Here’s a insight into the disabled access at IP Expo – one of those big conferences they hold at Earls Court – from a friend of BBS.
I went to IP Expo today… well of course it’s a strain on the sanity to be there at all… but worse for some than others…
One of the things that you can do job-wise, no matter who you are – so long as you have the aptitude and the energy – is carve out a successful career in IT … 🙂 So it’s not a huge surprise to see people with various disabilities at one of the biggest events of the Information Technology calendar: IP Expo at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. Over the course of the year some of the biggest and best of the UK’s public sales events take place right here……so you’d think they’d be really good at it, right?
I asked a guy in a wheelchair what he thought about the event from a disabled standpoint (or sitpoint):
He said he could see that they had tried a bit. So… the disabled toilet was there, and functioning with the full set of bars, the right space and easy access…. BUT…. And it’s a big but… the signage for the toilets was set too low for a wheelchair user to see. So basically, to see where the disabled toilets were you had to be right in front of them or be a standing person.
No-one thought during the design of the event that maybe they should check whether a person in a wheelchair could actually see the signs that were targeted at them…. And since my wheelchair guy couldn’t find anyone from the event organizers to give him a clue he wheeled around most of the space (and it’s a big space) till he eventually found where it was hiding…. And unfortunately when he got there… they were none too clean…
He also commented on the stand access. Most stands had wheelchair access (yay!) but the definition of that ‘access’ was, at times, a tiny bit stretched. Some stands were steep, some had lips and small steps, and some were just plain impossible… so strong arms and the help of a third party being pretty much pre-requisites for the day.
He also commented on the transport access to get to Earls Court. Some trains are fabulous with adequate ramps and helpful staff, but the one he took today provided a dangerous and hair-raising ramp that needed all his strength and balance to negotiate successfully. If he had just tried to wheel down normally he would had crash landed and fallen forward.
So yes… IT Expo is open to everyone, Earls Court is open to everyone…. But really?…. Event organizers and TFL maybe should try harder…
Ann