended before it began. Parking the car in the blue badge bays was great, near the doors, plenty of space to open my door fully to transfer into my chair. Then we had to search for the ramp to get onto the pavement from the carpark. No easy visible dropped kerb could be found. It took a while of searching, but we found a bit of kerb low enough for Robin to drag me up backwards. Side note – we worked out very early in our trundle journey that going up and down kerbs backwards is better than forwards! “FORWARDS = INSTANT FACEPLANT!”
Once inside the cinema things improved until we got to our seats; I can’t really complain about mine as I had brought it with me, but the choice of location was exceedingly limited. We had one row of seats with spaces for a few wheelchairs in the middle of the row. Although this was great, I felt like we were too close to the screen. I couldn’t see the full picture without moving my head from side to side constantly (tennis anyone?), I also ended up with neckache from having to look up all the time. On a more personal observation, I feel like just taking seats out so a wheelchair can sit in the space is not that helpful. I feel like I am then sat much further forward than my companion who is almost sat behind me, no chance then of being able to lean over and whisper sweet nothings in my beloved ear – even though I am still flexible I would not consider myself a contortionist!
RedFez have been invited to a partner day in London by one of our suppliers, unfortunately we are unavailable on the day so we can’t attend, but just out of interest I googled the location to see if it was accessible. After trawling though the venues website I could not see any information or any photographs that showed this. I have seen lots of photographs of the stunning sweeping staircase, from many angles. The beautiful wood and glass original revolving doors and the fact that the building was the first in London to be built with a lift! No mention if it has been preserved (or replaced) or even if it still functional. I will say though, that this is a majestic old building in the heart of London, overlooking the Thames with a very famous address. At the time it was built I cannot imagine wheelchair access was at the forethought of the architect’s mind, the addition of the lift was ground-breaking enough. However, the venue’s own tag line is “The most inclusive club in London” yet to find I cannot discover from their own website whether I’m included or not is ironic!
Back to the subject of “Access Halo” for my final thoughts. We are going to see a band in a nightclub in Sheffield in a couple of weeks. We booked the tickets after contacting the venue who said they have a disabled viewing platform and accessible toilets. I am now hoping that they haven’t just paid lip-service to access and that my experience is one to write about with a glowing report of inclusion.
My final, final thoughts are for those venues or event organisers wanting to be truly accessible is this, how about before you advertise you are “accessible” get someone in a wheelchair to test your venue for you? Don’t just stick a ramp across a step and claim you are a “Wheelchair friendly venue”. I can feel a new side hustle for Helen’s Wheels coming on.
