Access: Think beyond level access entry

Are you organising a Labour Party meeting of any kind? Well, if you are here are a few tips to ensure you make the meeting as inclusive as you can for disabled people. My suggestions are not exhaustive, but are made to give organisers an idea of some ways to meet access needs. 

Access goes beyond disabled people's needs. Access can include child and general care needs, times of meetings, etc. 

Level access spaces. ‘Changing Places’ standard facilities for disabled people. Loop systems affording people with hearing impairments the opportunity to fully participate. Well lit spaces allowing better access for people with vision impairment. Paperwork in a variety of colours and formats to suit people with neurodiversity differences. 

And the list goes on.

Great. So, here we have a space that allows disabled people participation to meetings. Except…it doesn’t.

No, meeting the physicality of access needs is only part of the process. The space available needs now to be mapped out. If the space is designed to house 100 people seated, then this the number allowed into the meeting. This is to a) Comply with Fire Regs, b) Meet Health and Safety Regs, and c) Ensure a free flow of movement for all present.

Seating needs to be placed in such a way as to allow people to move to and fro with the least effort. Aisles must be wide enough for wheelchairs to comfortably navigate. All aisles must be kept clear including aisles adjacent to walls and doorways. Latecomers often enter meetings and congregate around doorways. 

Meeting organisers need to appoint stewards to ensure that full access is maintained throughout meetings. The stewards would be responsible for keeping aisles clear, guiding latecomers to vacant seats, assisting disabled people if and where necessary, operating roving mics, etc. 

When making vocal contributions people should be aware that even though they have a stentorian voice and don’t think a mic is needed, the mic allows people using hearing aids to pick up sounds. The Chair should include in their ‘housekeeping’ announcements the importance of people waiting for a roving mic.

Booking an accessible venue is only the first part of ensuring full access for disabled people.

Of course, if someone is trying to get past you in a tight space, moving 90° assuming a sideways profile and tucking in your tummy will probably afford the other person free passage. 

This doesn’t work for us wheelchair users. We can’t make the profile of our machines smaller nor do we have parts that conveniently tuck away.

At last weeks Dulwich and West Norwood CLP meeting I was met once again with access difficulties. Feelings of déjà vu predominate my mind when I arrive at almost every Labour Party event I attend.

This occasion on entering the meeting room I was confronted with several people who were standing along a wall blocking an already very narrow aisle. Eventually, the penny dropped and the people blocking ingress moved out of the way. However, by the time I had settled myself behind the last row of attendees, I noticed the people blocking the doorway and aisle resuming their former positions.

When I made a point of order the Chair asked for the space around the door and adjacent aisle to move. You’d have thought the Chair had posed a really challenging task for these people to perform.

What part of “Could you please leave enough room for people including wheelchair users to move around”, they couldn’t process beats me. 

The guest speaker then gave an excellent presentation on the issue of anti-Semitism. Sadly, the sound system decided to play up and she delivered her contribution without the benefit of a mic.

As the next guest speakers began a man walked into the room with an armful of chairs. He then positioned the chairs blocking me in. At that point, I realised I was wasting my time and I left.

I won’t be attending future DaWN CLP meetings until I receive assurances that I can attend without becoming the focal point of events. Being the center of attention as chairs and people move around is not my idea of fun. I simply want to attend meetings and take part in the proceedings under my own terms, not those set by the thoughtless actions of others.

Impose a regime of stop and search on the middle-classes

Stop and Search is tactic the police practice, predominantly, on young black men or men of colour. The rationale behind this trend is that these demographic groups are most likely to be involved in street criminality, such as drug dealing.

The policy of Stop and Search is counterproductive, in that it hasn't made any inroads into the illegal drugs market. Instead, it serves only to further alienate the police amongst many within black communities.

While society looks down and frowns upon drug pushers, it seems to ignore that the illegal drug market is a two-way street. Why isn't society as critical of drug buyer as it is of the seller, pusher?

Sadiq Khan has voiced his concerns of people from the middle-classes fuelling the cocaine market, which in turn triggers the drug-related gang violence.

In September the Guardian reported the following:

"Middle-class people consume more alcohol and illegal drugs than those living below the poverty line, according to a report by a cross-party group of academics and campaigners."

Again, pointing to the middle-classes and illegal drug use. Recently Richard O'Brien, on LBC, posited the idea that since the middle-classes are part of the illegal drug problem in London and by association the gang-violence, that the police should extend stop and search to white middle-class people.

Imagine such a policy being introduced. The howls of indignation emanating from the gentrified corners of Brixton, Clapham, into Battersea and Chelsea. Cries of infringement of civil liberties. Denunciation of the Met from the Ham and High. Hooray Henry's in Sloane Square sweating every time a panda car passed by. 

Of course, the very idea is ludicrous. Why would you impose such draconian measures upon an entire demographic section of our society to punish the deeds of the few?

You know where I'm going with this, don't you?

Empty apologies from my Labour Party Branch

While it pains me to say what I'm about to say, it doesn't surprise me. Labour's Coldharbour Branch is an exclusive club.

Last Thursday I went along to the monthly Labour Party Coldharbour Branch meeting. Again I was confronted with an access issue. The meeting was held in a venue with a high step at the entrance and door too narrow to allow my wheelchair ingress. 

Most of the members came out of the meeting room, so once more I became the focus of attention. That fucking nuisance making life difficult, again!

Of course, I accepted their apologies for not being able to take part, and I went home.

Today I received a copy of the Minutes of the meeting from which I was excluded. No mention of Sean McGovern in the apologies. Indeed no mention of any access issues at all. 

So, not only was I excluded from the meeting, but the Branch appears to be comfortable within itself to ignore the incident.

The Minutes themselves are also rather interesting when a discussion took place around equality. It was minuted that: 

"There was also in place a programme to fast-track BAME leaders and a programme to examine unconscious bias."

Oh, the fucking irony! 

There was also mention of the Equalities Commission report. I wonder, do any in the Branch know how many disabled service users or Disabled People's Organisations were on that the Commission?

There were none. Back in November, or maybe December, 2016 Lambeth Council held a presentation on the forthcoming Equalities Commision they were initiating in order to, I'm guessing, improve services for those who sit under the equalities umbrella (or at least those invited in out of the rain).

The council officer ran through a list of organisations and businesses. There were twenty-some, as I recall. On spotting that there were none of the Commissioners came from DPOs or disabled service users, I asked why.

The council officer looked at me as though I as though I was a Cobynista at a Progress poison pen night. Noticing that the officer was struggling, the Chair of the event moved the business along - as is the wont of a Chair.

After a few more hasty words the council officers thanked us all for our attention and the meeting moved to roundtable discussions; from which each table was asked to present the three main issues that would be fed through to the Commission. 

There were six tables, and so six spokespeople. Every single table had as their priority issue...REPRESENTATION OF DISABLED SERVICE USERS AND DPOs ON THE COMMISSION.

Did the Commision listen? No, they didn't. Back in the summer, this same non-representative body invited me to speak at an event in the new building in Brixton. The event was to discuss the Commissions findings.

My initial reaction was to ignore the invitation. However, the organiser of the event telephoned me and we had a long and very frank discussion. Lambeth Council, I argued, had totally ignored the disabled community in the borough forging ahead with a set of findings that in no way reflected the needs and concerns of many disabled service users. 

When I arrived I found that I wasn't a guest speaker, no instead I could ask a question from the floor on a disability issue to a group of Council Officers none of whom represented the disabled community. 

I declined the offer as I refused to legitimise a Kangaroo Commission set up by a disablist council that has the temerity to think it can make decisions for disabled people without the input of disabled people.

NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US

Pick up your wheelchair and walk I was advised

For me, Labour Party Branch meetings are mostly terra incognita. The underlying reason for my absences from these meetings is the general lack of access. In the first place, meetings don't begin until 7.30 pm. As Thursday is a work day I am physically exhausted by 8-8.30 pm, and running on fumes.

Yesterday evening as I was feeling unusually alert I decided to give the meeting a go. However, on arrival at the venue, I found a 6"+ step barring my access. 

On learning I was outside several of the branch members came outside to discover what was the issue. One kindly gentleman offered to carry me in. "No thanks," I replied "I like to preserve my dignity when I can" I finished, tetchily. 

Ideas such as laying a folded table down to act as a ramp or using a decidedly fragile looking whiteboard to serve the same purpose were proffered. It then transpired that the inner doorway wasn't wide enough to allow my wheelchair to pass.

After some very kind words and profuse apologies all around I departed, homeward bound. 

Back at home, my PA told me that one man, out of earshot from me, wondered why I didn't get out of the chair and enter the building. I'm now wondering, is this stranger a modern-day Jesus? Why didn't he approach me and say "Sean, get up, pick up your wheelchair and walk"?