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ACCESSIBILITY: Disabled sports fans face disadvantage due to stadia layout

Muscular Dystrophy UK has updated its Move the Goalposts national survey of stadium accessibility for young disabled people, and published its suggestions of how stadiums can improve access for disabled people. The report also makes clear how a full-day stadium visit is a valued experience for disabled people, making them excellent customers of club and venue.

Half of young disabled sports fans are forced to sit away from their friends and family at live games in Britain, while others have been shut-out altogether, according to the survey,  It found that disabled sports fans faced a distinct disadvantage in attending live events due to stadia layout and accessibility. Despite their clear passion, and with disabled households having a spending power of over £200 billion*; the charity is concerned that disabled people are being shut-out and put off from sports venues across Britain.

The UK-wide report finds:

  • Half have had to sit away from family and friends.
  • Some disabled fans face intimidation and feel in danger by having to sit with opposing fans (one in three had to do so)
  • Nearly nine out of ten feel disadvantaged by the ticket booking system.
  • Shocking accounts of disabled fans forced to sit in the rain, with over half having had to sit in an unsheltered seating area
  • One in four say that venue access, including parking, is the number one reason for not attending more sporting events.
  • Almost half call for accessible toilets to be improved.

Harriet Butler, 24, Worcestershire, a wheelchair user said:

I’m such a huge sports fan. Going to cricket, football and rugby is a big part of who I am. The whole day out is a great release and occasion. You just can’t beat the excitement of a good match. Sadly though, disabled people like me are at a huge disadvantage in enjoying the games we love.

I’m almost always split up from family and friends as there is only one space for a carer. Sport for me is all about the day out, being together, sharing the highs and lows. Ticketing too is awkward with a costly, understaffed helpline. Sometimes disabled sports fans like me are left feeling like an afterthought when we love sport as much as anyone else.

The charity is calling for:

  • Accessibility to be placed at the heart of all future venue design and renovation.
  • The establishment of a sports fan access group to regularly to discuss necessary changes
  • Wheelchair users to have the choice of sitting in larger groups, instead of pairs.
  • Venues to liaise with disability groups including Trailblazers to discussing improving the experience of disabled sports fans.
  • Venues to improve accessible toilets and boost the number of disabled parking spaces.

Mitchell Coles, 24, Bristol, a wheelchair user said:

Football is a big part of my life. There is nothing better than supporting the team you love when a goal goes in. Some modern stadia do really well at accommodating disabled people. Others lack the facilities and it seems as if they don’t care, which is tragic because we want to support as much as anyone.

I’m always let down by not being able to sit with the people I go with, particularly my brother. Sport is all about the day out with company, it would be great to feel part of the crowd and action. We just want to enjoy the game on a level with everyone else.

Tanvi Vyas, Manager, Muscular Dystrophy UK Trailblazers said:

It is disappointing that four years after the big promises of a Paralympic legacy, so many disabled people are clearly frustrated, limited and let down by their sporting experience. That they feel shut-out from events they love due to venue layout and accessibility is a national disgrace.

If venues recognised not only the passion of disabled sports fans, but the two hundred billion spending power of disabled households, then everyone would gain from better inclusion. We urge the sports industry to put accessibility at the heart of stadium design and renovation, and to engage with charities like ours so every sports fan, regardless of disability, can follow their passion.

*Mark Harper, Minister of State for Disabled People (July 2007 to May 2010)

ACCESSIBILITY: Level Playing Field evidence to Accessibility of sports stadia inquiry

Joyce Cook OBE, Chair, Level Playing Field, and Ruth Hopkins, General Manager, Level Playing Field, recently gave evidence to the Accessibility of sports stadia inquiry. Read her comments in full, which include her concern about the amount of excuses that still abound that it is not possible; it is too expensive. She says that with smart, low-cost solutions very much is possible. But that it is not all only about infrastructure. There are lots of other aspects in regards to service and information.

Below is Joyce Cook’s opening statement. The full evidence is on parliament’s web site.

First of all, thank you very much for inviting us. We are really delighted that the Select Committee is focused on our topic. It is something we have been passionate about for a very long time and been aware that it has been a serious issue for a very long time. If we just reflect, the Disability Discrimination Act first came into practice 20 years ago and here we are, after all of this time, still in this current situation. Yes, there is rightly progress, but we still have a great deal to do.

One of the biggest concerns I have is the amount of excuses that still abound that it is not possible; it is too expensive. We have endless examples where with smart, low-cost solutions very much is possible. It is not all only about infrastructure. There are lots of other aspects in regards to service and information. If I may I will just touch on a few of those now.

Our primary focus has been over the years on football, but from 2008 we began to get involved with other sports. We have a feel for other sports, but our real intelligence, for want of a better description, is around football and our day-to-day work is largely on football, although we have had some great interaction and really positive steps with cricket, premiership rugby and rugby league more recently.

I think it is worth us all remembering that this is the largest minority group. We talk about disabled people; we talk about 15% of the population and rising. I think we often forget that. This is a very large number of people that I think at the moment are getting a really raw deal. What is clear to me and to us as an organisation is that disabled fans in particular realised from the great experiences and positive experiences they had around London 2012 just what they were missing at matches week in, week out. We saw a significant increase in complaints after that because, quite rightly, their expectations were raised.

It is also worth noting that it is much more than just being about a football match. It is about a sense of belonging, well-being, self-esteem. We often forget that. We quite rightly talk about the health benefits of sports participation for disabled people, but the well-being, social inclusion, removal of isolation and so on is critically important. We have examples. My own example: I spent two years when I became disabled just before I was 40 that I did not leave the house. I look back; I was probably depressed. I stopped engaging with life, yet I had had a really busy job—I had worked as a sales manager in Europe—a busy social life, and I completely withdrew from the world. A game of football gave me my life back and we have endless similar testimony. It is about so much more but, of course, it is about the basic right to be able to do what everybody else maybe takes more for granted.

We have issues with disabled people who want to go to matches with family and friends and have to sit in a different stand. We have issues whereby disabled football fans, where it is so important to sit with your own fans, are having to sit as away fans with the home fans, often complaining that they are asked to hide their team colours, not to celebrate goals. We have lots of incidents where disabled people go to a football match, particularly ambulant disabled fans and wheelchair users, whereby they sit and at every exciting moment of the game the crowd stands up to watch a goal being scored or to watch a free kick being taken or whatever it might be and they miss those critical moments. That is all part of being in the stadium and enjoying that. These may be fans that have travelled half the country and, with respect, although public transport is greatly improving, it can still be a real challenge as a disabled person.

That touches on another issue. If we think about a disabled person who decides they want to go to a sporting event, they have to think about, first of all, how am I going to get there; how am I going to get a ticket; what is it going to be like when I am there; I particularly need reassurance that I am going to be properly accommodated; will there be toilets I can use, all those things that most of us just instinctively accept that it will all be laid on for us.

Most of the websites are still inaccessible, some completely inaccessible. If I use voice-activated software as a blind person, for example, the websites are inaccessible. The places where the information lies around clubs and stadiums, if it does exist on the website, it varies where it is located. It is like a whole exercise in detecting to be able to find that information in the first place, and mostly you cannot.

Lifts

Facilities for the blind (RNIB)

Sensory

Ergonomics