A government report released during the summer prompted About Access to pay particular attention to some of the disabling features which people encounter in everyday life, as Ian Streets explains
The report from the Disability Unit, which is part of the Cabinet Office, draws on information collected by the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) on how to make products and services better for older and disabled people.
The team behind the project conducted surveys and ran focus groups
Among the findings was that disabled customers faced more problems with using shops than any other kind of business, but that doesn’t get hotels, restaurants and cafes off the hook.
The researchers also found out that people with different disabilities are often affected by different businesses. People with a learning disability often faced problems with using wellbeing services and household services, and people with a vision impairment often faced problems with using technology services, like phones or computers.
At the heart of the research is analysis of the customer journey
That’s something we always flag up as part of our work because it’s surprising how many issues are simple to identify and remedy. Indeed, many sensible modifications can make life easier for everybody, not only disabled people.
A recent example we came across involves a hotel where the layout of rooms on our floor was just too hard to fathom. There was a long corridor with various others running off it, and a system for numbering rooms which just doesn’t make sense. In such a scenario you rely more than ever on the signage, but that was poorly designed with directional arrows in the wrong place and with zero attention paid to applying effective tonal contrast.
If you get these things right you give yourself so much more flexibility when it comes to allocating rooms. For example someone who has a visual impairment will not necessarily need to book an accessible room because they might not need the extra space, but whatever room they have, they need to be able to find it.
Once inside the room we found a number of issues which, if resolved, would make a standard room more accessible. The bed was a raised plinth with the mattress on top of that. It was very nice and stylish but too low, and people who have problems with hips or knees will struggle.
In the bathroom, the tap has a push button operation but there was nothing to indicate that. Inexplicably, the loo roll sat in a hole in the wall so you needed two hands to use it. Looking at photographs online of other rooms it seems the hotel has various approaches to storing loo rolls – some on hooks, some on shelves, some hidden away.
What helps one person may hinder another
In a gallery we visited we were encouraged to see that the café had a low level water fountain which is designed to be accessible to someone who uses a wheelchair or is short of stature. However the cutlery is on a higher shelf and beyond their reach.
The seating area had comfortable chairs but poor circulation space. If a seat becomes available in the middle of the seating area someone with walking aids or an assistance dog won’t be able to get to it because the seats are too close together.
Elsewhere we found a parade of shops where a restaurant had closed and reopened as a takeaway. There’s a ramp leading to the front door but the threshold is substantial enough to make it inaccessible to wheelchair users. If they try to lean back to raise the front of the chair there is a risk they will tip over.
Sadly, there’s no evidence that the ramp was planned or installed by anybody who knew what they were doing. It’s too small and too steep and it doesn’t have a level top landing, where users will encounter a significant obstacle. They don’t even score points for putting in a ramp, because the execution is so poor it doesn’t benefit anybody.
There are many more examples of everyday scenarios that people take for granted
If you use a walking stick and you need to wash your hands how do you operate such facilities as a tap, the soap dispenser, paper towel dispenser?
Many people who have an impairment don’t necessarily need an accessible loo. They just need a loo where a bit of thought has been applied to the design to make sure the most important elements are easy to reach and operate, because walking across a room with wet hands creates problems for everybody.
The report from the Disability Unit makes its key points in very simple terms and should be used to raise awareness of the obstacles which disabled people face and how they can be addressed.
However it should not be used as a DIY guide on how to put things right. The modifications and adjustments required can be costly and complex, and they need to be carried out correctly.
The post Everyday scenarios highlight the range of obstacles facing disabled people appeared first on Planning, Building & Construction Today.
