Access Champion

  Influencing Access.  I feel it's important to highlight how using your voice can have positive change. Many may ignore, but some will listen and they deserve praise.   When I was an Access Champion for the disability charity, Leonard Cheshire, I'd assess access into buildings and write to the company with my feedback. I really enjoyed it as I feel I made a real difference.      Some I remember are:  The Oxfam shop on Bold Street, Liverpool.  I noticed the entrance in was up a diagonal angled step, making it awkward for a wheelchair user to get in. I suggested that they put in a bell so that those with mobility issues can use to call for assistance... and they did! However, after vandals kept knocking the bells off, it seems this accessibility feature is not viable and I have been asked to look into other ideas. It's great that Oxfam want to become more accessible in their shops! I founded a very small charity, and when we had a meeting at Cadbur...

Rejection hurts, whether it's from a person, a health treatment not working or not achieving a goal.  In August 2021, I applied for a role surveying disabled access. The company scopes out and is targeted towards disabled people. The website is good to use, the video promoting the role is repetitive in the phrasing, but is very positive, saying how they actively seek out disabled people.   I made enquiries and filled out the application form.   I waited with excitement to hear back, and waited.  I am not a patient woman, so after a few weeks, I asked if they had received my application.   I was told, with such flat enthusiasm, that they'd have a look in a week or so and be in touch.      Over a month passed and still no news. Perhaps I should've taken the modern-day hint, no news is bad news.   I didn't.  I enquired.  The woman said they hired those who were 'highly influential', but I can contact her when I am 'more establishe...

Fantastically Great Women at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre.   I was so excited to hear about this production, but when I made enquiries about the audio description, I was told there was none. Appalled, I wrote to the producer to ask why a show about   women's inequality is happy to discriminate against blind/visually impaired people. I received   an email to say that they had arranged for an audio describer to narrate one of the shows!   Delighted, I shared this across social media to the blind/visually impaired local groups.  Fantastically great women followed Jade, an 11 year old girl who was on a school trip to a museum. Her class leave without her! How could they forget her? Feeling alone and scared as the tannoy announced the museum will close soon, Jade sneaks into the back, which is out of bounds.  There are mannequins of Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot, Jane Austen, who refused to write under a man's name, Marie Curie, whose radiothera...

T he floral Pavilion Theatre is a fairly modern building, having been refurbished in 2007. With 3 floors and 2 theatres, it was updated with wheelchair access in mind.   The ground floor has clear glass automatic doors that are often open. Although it's in a protruding semi-circle shape, the textured darker flooring offers some contrast to those with low vision as you enter the next set of (usually open) doors and into the brightly lit foyer.   The amount of windows lets in lots of natural sunlight from the river Mersey which the theatre overlooks. To the left is the Theatre box office and to the right is the cafe. Tables are well spaced out. Dogs are allowed in too, on the ground floor. At the back are a few couches, comfy, squashy leather chairs, with a low down coffee table between them and chairs are set around the higher tables in contrasting colours, one chair is white and the other is brown so it is easier to distinguish between where each is spaced, the tables hav...

Hello London👋 It's been 2 and a half years since I last visited London and I've missed the hustle and bustle of the big city.  One of my all-time favourite films is Back to the Future. I just love it, it's got it all - sci-fi, comedy and romance. In September 2021, we started phoning the theatre as I heard Back to the Future was on with Audio Description. However, the access line went unanswered. In the end, I missed the one audio-description performance of 2021!  Back to the Future sign At the start of this year, I emailed the theatre to ask when the next audio description show was on. I informed there were none planned. I wrote to the production team who were quite miffed about the misinformation I'd been given as there were two audio-description shows in March! By the time we knew this, there were no wheelchair spaces left. Fortunately, I am able to transfer and the theatre lady (we finally got through on the phone) was very helpful and got us seats near the front, ...

Book Review of "Disability Politics: Understanding our Past, Changing our Future" by Jane Campbell and Mike Oliver What an incredible book!  Told from different people’s perspectives, who took part in creating the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. This tells the story of how it came to be. Beginning in the 1960s, where staff snobbery towards kids of working class backgrounds in schools similar to boarding schools. How, if you became disabled in adulthood, your choices were to manage alone or live in a residential home/hospital ward. There were no carers, PAs or support workers to assist you with an independent life.  One man spoke of inaccessible buildings and how employment was (and still is) impossible, unless you work for less or free. The man spoke of how he telephoned the benefits office from the village phone box every week because he couldn't get in to the building. Only to be told there was nothing available. The book talked about life before the blue badge,...

With a fascinating history of community spirit, the Lady Lever Art Gallery sits in the middle of the quaint village. It has parking outside, both the front entrance and the side, where there's a ramp that zig-zags up to the doors. The ramp isn't great for the visually impaired as its all silver/grey with clear Perspex low-down windows that you have to be careful to avoid. It's free to enter, being a public gallery. As you go from the welcome desk area, it's like entering a rabbit warren and is easy to get lost. One room leads to another and another... Its great, especially if you love art and history. Each room is filled with pieces of furniture, some dating back to 18th century. Many paintings, artefacts and fireplaces were from Lord Leverhulme's collection, who built Port Sunlight Village in March 1888. The wheel chair access is good. The doors and an old wood flooring that doesn't squeak, is good for the tyres to roll on. Tables and exhibition/ informa...