Being accessible is about more than ramps and disabled toilets. While it’s great that people think about level access and accessible bathrooms, more thought needs to be given to difficulties people might have navigating different buildings and our towns and cities.
Recently, I was walking to work when I saw someone from my office, going in the opposite direction, who looked at me, very bemused, and stated the obvious. “You’re going the wrong way.”
This was undeniable. I was definitely walking away from my office and he was definitely walking towards it. But I couldn’t go the “right way” because the right way is inaccessible to me.
The route to my office has recently been updated to make it “friendlier to pedestrians”. Making the route friendlier to pedestrians also involved building a cycle superhighway, making the road friendlier to cyclists as well. But, the route is definitely only friendlier to pedestrians if those pedestrians are able bodied.
To cross the road to where I work, you would now have to navigate traffic, as the pedestrian crossing that used to be there has been removed, walk up a sloped central reservation, which is too steep for me and definitely could not accommodate a wheelchair user, navigate the traffic again, and then cross the cycle superhighway, if you had made it across the road, where bikes (and e-scooters) are travelling pretty fast in both directions.
So instead, I walk away from work, to a pedestrian crossing with a level central reservation, and cross the cycle superhighway at that end of the street, where there are bicycle traffic lights, and then walk all the way back around on the other side of the road.
It’s a bit of a looping route, but it isn’t too far, and if the weather’s nice it’s not too much bother. I do have to stop and rest halfway, and luckily there are some benches where I can do so, and I would probably have to do that anyway if I could go the “right way”.
What was interesting though, is that until I pointed this out to my colleagues who walk the “right way” to work, none of them had noticed that the central reservation is now sloped, that the pedestrian crossing had been removed or that there were no traffic lights at this side of the cycle superhighway.
I’ve had similar conversations before where friends haven’t noticed that a venue doesn’t have a level access entrance, or an event hasn’t given strobe/flashing lights warning, or the lift in a building has been broken with no sign of being fixed for months.
Because people don’t notice until someone who needs something to be accessible points it out.
A lot of people also think that accessibility is all taken care of because now “everywhere has ramps” (they don’t and, only one/two steps is not level access and may as well be 100 steps if you need level access), “everywhere has an accessible toilet” (again, they don’t, and if the “accessible” toilet is downstairs with no lift access or the bathroom door opens outwards, which for some reason loads of them do, they’re not really accessible) and “people who can walk anyway don’t have accessibility issues” (they do).
But we are definitely making some progress and it’s great that people think about these things, but next time you jump over a wall or squeeze through a narrow ginnel gap or run through traffic hoping nobody’s speeding that day, maybe just take a look back and notice that not everyone is able to do that, so they have to go the long way round. And the long way round isn’t the wrong way, it’s just different, and the difference for that person is everything.
Take care,
Donna
Self-care snippet
Recently I went to the Chamber Music evening as part of St Nicholas’ Church Music Festival. As someone who often reviews theatre and concerts, it was so nice to go to something and just enjoy the music without having a pen and notebook in hand. The evening featured a performance of Bach’s Chaconne, which is one of my favourite violin solos.
Things I’ve seen, heard, read and talked about
Woman stranded on plane at Gatwick for 90 minutes 'frustrated' at treatment of disabled passengers Another story of issues with accessibility and sadly by far not the first time I have heard of something like this happening in an airport.
Cost of living: Disability charity says carers are skipping meals The cost of living crisis continues to hit families living with disabilities hard, with many people cutting down on the amount of food they are eating so they can afford heating come winter.
Disability campaigners welcome traffic lights being reinstated at Kirkintilloch junction Another story of accessibility, but this one has a happy ending as the traffic lights were put back making the road safer for disabled people, and other pedestrians.