Articles in Accessibility

Articles in Accessibility

A bus driver is holding the wheelchair of a disabled person as it is cautiously lowered down a short ramp from a bus. A woman is also holding the wheelchair at the rear. The wheelchair user looks cautious. Image copyright Alamy

BuDS Calls For More Accessible Buses

Ben Clark

BuDS knows that bus services are still inaccessible for many disabled people, and we welcome the Government announcement of further grants to help bus operators make their vehicles more accessible. Our member, Fiona, spoke to the media about how buses disable her in her everyday life.

She told Greatest Hits Radio that the system currently isn’t working.

She said: “Getting on the bus is fairly straightforward, most of the buses now have a ramp that flips out from the floor.”

“Getting past the driver’s cab and into the wheelchair spot is not so easy in some cases because some of the buses are designed with a very narrow gap.”

“It usually means I can’t travel on my own, I have to have my partner with me to physically take my power chair out of power mode and push it manually through the gap because it’s just too narrow.”

You can read the full article, and the Government announcement, using the buttons below.

Fiona’s Interview
Government Announcement
Four people wearing outdoor clothing and hi-vis jackets standing in a wood next to a information board. One of the people is a wheelchair user. They are smiling at the camera, although muddy and tired.

BuDS Fair4All Access & Inclusion Survey At Whiteleaf Cross

Ben Clark

On Thursday 16th March, a group of disabled volunteers from BuDS visited the nature reserve at Whiteleaf Cross and Brush Hill, Princes Risborough, to carry out a Fair4All Access & Inclusion Survey on behalf of the Chiltern Conservation Board. This was a paid survey, but the conclusions made and recommendations given are entirely that of BuDS, and are not influenced in any way by the Chiltern Conservation Board.

To learn more about Fair4All Access & Inclusion Surveys from BuDS, click here.

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Guide & Assistance Dog Refusal

Ben Clark

As a community of disabled people, we are well aware that assistance dog refusal happens frequently and is deeply distressing and damaging for disabled people who rely on the support of an animal. There is no excuse for refusing an assistance animal and it is of course illegal to do so. We are aware that disabled people with assistance dogs are often verbally and sometimes even physically abused when they try to exercise their legal right to take their dogs with them, and we unreservedly condemn any rudeness or abuse. Anyone who abuses a disabled person in Buckinghamshire for any reason can expect to hear from us!

As a charity, we have worked for over a decade to stop assistance animals being refused in Buckinghamshire. Our pre-pandemic project Fair4All Taxis successfully ended most assistance dog refusals by taxi drivers and our rapidly-growing Fair4All Card helps disabled people who use an assistance animal to assert their legal rights.

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A BuDS Access & Inclusion survey taking place at Chiltern Open Air Museum, Bucks. A group of disabled people are seen leaving the "Tin Church"

How Accessible and Inclusive is Chiltern Open Air Museum?

Ben Clark

On Sunday 25 September, a BuDDy tour of 10 disabled people made an escorted visit to the Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) to assess its disabled accessibility1 and inclusion.2 They also looked at Covid safety, particularly for disabled, older and clinically-vulnerable (CV) people.

The BuDDy tour captured the experiences and views of a wide and mixed group of disabled and CV people on a typical tourist visit to the site, and flagged up areas for future action. Although the BuDDy tour was escorted by COAM staff, it was completely independent of the Museum.

The Tour followed a preliminary escorted reconnaissance visit on 15 September.

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BuDDy Tour of Chiltern Open Air Museum Assesses Disabled Accessibility

Ben Clark

Ten disabled volunteers from disability charity Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) have spent a day at the Chiltern Open Air Museum near Chalfont St Giles, helping to improve accessibility for disabled people.

The trip, called a BuDDy Tour, is one of several taking place to Buckinghamshire tourist destinations and visitor attractions as part of the charity’s new Fair4All Visitor project. This project, backed by Buckinghamshire Business First and Visit Buckinghamshire, aims to help Buckinghamshire businesses become more successful by improving and publicising their disabled accessibility and inclusion. Learn more about the Tour here.

The BuDDy Tour is part of Visit Buckinghamshire: Boost programme of support being delivered in partnership by Visit Buckinghamshire, Buckinghamshire Business First and Buckinghamshire Council, and funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund.

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BuDS staff and volunteers wearing masks stand around the statue of Sir Ludwig Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville Stadium

BuDDy Tour to Assess National Paralympic Heritage Trust Phone App

Ben Clark

As part of the BuDS Fair4All Visitor project, a ‘BuDDy tour’ of six disabled people from BuDS visited the Paralympic Heritage Trust at Stoke Mandeville Stadium on 4 September 2022. The purpose of the visit was to assess and help develop a new phone app being developed by the Trust. The app guides visitors around the Stadium and its surroundings, giving information about the things to see and do.

All the tourists were volunteers or BuDS staff. We were not paid or commissioned by the Paralympic Heritage Trust, and our views and opinions are entirely independent.

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