Delay in platform safety markings ‘will put lives at risk for years to come’
The government has been accused of backtracking on one of the key pledges in its new National Disability Strategy, after it admitted that it is likely to take eight years to provide tactile safety markings on every rail platform in the country.
Disabled campaigners said the eight-year delay would put the lives of blind and partially-sighted rail passengers at risk for years to come.
The Department for Transport (DfT) promised last month, as part of the launch of the new cross-government strategy, that it would “work with Network Rail to improve safety with a new programme to install all station platforms with tactile paving”.
But it has now emerged that it will only be installing tactile paving at an initial 200 “priority stations” by next March, and that it was only “aiming” to install the platform edge tactile strips on every platform in Britain.
DfT later told Disability News Service (DNS) that its final deadline to complete the work was not until 2029.
DfT’s original pledge to act on the safety issue came in February, after investigators released a report into the death of a visually-impaired man who fell from a railway platform that had no tactile strip to warn him he was approaching the edge.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch inquiry report found that the failure to fit the platform with tactile markings was a possible causal factor in the accident that led to the death of 53-year-old Cleveland Gervais.
But that report also warned that analysis of information provided by Network Rail showed that only around 60 per cent of British mainline station platforms were fitted with tactile surfaces.
There are about 2,500 rail stations in Britain, and Network Rail says there are 5,500 platforms across its network.
These figures suggest there are about 2,200 rail platforms that are not currently fitted with tactile warning strips.
But DfT announced last week that only an initial 200 stations would have tactile strips fitted by next March.
Andrew Hodgson, president of the National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFB UK), said: “The delay in making tactile paving universal in all stations in the UK is very disappointing and the lack of it places the lives of vision impaired people at risk.
“I would urge that the rail industry makes public the information on whether tactile paving is present at a station.
“That way it makes it easier for vision impaired people to plan their journeys and request assistance in advance if necessary.
“The tragedy, however, is that at many of the stations where there is no tactile paving there will also be no assistance available.
“This means that in practice the freedom of movement of vision impaired people is restricted and their safety placed at risk.”
Sarah Leadbetter, NFB UK’s national campaigns officer, said the eight-year delay in installing tactile markings would put the lives of blind and visually-impaired people at risk for years to come.
She said: “The tactile markings warn us of danger. As a visually-impaired person with a guide dog waiting for a train, with the tactile markings I will know that I am not at the platform edge.
“There need to be tactile markings on all platforms.
“To say in the National Disability Strategy that all platforms will have tactile markings and then not to follow through on what they have said is not very good at all.
“It has only just been published.
“Myself and other blind and visually-impaired people need to be safe when travelling by train, so all platforms need to have this vital safety measure implemented as soon as possible.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “As set out in the National Disability Strategy, we are aiming to install tactile paving on every platform in Great Britain.
“This vital work is being completed as quickly as possible, with the first 200 priority stations being delivered this financial year.”
Network Rail said it would be prioritising stations where there was a higher proportion of blind and partially-sighted passengers.
It said that all its regions had plans to complete the work by March 2029, but this was subject to funding being made available by the government.
Allan Spence, head of public and passenger safety for Network Rail, said: “We know how important an issue tactile paving is to many passengers using our railway, which is why we are accelerating our programme for installation.
“While many station platforms already have tactile surfaces, more than 400 kilometres of tactile paving has to be installed on platforms across Britain to complete the job.
“It is a monumental task but one we are working very closely with our regional teams, ministers, suppliers and train operators to finish as soon as we can.
“Many stations already have tactile edges on every platform, helping safe, independent travel for blind or partially sighted people.
“Some stations that are partially fitted and ones which we know are used by blind and partially sighted people are at the top of our priority list.
“Immediate funding has been agreed to kickstart the extra work and more will follow.”
Meanwhile, DfT has also announced that it has accepted all the recommendations from a review of the new eligibility criteria for the blue badge parking scheme, which were introduced two years ago.
The new rules made it easier for autistic people and others with invisible impairments to secure blue badges, but disabled campaigners raised concerns at the time about how they would work in practice.
The government was forced into making the changes to blue badge guidance because of its previous decision in 2014 to tighten the rules, which led to a judicial review legal case taken on behalf of an autistic man with learning difficulties.
That led to DfT agreeing to review the guidance, and eventually introduce the new rules for local authorities in England, which came into force on 30 August 2019.
Among the new recommendations made in the review, and accepted by DfT, are to publish new guidance on the evidence to be submitted by blue badge applicants, and to improve the online application process through the Blue Badge Digital Service, which is used by nearly 80 per cent of all applicants.
DfT will also now take steps to standardise the assessments used by local authorities, and to monitor blue badge approval rates across councils.
12 August 2021
BBC warned over ‘wildly irresponsible’ documentary on social media ‘fakery’ allegations
Disabled campaigners have warned that a BBC documentary about social media “influencers” allegedly faking their chronic illnesses, and BBC News coverage promoting the programme, were “wildly irresponsible” and risk inflaming the hostile environment they already face.
The documentary, Sickness and Lies, aimed to explore “accusations of fakery” that have been directed at some people with chronic illness with high profiles on social media.
Although there have been occasional, high-profile exposes of people who have invented conditions such as cancer for fame or financial reasons, the documentary – presented by a young disabled journalist – offered no evidence to suggest that these were anything but rare and isolated cases.
Despite the lack of evidence to back up its claims, a BBC News tweet promoting the programme asked: “Are some chronic illness influencers faking it on social media for fame and money?”
It also claimed that the programme had discovered “a new condition”, Munchausen by internet, even though it was first described by a psychiatrist more than 20 years ago.
The BBC News tweet drew scores of angry responses from disabled people with chronic illnesses, who accused the BBC of spreading “harmful rhetoric” and “absolutely irresponsible” journalism.
Many said they already lived in fear of being told they were faking their health conditions, and exist under suspicion, particularly from the Department for Work and Pensions, and that the documentary would only make this worse.
The controversy comes less than a year after disabled campaigners wrote to the BBC to express the “outpouring of hurt and distress” over the decision to broadcast a disabled-led drama that mirrored years of deeply damaging government rhetoric about benefit cheats.
That letter also focused on the damage caused to members of the chronic illness community.
Disabled campaigners have now told Disability News Service (DNS) of their anger and frustration at the new documentary, particularly at an even more inflammatory five-minute version and the tweet sent out by BBC News.
Disabled writer Karl Knights said he believed the programme was “wildly irresponsible” and “downright dangerous” and “contributes to a culture where disabled people are constantly interrogated, always under suspicion”.
He said: “Like so many disabled people, I live in fear of being told I’m faking my disability.
“The reality is, disabled people die because they are not believed.
“Disabled people die when their benefits are cast into doubt, as someone has reported them as ‘faking’.
“A few months ago, the BBC commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act with a number of programmes across TV and radio.”
He said the documentary “confirms what many people have always suspected: that the BBC’s allyship to disabled people is always conditional”.
Catherine Hale, director of the disabled people’s organisation Chronic Illness Inclusion, questioned the timing of the programme and the way it was edited and produced.
She told DNS: “Despite the journalist’s attempts to explore the moral complexities of the issues it deals with, Sickness and Lies was edited, framed and trailed to perpetuate populist preoccupations with illness and disability faking, not to challenge it.
“We know that the mainstream media were happy to create stories about benefit fakes and cheats to shape public attitudes to disabled people at the height of the welfare reforms.
“We have to ask why BBC programmers put out a story about chronic illness fakers now.
“Could it be because we have a green paper on health and disability that focuses on making further cuts to spending on disability benefits?
“Given previous form it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to conclude that Sickness and Lies was edited and produced to re-ignite public fears of disability and illness faking at a time when the government wants to implement a new round of retrenchment.”
But Hale said that the programme was at least “much more nuanced” than its “sensationalist” title and the five-minute version of the documentary, with the documentary interrogating those who accuse people of faking, as much as those who have been accused.
She said: “The subjects who are wrongly accused of faking their illness and become targets of hate crime are portrayed sympathetically.”
But Hale said the documentary “should have been a programme about disbelief, not about faking” because “the oppression faced by disabled people with invisible chronic illness revolves around disbelief”, which is “systemic”.
Sara Rocha, a disabled advocate and writer, said she was questioned about her own impairments – she is autistic and partially deaf – for 30 years.
She said: “The online disabled community saved my life, by sharing their tips, tricks and ideas on how to deal and manage my disabilities, something that no doctor was able to support me with.
“The constant invalidation and gaslighting of our experiences with our disabilities is not new, but with the pandemic, it took terrifying proportions, with the DNR (do not resuscitate) scandal, and the amount of deaths by COVID-19 in the disabled community.”
She said the documentary “took misinformation and cherry-picked opinions from an online chat to invalidate the disability community”, many of whom had lost benefits and other support during the pandemic.
She added: “The faking of disabilities is rare. There are many easier ways to get money online besides faking a disability.
“In fact, in one year, I was only paid once for one of my writings, but I worked daily as an advocate.”
Disabled campaigner and consultant James Lee said the documentary had done “more to endanger rather than educate people about the lives of those living with chronic illness”.
He said: “The title (‘Sickness and Lies’), the narrative and the selection of certain contributors all encourage the viewer to be mistrustful of those with a chronic illness.
“It is the kind of dog-whistle journalism that does not belong at the BBC or any media outlet that values ethics over engagement.
“Chronically ill and disabled people already face a hostile environment: sadly, many people struggle to be taken seriously by the government, employers, friends and family and programmes like this only exacerbate the situation.
“Rather than use the opportunity to be constructive and encourage greater understanding of the challenges that people face, this is little more than clickbait at the expense of people living with chronic illness.”
Disabled campaigner Jemma Brown, who was not diagnosed with her condition until she was 27, said she had been assaulted in the street, threatened with sexual assault and rape, and called a fake, while – as an ambulatory wheelchair-user – she has had people say of her: “She doesn’t need a wheelchair, she can walk.”
She said she feared that “the narrative portrayed by the BBC documentary will make this worse”.
She added: “The BBC documentary comes at a time when disabled people are already facing higher levels of ableism – we are in a time when disabled people and those with chronic illnesses are seen as less worthy of life, with DNRs placed without consent.
“The shocking fact is that two-thirds of deaths from COVID were people with a disability and if you are a woman with higher care needs you are 91 per cent more likely to not survive.”
Disabled activist Caroline Richardson said: “The programme and the tweet hit a raw nerve with both chronically ill and disabled people, as both groups have always been subject to disbelief, but more recently disbelief has been a foundation for increased testing of eligibility for financial assistance.
“The BBC are not innocent in being part of the framing of fakery over the years, and my fear is that programmes of this nature just feed into the idea that there are people ‘faking’ illness, and the belief that Munchausens syndrome(s) are not real illnesses.”
A BBC spokesperson said in a statement: “We felt it was important to investigate this story and give a voice to the lived experiences of those who have chronic illnesses, those who have been wrongly accused of illness faking, and those who have been impacted by Munchausen syndrome (while being clear that the latter condition is rare).
“Throughout the production of this documentary the team thought very carefully about the issues at play.
“The film focusses primarily on the negative impact of the Illness Fakers Reddit group, and its off-shoots, on the two main contributors.
“It does not at any point defend or endorse the Reddit group, while giving those involved a fair right of reply in accordance with the BBC’s editorial guidelines.
“Our intention was never to upset the chronic illness community and we take complaints of this nature very seriously.”
12 August 2021
Minister rejects call for extra time to respond to controversial disability benefits proposals
The minister for disabled people has ignored calls to give disabled people more time to respond to controversial proposals in his disability benefits green paper.
Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and allies have written an open letter to Justin Tomlinson, to warn him that millions of disabled people will not have enough time to engage with his proposals if he does not allow an extension.
But when asked if Tomlinson would provide extra time, a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed to Disability News Service (DNS) this week that the consultation would close as planned after 12 weeks, on 11 October.
The letter was sent by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), who want to see the consultation extended by six weeks.
They point out that the green paper was published on 20 July, just two days before parliament’s summer recess began, but with the standard 12-week consultation timeframe.
In the letter, they say that the timeframe puts disabled people and DPOs “in a position where they are either not able to respond in time, not going to be able to respond properly, or do not have time to engage with the people they work with in developing their responses.
“This will severely impinge upon your ability to pay due regard to the impact on disabled people of the proposals outlined in the paper.”
Caroline Collier, chief executive of Inclusion Barnet, who co-signed the letter on behalf of DBC as its DPOs representative, told DNS that “because these proposed changes could have a significant impact on many disabled people’s lives, it’s imperative that people are given a reasonable length of time to respond”.
She added: “These are lengthy and complex proposals and people will need time to consider them and respond.
“When you also consider the different access issues people may have in engaging with the proposals, I think there is a compelling case for a longer consultation period as a reasonable adjustment.”
Ellen Clifford, a member of DPAC’s national steering group, who also co-signed the letter, said: “Proposals in this green paper will directly impact on the lives of millions of disabled people, potentially in very serious ways, so it’s imperative that there is an opportunity for people to have their say.
“Too often over previous years, changes have been made to the social security system that have caused widespread detriment.
“Measures included in the paper such as merging personal independence payment with universal credit threaten an end to non-means-tested disability benefits which would severely reduce the ability of many disabled people to look for and stay in employment.
“They cannot be taken lightly and legally ministers must take steps to ensure they fully understand the impacts of policies before they introduce them.”
Ella Abraham, policy and campaigns manager for the poverty charity Z2K and DBC’s campaigns co-chair, said: “The health and disability green paper is a really important consultation, with proposals that could have detrimental consequences for disabled people.
“We’re calling on this government to stand by their 2019 manifesto commitment to empower and support disabled people and act as an ally.
“They must at the very least extend the consultation period of the green paper.”
In a press release issued yesterday (Wednesday) to encourage responses to the consultation, Tomlinson highlighted proposals in the green paper on advocacy for benefit claimants, telephone and video assessments, reassessments, and employment support.
But he made no mention of apparent suggestions in the green paper that the government wants to cut rising spending on disability benefits, and that it is considering merging personal independence payment with universal credit.
Following the consultation, detailed proposals will be published in a white paper next year.
A DWP spokesperson refused to say why Tomlinson would not extend the consultation period.
But he said the government was “consulting on how the welfare system can better meet the needs of people with disability and health conditions – now and in the future, in their everyday lives”.
He said disabled people’s “voices, insights and experiences” were “central” to the government’s approach and that “all will be given the opportunity to respond properly in time and in alternative formats to meet their needs”.
12 August 2021
DWP and Royal Mail dispute cause of PIP delays
Disabled people seeking support through the benefits system appear to be facing extra delays of up to six weeks in dealing with their claims, but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Royal Mail are disputing who is responsible.
Claim forms and documents provided by claimants as evidence are apparently being delayed by between four and six weeks before they are scanned onto the department’s IT system, on top of the time it takes to deal with the rest of the personal independence payment (PIP) review process.
Disability News Service (DNS) learned of the delays after being contacted by a disabled woman who had spoken to a call handler at a DWP PIP enquiry centre.
Caren Knight, from Norwich, had requested a PIP award review form because her health condition had worsened since her original claim in 2019, when she had been awarded the standard rate for both mobility and daily living.
She did not seek a mandatory reconsideration of that decision because she found the process “extremely difficult, humiliating and traumatic” and “simply felt exhausted and couldn’t face the process of interrogation and disbelief again”.
She experiences constant pain, mobility problems and extreme fatigue and due to her health worsening since 2019 she is now “housebound” and unable to care for herself, and on the four or five days a week she is restricted to bed, has to go without eating.
She said that without an increase in her PIP rate, she cannot pay for the care worker that would enable her to live independently and remain “in a clean, safe and healthy environment”.
She added: “Everything I need from outside the home such as shopping for food must be done online and must be prepared food due to my dexterity problems.
“This of course is very expensive.”
She filled in the PIP review form and posted it to DWP on 1 July, only to receive a letter two weeks later asking her to complete and return the form she had already sent.
She was told of the delay when she called DWP to find out if the department had received her completed review form.
She said: “I was told that due to a significant problem with the mail handling department, documents were now taking between four and six weeks to be scanned onto their system and thus as far as they were aware my documents had not been received or logged as received.”
She was told the mail handling delays would mean an extra four to six weeks’ wait on top of the time it usually takes to receive a PIP review decision.
She said: “I am in desperate need of a carer but can’t employ anyone to help without this review.”
She said the media appeared oblivious to the problem, while it had been reporting on lengthy delays in handling paper applications by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, blamed on on-site social distancing requirements and industrial action by the Public and Commercial Services Union.
Knight said: “I don’t understand why this is being missed by the media, but it is worthy of acknowledgement that those waiting desperately for PIP payments due to severe ill health are clearly suffering and yet again unheard.”
Less than 48 hours after DNS told DWP of her concerns, she was contacted by the department and told that her review form had been received. The confirmation came nearly six weeks after she sent the form.
A DWP spokesperson said that all documents were being scanned within 24 hours of being received from Royal Mail.
But he added: “Throughout July, Royal Mail has reported national postal delays due to the effects of COVID-19, which have affected some services.
“To limit this impact, we have increased award lengths to allow extra time for PIP forms to be received, issued duplicates when required, and are continually reviewing our processes to best meet the needs of customers.”
But a Royal Mail spokesperson appeared to dispute the accuracy of the DWP statement.
She said: “The health and safety of our colleagues and our customers is our number one priority.
“In a limited number of areas, we are experiencing some disruption to service due to COVID-related absences.
“We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week.
“If resourcing issues, associated self-isolation and safety measures prevent this, we’ll deliver at least every other day.
“It’s only in extreme cases – where offices are severely affected by absence levels – that this may not be possible.”
12 August 2021
DWP figures reveal sharp rise in secret benefit death reviews
New figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have revealed that the number of secret reviews into the deaths of benefit claimants has increased sharply in the last couple of years.
The figures, secured by Disability News Service (DNS) through a freedom of information request, show for the first time how many of the internal process reviews (IPRs) have been launched in each of the last five six-month periods.
They show DWP has been starting an average of 46 to 50 death-related IPRs a year since the start of 2019.
This compares with an annual average of about 21 IPRs completed in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Previous information released by DWP suggested there had been a sharp drop in the number of IPRs commissioned in 2020 and then a sudden increase in the first half of 2021.
But the new figures provide a clearer pattern that suggests a sudden change of DWP policy in late 2018, following the replacement of work and pensions secretary Esther McVey with Amber Rudd.
This appears to have led to a rapid rise in the number of IPRs, with 18 IPRs completed in 2018 following the death of a benefit claimant, but 47 started in 2019.
Figures previously released to DNS showed there were only 49 secret reviews into deaths completed between February 2012 and the autumn of 2014, and just nine between August 2014 and April 2016.
More than a decade of cases have linked DWP’s policies and practices to the deaths of disabled people, particularly those who were being assessed for employment and support allowance and personal independence payment and had experience of mental distress.
Debbie Abrahams, the Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, who has led parliamentary efforts to hold DWP to account on deaths linked to its actions, said: “A government’s first duty is to keep its citizens safe.
“This should be particularly so for the most vulnerable amongst us.
“Whilst this FoI shows an increase in internal reviews, many believe that these deaths are just the tip of the iceberg.
“The government can no longer keep marking their own homework and must instigate a full, independent, public inquiry if they have nothing to hide and truly want to help protect our society’s most vulnerable citizens.”
Asked if its own figures now showed a clear change in policy at the end of 2018, a DWP spokesperson said: “It is absolutely right we carry out internal reviews to check correct procedures were followed in some tragic cases, and identify learning to inform future policy and service.
“In recent years we have significantly strengthened our review team, investing in more support to investigate cases.
“We support millions of people every year and our priority is that they receive the benefits to which they’re entitled promptly, and receive a supportive and compassionate service.”
*The following organisations are among those that could be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article: Samaritans, Papyrus, Mind, SOS Silence of Suicide and Rethink
12 August 2021
Activist’s exposé of social care system shows some ‘live in state of fear’
A disabled activist has used his 35 years of experience as a service-user to write a detailed exposé of England’s social care system.
Donald O’Neal’s book – The Lack of Care Act 2014 – combines detailed research, knowledge built up as a service-user over more than three decades, and 11 interviews he has carried out with other disabled people who use council-funded care.
O’Neal, who lives in a shire county in the south of England, and has a 24-hour care package, says he hopes his book* illustrates “the sad truth of the difference between the rhetoric of what the Care Act 2014 offers and the reality of how adult social care is actually administered”.
He says his book shows how some disabled people are “living in a state of fear, desperation and left to struggle without the appropriate information and care and support they need to live a happy life”.
He describes how many disabled people experience bullying and threats at the hands of social workers and local authority administrators.
Others are driven into debt because of the charges imposed by local authorities, he says.
He adds: “Disabled people should not have to endure a living hell for months or years and take a case to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, just to get the care and support they are entitled to.”
O’Neal has been involved in disability activism since the late 1980s, on issues including independent living.
One of the service-users he includes in the book as a case study is Mary, who had to use a lawyer to challenge her local council when it cut her care package unlawfully from £823 to £430 a week, which caused her “a whole year of unnecessary mental anguish, panic and fear”.
Another, Rosanna, describes how her social workers “kind of scared me into submission and now I just try to cope without them”.
In his own case study, O’Neal describes the threats and bullying he faced from both health and social workers, including a cost-cutting assessment by his health authority, while he describes how social workers told him that if he did not do as he was told, they would cut his funding.
O’Neal describes in the book how disabled people are subjected to council delays in providing their care, unlawful cuts to their support, unfair financial assessments, and local authorities that fail to provide a care package that meets their assessed needs.
He writes that it is “truly appalling and shocking what some disabled people are being made to suffer and for how long they have to suffer and endure terrible circumstances and deficiencies in care”.
O’Neal believes that social care should be free and funded through “general national income taxation”, and he also calls in his book for local authorities to stop wasting their social care budgets on “pointless initiatives” and wasteful care agencies.
He describes how a disabled friend was paying a care agency £200 a day for 24-hour live-in care, and while the care worker was being paid £60 a day, the agency itself was creaming off £140 a day.
His book builds a case for wider use of direct payments – he has been a user of direct payments for more than 20 years – so that disabled people “have greater control over how their care is provided and who provides it”.
But he also makes a case for using self-employed care workers, rather than an individual disabled person using their direct payments to become an employer of care staff.
And he says in his book that disabled people on direct payments need better support to find, employ and manage care workers and personal assistants and to manage their support packages.
He calls for local authorities to do far more to involve service-users to ensure they are “intricately involved at every level” of the social care system.
The best way to do this, he says, is to publicly fund user-led centres for independent living (CILs) in every local authority.
He writes: “The best way to improve how adult social care is administered is by involving the people who are on the receiving end of the system, adult social care users.
“Service users are the most valuable resource that local authorities have and they should be used to improve the system in every area and at every level.”
He adds: “Adult social care has been in crisis for over 20 years.
“I am one of many millions of people who are on the receiving end of a public service that is in continual crisis and I have no idea why it fell into crisis in the first place and why it continues to be in crisis for decades.”
O’Neal also praises the support provided to service-users by CILs like Disability Direct in Derby and Spectrum in Southampton, which also help to shape the care services of their local authorities by providing them with expertise from disabled service-users.
He adds: “There should be a national policy making all local authorities work with user-led organisations and fund user-led organisations.”
He is also highly critical of the way social care is controlled by local councillors.
He writes: “The past few decades have shown that local councillors should not be in charge of how adult social care is administered.
“People who know about adult social care should be involved in managing how adult social care is administered.
“Adult social care users should be intricately involved with the administering of adult social care and should be given decision-making power over how it is administered.”
O’Neal says that successive governments for the last 20 years have failed to fund adult social care adequately.
But he also calls for greater transparency in how local authorities administer adult social care, and he describes how he was forced to submit a freedom of information request to his own local authority because of its failure to be open and transparent about how it calculated people’s care budgets.
He concludes: “The Care Act 2014 does not paint a picture of the ‘promised land’, it is the promised land.
“The problem is that the promise is not being kept.”
*The Lack of Care Act 2014: Service users’ perspectives of a failing adult social care system, is available via Amazon, priced £17.99 in paperback or £8.99 on Kindle
12 August 2021
Disabled fans continue to face barriers to watching live sport, survey shows
A new survey by a disabled-led charity has highlighted the continuing barriers disabled supporters face in accessing sports venues.
Almost a third (30 per cent) of disabled fans who took part in the survey said there were some sports or sporting venues they felt unable to visit because of access failings.
And a similar proportion (32 per cent) said that physical access at stadiums was a barrier to them attending live sport, with 17 per cent highlighting the difficult of buying tickets as a barrier, and 16 per cent pointing to inaccessible public transport.
The survey of disabled fans across England and Wales was the first to be conducted by Level Playing Field (LPF) and will now be carried out annually.
Most of the respondents reported their experiences at football grounds, with about a third saying they supported Premier League (31 per cent) and Championship (34 per cent) football clubs, and another fifth (22 per cent) following League One teams.
More than 1,400 disabled fans took part in the survey, with individualised results being sent to each club that was mentioned by a supporter.
One of the disabled supporters who responded told LPF: “Never underestimate the need for good signage and people to ask.
“I don’t want to get lost because I then have to walk further than necessary and get tired.”
Another highlighted the need for “a room to take insulin – not very hygienic having to use a toilet”.
Many of those who took part in the survey – which put questions to fans between 20 May and 20 June – also raised concerns about returning to watch live sport now COVID-19 restrictions were easing, although nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) said they would want to watch a match “right away” once they were allowed to do so.
But many of those responding highlighted the COVID safety measures they would need clubs to introduce before they would return to watching live sport.
More than three-fifths (62 per cent) said there would need to be sanitising stations, and more than two-fifths (43 per cent) said there would need to be mask-wearing among those attending (except for those who were exempt), while more than a third (35 per cent) said they needed the club to admit only fans who had been vaccinated against the virus.
One question asked which services and facilities disabled fans could benefit from inside stadiums.
Nearly half mentioned accessible toilets (46 per cent), while many others suggested easy access seating (40 per cent), additional legroom (38 per cent) and priority use of lifts (28 per cent).
Tony Taylor, LPF’s chair, told Disability News Service that the answers to this question did not necessarily show that such facilities were not available at sports grounds.
But he added: “Having no access to essential facilities such as accessible toilets and other services should never be an option.
“If this is what fans are experiencing then we are deeply disappointed and those who are charged with delivering these facilities need to be held to account.”
He said that football clubs had “by and large come a long way in terms of access but there is still a lot to do”.
He said LPF had been working with the National League, the fifth tier of English football, on an access charter, while both the Premier League and English Football League (EFL) both offer guidance on access issues to clubs.
He said: “We encourage clubs to work with their disabled fans to make ongoing improvements.”
Taylor said the individualised survey results sent to clubs would “give those clubs a clearer idea of their fans’ experiences and of the improvements they need to make.
“They will also be able to compare their access and inclusion rating against the national average, which we hope will provide the impetus for change.”
He added: “Over the past four years Level Playing Field has worked hard to develop relationships with nearly all clubs across the Premier League and the EFL and we need to utilise this now.”
On COVID, he said it appeared that measures were being put into place to protect fans.
But, he said, “government guidance is not clear and some clubs appear to be waiting for advice from their respective leagues and safety groups”.
He added: “We believe that clubs must engage with supporters and mitigate their concerns about spectating in a safe, secure environment.
“We have heard of clubs providing blocks of seats/areas where there is a greater focus on social distancing, mask use and other safety measures – all of which (certainly in the short term) we would encourage.”
12 August 2021
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
