Walking down the street, travelling on a train, exploring shops and restaurants, you’re going to come across features every now and then which present obstacles to accessibility
As a consultant trained to identify such issues, I’m more likely than most to recognise accessibility issues where steps, signage, loo layout or whatever make a particular location inconvenient for anybody, and impossible to use for some disabled people.
I’ll generally find more when I’m working because I’ll go looking for them, walking into spaces I wouldn’t normally need to visit, following evacuation routes when there isn’t an emergency, getting out kit to measure the height of steps, width of doorways and gradient of ramps.
But even when I’m not working I’ll come across accessibility problems which stare me in the face, set my ears ringing, and leave me a bit wobbly on my feet. I encountered all of these during a recent stay in an otherwise very nice hotel, and you won’t find any mention of them in the brochure or on the website.
Disruptive ambient noise, tiny font and a lack of concern from upper management
In the hotel room there was a folder which included a welcome to the pub and hotel, a guide to the local area and details of the wi-fi. It was all very helpful information, or it would have been if it had been more legible.
Even with the right glasses on I couldn’t read it because the font was so small and also in a handwriting style, so it came across as no more than scrawl on a page.
There was also a problem with a door banging somewhere, with the noise echoing round my room. It turned out to be coming from the kitchen on the ground floor and obviously it would be even louder in rooms that were closer.
If you are visually impaired, and maybe if English isn’t your first language, you would struggle to read the contents of the folder.
Someone who is neurodiverse would struggle with the noise. When I complained about the door I was told it would stop at 10pm when the kitchen closed, but that’s no use to people who need an early night for an early start, or to someone who wants a quiet space because they are working. And then it starts again early in the morning when the kitchen opens!
A third problem was the sound of a motor that was running during the night. Similar to the sound of an extractor fan, it ran for about 10 seconds, stopped for the next 10 seconds, then started again. You get the pattern, but I never did get to the bottom of that one.
As it happened I had a great night’s sleep, the staff were brilliant and so was the food. It was just these things that made my stay a little difficult.
The management knew about the door but not the other issues. I sent them an email, as invited by the website, but a week later they had not replied. That indicates it’s not a priority for them.
Consider how your site interacts with the surrounding area- such as an unsuitable car park
Another issue –one which would be costly to rectify and is out of the hotel’s control – is the car park. It’s probably the worst I have seen in such premises. It was cobbled, not in an attractive way, and really uneven – worse than a ploughed field in some areas. That does present problems, especially for people who have limited mobility.
With the exception of the car park, all the issues should all be easy to fix, and especially in a hotel that is part of a chain – and that has an access statement on its website.
The management said they had reported the door and were waiting for someone to fix it. They should push harder. The mystery motor might be more complex but still needs addressing.
The access statement advises people before they arrive that the upper floors of the building can only be accessed by stairs. Why not add a line about the terrain in the car park?
And why not also use it to present a more accessible version of the contents of that folder? Something with a more user-friendly and adjustable font? Maybe even a button that activates an audio version?
The difference between coming across such issues in a place which I’m not actually assessing is that they don’t go into a report. But I still make the management, owners or other relevant people in authority aware of the issues because if you don’t then they’re likely to remain oblivious to the issues or just assume that nobody has been inconvenienced.
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