A damning report revealing the practical and social obstacles faced by families with a severely disabled child when visiting arts and tourism venues has been published by the charity Mencap.
?Arts for all?? tells the personal stories of six families on days out, documenting their struggle to be treated as valued customers. Highlighting the key findings of the report, Mencap?s chief executive, Jo Williams, has drawn attention to ?the cost, inconvenience and unhelpful attitudes from both the staff and the general public [which] can turn what should be an enjoyable occasion into an endurance test.?
Under the Disability Discrimination Act venues have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to give access to disabled people by October 2004, but many of the problems found to face young disabled arts attenders and their families were related to issues other than physical access. Unhelpful and ill-informed staff made many parents reluctant to try to plan days out with their families; access arrangements for disabled children were found to be complicated and inflexible; and there were insufficient seating and rest areas. Families were charged different ticket concession prices at the same venues, and booking tickets proved difficult. The report recommends a range of measures that venues should take, including:
? Front of house staff should be trained in disability awareness and how to deal with different behaviour
? Venues should develop and publicise consistent ticket concessions policies, and provide integrated seating for wheelchairs, to permit families to sit together
? Telephone booking queuing systems should be programmed to answer queries for disabled visitors
? Disabled car parking spaces should be linked to ticket bookings
To help cultural organisations address issues relating to the needs of disabled people, Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries is publishing a series of 12 guides giving advice and information on overcoming barriers and establishing good practice. The guides include one-on-one customer care, giving practical advice for welcoming disabled people with different access requirements, and another which gives advice to organisations needing to improve their accessibility on very low budgets. The Mencap report is at http://www.mencap.org.uk, or through the Learning Disability Helpline t: 0808 808 1111. The Resource guides will be published next week in print and at http://www. resource.gov.uk