Ian Streets from About Access discusses the unseen importance of accessibility in any part of the built environment
It’s far from obvious what connects a film set in London with an old prison in Wales, or a university campus in Lincolnshire with a wetland in Cambridgeshire, but we could be called to any of them at almost any time.
The link is that all the sites need to be as accessible as possible, and we advise on how to achieve that. Not that these locations account for the entirety of our case load. Our work takes us across the UK and, increasingly, around the world.
Accessibility requirements come in all shapes and sizes
The nature of the job is extremely varied, as are the places in which we operate, and the reason for that is straightforward – people can encounter access challenges in any environment, even those where accessibility is good.
The film sets sound glamorous but we go in when the celebrities are elsewhere. The idea is to make sure they are accessible for the stars of a show and for anybody else who needs to use the space, which might include people building the sets, technicians working on sound and light, film crews, and more.
Most of the sets we’ve worked on are in the London area but some are elsewhere in the UK. We look at production offices, dressing rooms and the sets themselves, some of them for very well-known films and TV shows. The constant with all of them is that everything is top secret. We can’t divulge anything we come across. So, moving on…
We travelled to Ruthin in North Wales to assess Nantclwyd y Dre historic house and garden and the nearby Ruthin Gaol Museum, both of which are steeped in history. The Nantclwyd y Dre townhouse dates back to 1435 and tells the stories of some of the people who have lived and worked there over the years.
The gaol is said to be the only purpose-built Pentonville style prison open to the public as a heritage attraction. Dating back as far as 1775 it sheds light on how the prisoners lived their daily lives – what they ate, how they worked, and the punishments they suffered.
Both sites appeal to a variety of visitors and the operators are aware of their responsibility to accommodate them safely and comfortably. There have been some modifications to each property and an ongoing question is whether they can do any more and whether they can get the funding to do it.
The project at the university involved working with them to improve the accessibility of the ground floor of an old building which has been modernised over the years. It dates back to the mid-19th century and the original part provides a lecture theatre and some large meeting rooms. In the rest of the building, mainly the newer parts, there are some admin areas, teaching space, and breakout facilities for staff and students.
Where you have a mix of historic and new developments it’s not unusual to come across a few oddities, as we found here. For example the newer areas are not accessible because the only accessible entrance takes you into the older part of the building. However the older part isn’t accessible either because it has steps part of the way along a corridor.
Accessibility is important in outdoor areas too
Our work with the Wetland Trust in Cambridgeshire is just one reminder that accessibility is important indoors and outdoors. We could have reported on beaches and a lighthouse in Northern Ireland.
The Trust commissioned us to assess a wildlife sanctuary and conduct an access audit in readiness for investing in a proposed improvement programme. The facility in Cambridgeshire has a visitor centre which was built earlier this century, and there are also some cottages which are holiday lets.
Our work involved looking at the visitor centre, the hides and the access routes to them. The overall aim is to improve accessibility across the board, and following that project we are now in discussions about working with the RSPB.
Further afield we’ve been assessing the admin areas at an office and manufacturing facility in Slovenia, conducting remote discussions about redeveloping an historic site to create a new tourist attraction in Gibraltar, and delivering training to help facilities and estates professionals within the NHS address accessibility issues at hospital sites.
Accessibility must be a key consideration of design
Accessibility applies everywhere and is recognised as a human right. Failure to make places accessible can contravene the Equality Act 2010 and as a company we have developed the experience to work in all these different environments.
The implications of breaching the Act are not as widely understood as they should be. That’s why we sometimes receive calls at short notice, why completed work occasionally has to be undone at great expense after accessibility has been overlooked, and why we offer regular reminders.
If you want some work doing on a building you will go to an architect and a builder and they will design and build something for you. But you need a qualified access consultant to advise on whether the building is accessible, how it could be made more accessible and what sort of problems – including cost and possible legal action – you might encounter if it is not accessible.
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