A wheelchair sign mounted on a wall. Photo: By Waldemar on Unsplash.
On a roll: Klaus Huber ramps up the access
‘Accessibility is not only about welcoming wheelchair users.’
In 2012, when I arrived in Bradford on Avon as the new Meeting house warden, I was pleased to see that there was wheelchair access and an accessible toilet. When opening the door to this, the sight was as follows: a toilet at the far end, and next to it a large space filled with traffic cones, a wheelchair ramp, and a folded-up wheelchair.
It was years later, as I contemplated the set of bars around the space, that I had a sudden realisation: the space is supposed to be left empty, so that a wheelchair user can park their wheelchair in it and then use the bars to lift themselves onto the toilet seat. Pretty obvious, once you switch on your brain! I was rather disturbed to realise that it had taken me ten long years to do so. Although I was the first person in my Meeting to have this flash of insight, this was far from being a consolation to me – rather, it was devastating to consider how widespread this kind of ignorance is.
The traffic cones, ramp and wheelchair have since found other places on our premises. The accessible toilet is now finally truly accessible.
‘The road to becoming fully accessible continues to be bumpy’
But the road to becoming fully accessible continues to be bumpy. I recently had an enquiry from a hirer about wheelchair access. Rather than saying ‘Yes, of course we have that’, I vaguely remembered having seen something somewhere about our internal doors not being up to the standard specifications for wheelchair access. I was also reminded of the struggle we had on holiday when trying to figure out whether or not my brother-in-law’s lightweight electric wheelchair would fit onto a tourist boat. So I took some measurements and researched the standards and recommendations. The result was that, while many wheelchair users can get into our main Meeting room and library, those with heavy-duty electric wheelchairs (with big batteries and wide tyres) would be restricted to our corridor and the accessible toilet. So, next on the list is to widen the door into the main Meeting room by five inches, which will bring it up to the recommended width.
Accessibility is, of course, not only about welcoming wheelchair users. People with visual impairments can be much helped by high-contrast yellow lines to mark the steps. And the most common disabilities, hearing loss and deafness, can be addressed, to some extent, by hearing loops. (In this area, too, however, ignorance appears to be widespread, judging from the number of occasions I have witnessed Friends shuffling around and causing all kinds of background noise the moment another Friend stands up to offer spoken ministry.)
Not all accessibility amendments are so easy. Bright lights are very useful to help people to lip-read, but they may also cause migraines in some people. A bumpy road indeed.
