Podcast three transcript
Hi everyone, and welcome to the third Disabled Access Day podcast. And this is a particularly special podcast, because there is only one week to go until Disabled Access Day. I can’t quite believe it, and we are so so excited, the team is so so excited to see what is going to happen on the weekend, and to get feedback of everybody’s experiences on the time that they’ve had really experiencing access and inclusion on a huge scale, and a really really positive scale as well. At least that’s absolutely what we are hoping for!
So, I hope you’ve had a good week since last week. We have spoken about many, many different things now, and I promised that this week I would mention some individuals who have really made a huge impact on Disabled Access Day. And, seeing as we are in our third year now, it’s probably worth mentioning that this year we have a Disabled Access Day Ambassador, if you didn’t know that already. We are so so fortunate to have Sophie Christenson as our Disabled Access Day Ambassador. Sophie is a multi-medal winning Paralympian, and she is so so enthusiastic about Disabled Access Day, that she has written to us and told us about three of her very, very favourite Disabled Access Day venues. So, I thought I’d share those with you right now.
Sophie writes that if she only had to pick only three Disabled Access Day venues, which is a tough job in itself, and I have to say I would totally agree with her, then Gatwick Airport would just have to be on the list. She’s just come back from a much needed holiday in Cape Verde and flew out of Gatwick. And because, of course, every customer at the airport has luggage, then it’s much more likely that in an airport everywhere is accessible for wheelchair users. But Gatwick offers much, much more than that. The staff are really friendly and helpful, and it is great that wheelchair-users are now able to take their own chairs right up to the airplane door. Sophie says, and again I agree with her, that there is still a very long way to go in order to make the airplanes themselves more accessible and airlines need to improve this in order to move forward, but Gatwick are off to a flying start!
Sophie then says that the Houses of Parliament really deserve a mention on her top venues list for #AccessDay. And, as the Houses of Parliament are a huge place of work as well as a tourist attraction, they’ve really done their best with an old, magnificent building, and ried to make it as inclusive and accessible as possible, proving that there really aren’t that many excuses for poor accessibility – if the Houses of Parliament can do it, a modern café can! The inside may be a labyrinth, Sophie says, but there is always an accessible route from A to B.
And Sophie’s third recommendation for Disabled Access Day is the Ambassador Cinema in Woking. And she says, without forgetting the importance of entertainment for disabled people, this cinema is one of her favourite accessible places and #AccessDay venues, and it’s actually her partner’s local cinema! She has a CEA card, meaning that she can get 2 for 1 tickets, which is of course a huge result for any one of us who has one of those, and the most recent film that they went to see was Star Wars: Rogue One.
So Sophie has given her top Disabled Access Day venues, but what are yours? Don’t forget to tweet us @Access_Day and use the hashtag #AccessDay and send us as many photographs, as many recommendations, as many examples of brilliant accessible experiences that you’ve had, just so we can share those in the run up to Disabled Access Day, and of course after the event as well, because what we’re really wanting to do is ensure that as many disabled people, their friends and their family can get involved in Disabled Access Day, and that his weekend isn’t only just a weekend, that we can make it as long-term and with a long lasting impact as we possibly can. That’s what we are really hoping for, and with you sharing your knowledge and your experiences with us, and with other disabled people, that will be a huge help to our long term goal, as well.
So, what else can I tell you before the event? Well, Disabled Access Day is running from the 10th to the 12th of March, so it’s a whole weekend his year, running from the Friday to the Sunday, so you do have 3 whole days of opportunity to get involved. We are running in many, many different countries this year, and are absolutely on a global scale. We are introducing into Iceland, as well as Australia, so that’s absolutely phenomenal. Almost 300 venues have signed up to take part this year, which is absolutely incredible. We have a brilliant partnership with Barclays Bank, and they have really, really helped us out, they are introducing so many accessible initiatives, they have given up many of their ATMs to allow us to put our advertising on there, which is brilliant. They’ve been exceptionally forward thinking when it comes to access and inclusion. Sophie will be at Barclays Bank in Piccadilly during the weekend, and she’ll be sharing her experiences with anybody that visits her. There will also be an inclusive dance company called CanDo2 performing at the Piccadilly branch over the weekend, as well. Absolutely something that you must ensure you don’t miss!
Gatwick Airport is also one of our supporters, and Gatwick of course is one of the places Sophie mentioned was brilliant in terms of access and inclusion. And Gatwick have done done some brilliant things over recent years as well, staff have been brilliantly trained to ensure that disabled people aren’t seen as people who don’t travel! Disabled people absolutely love to travel, just as much as anyone else, and Gatwick Airport are fully aware of that. And we have a brilliant supporter in Quest 88, as well. Quest 88 look after lots of different products that place form just as highly as function on their agenda, which means that every product that Quest 88 design, the design element is vastly important, as well as how much that mobility aid, whether it a bike or something else, would help and aid a disabled person. So if you’re thinking of something that’s kind of kooky or cutting edge in terms of its design, look at the Quest 88 site because that is exactly what they do. And that’s something that we really need in our product market, because for many disabled people, function seems to be the focus and that just not the case, we can use products that are beautiful as well as ones that work well.
I hope that you’re excited for Disabled Access Day, only seven days to go with nearly 300 venues signed up! We really can’t believe that we’ve got such a short amount of time left, but we really do hope that you get involved and share as much as you can within your social networks. We can create a real inclusive buzz around the weekend, which is absolutely what we’re aiming to do.
You might not have heard much about our founder, either, so it’s probably worth me telling you a little bit about Paul. Paul lives in Edinburgh and was getting his wheelchair onto a bus one day. He was invited onto this bus by his local bus company. They offered for him to try out this bus, a standalone bus, and to really see where his wheelchair would fit, and what would work for him in terms of accessibility. He came out of this experience and thought ‘wow, that was amazing, there was no time pressure, it was much less stressful than how it normally feels to get on and off a bus, and I felt that my opinions were really valued’. He went and spoke to his friends about this experience and the fact that he’d be invited to try this standalone bus and to really give some feedback in terms of accessibility and how things worked for him. He was talking to his friends and thought it would be incredible if other disabled people could have similar experiences where there wasn’t as much pressure, where these disabled people felt really safe around what they were doing and the experience they were having. And, actually, it was a really innovative thing and loads of fun, as well! So that’s how Paul came up with the idea of Disabled Access Day, that disabled people and their family and friends could have an absolute abundance of experiences and events to choose from, that were safe, had accessibility and inclusion at their heart, but were also fun and brand new – something that these people might not have been given the opportunity to try before. That then leads, three years later, to our hashtag #YouandSomewhereNew. This year we’re really focusing on how to encourage disabled people, or anybody, to discover and try somewhere, or something, new. Especially when it comes to accessibility, it can be really nerve-wracking to go somewhere you’ve never been before and to not know whether or not the transport is going to be accessible, or whether you’re going to get through the front door to whether there’s going to be loads of steps, or to not know whether the toilet is going to be accessible or if there’s going to be a parking space wide enough for you to get your wheelchair out, or if there’s a hearing loop if you’re hard of hearing, or if a member of staff doesn’t have good enough training to know that your guide dog should be allowed in with you! That is where the hashtag came from, that hopefully disabled people, their family and friends (and even if they are on their own) can try out something or somewhere new with the confidence and assurance that it’s going to hopefully be a stress-free situation, that this place is going to be ready for them and welcome them, rather than having a worry around accessibility, because, unfortunately, that’s often what we find, and really want to switch that on its head.
We really want to empower staff as well, and people that own these venues, and encourage them to have the confidence when communicating with disabled people. There’s quite often a fear factor surrounding disability. Again, we want to switch this around, and encourage people to smile, communicate and be really confident around each other. Long term, of course that then creates a really big conversation, online or in person, with the people close to you. If you’ve had a great accessible experience at a particular venue, on a particular day, or at somewhere brand new, you are bound to remember that for a very long time, and for a very long time! So, what we are trying to create is a real community, a positive community, where instead of worrying and constantly having negative experiences and feeling like they have to fight for their rights, disabled people are encouraged to give positive feedback and talk about the brilliant experiences that they’ve had, and encourage other people to get out there and do the same. What we are trying to do is create a real happiness and confidence around accessibility, and ensure that an inclusive society is seen as an absolute priority and something that should be really high up on the agendas of many people.
One more week to go, that’s it!
Hopefully those stories will give you a good bit of inspiration to get involved next week and share your experiences. Don’t forget to tweet us @Access_Day and use the hashtag #AccessDay, be hat before, during or after he event. Let’s get this conversation of inclusivity going. I cannot wait for a week’s time, and I cannot wait to do the podcast in a couple of weeks’ time, and tell you about the conversations we have been having. Good luck, happy Disabled Access Day, I hope you have the most incredible time, and it really is a weekend to remember. Bye!
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