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.
Headline Results
Summary
The BuDDy Tourists thoroughly enjoyed their day at COAM and there is much that they appreciated and praised. COAM has the opportunity to build on four significant strengths:
- its lovely staff and volunteers and their positive attitude to disabled people
- inclusive displays and attitudes
- a wealth of sensory elements
- the potential to be a Covid-safer destination.
COAM is already, and could be even more so, a key destination for many disabled people, especially autistic and learning-disabled people and people with mental health conditions. Incremental development and a few new features (such as a dedicated ‘chill-out’ or ‘breakout’ quiet space) would further increase the appeal of the site for these groups.
However, for disabled people with mobility impairments, the site needs significant improvement. This will require sustained improvements over a long period of time and will need to be sensitively integrated into the development of the site as a whole. Accessibility improvements must be planned to enhance the character and educational content of the Museum, not to detract from it. Many other sites have successfully gone through this process and their experience shows that COAM will be a finer and more popular museum at the end of it.
The Tourists
The Tour included people with lived experience of neurological conditions such as MS, long-term medical conditions, mobility impairment (including walking aid, manual and power wheelchair-users), neurodiversity, visual loss, hearing loss, learning disability and mental health conditions.
3 participants were extremely clinically vulnerable to Covid-19 and 2 were highly skilled in Covid risk assessment.
2 of those participating had appropriate professional qualifications and skills in addition to their lived experience.
Two on-site discussions were held to gather Tourist’s views and opinions during the Tour, and 9 of the 10 Tourists completed a detailed questionnaire after the visit.
The Tour
After an initial briefing in the main car park at 11.30 am, the Tourists moved to a garden adjacent to the ticket office for an induction and to meet their tour guides for the day.
Tourists went to Northolt Barn and then to Skippings Barn, where refreshments were served.
The group then travelled to Leagrave Cottage for a straw-plaiting demonstration and back to the Village Green to watch a sheep herding demonstration.
Tourists then went to the café for lunch and a feedback session.
After lunch the Tour visited the farmyard and met Harry the Shire horse, before visiting the Iron Age house and garden.
The Tour returned to the Village Green and visited a number of buildings in smaller groups. Some visited a flax-working demonstration. 3 of the Tourists left the site at this point.
Finally, the remaining 7 Tourists returned to the garden near the entrance for refreshment and a final feedback session.
A final de-brief was held in the car park before the Tour came to an end at 4.30 pm.
Most Appreciated Aspects of Inclusion and Accessibility
- Really Helpful Staff: All the tourists highlighted the friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff and volunteers and their non-judgmental willingness to help and support them as disabled people. “Nothing was too much for the staff, they were so courteous”.
- Sensory Trail: The sensory trail and notices was recognised as unusual and appreciated, although more could be done. “The sensory trail is a great addition and I loved the signage at various points which drew your attention to the fact that there are things to look out for eg fragrant plants, something tactile etc”.
- Inclusive Demos: The demonstrations and exhibits were praised as being inclusive with strong sensory components. “The lovely Heather, who was demonstrating straw plaiting, brought her demo outside the cottage so that the wheelchair users were able to see’. Another commented: ‘Getting to meet the Shire horse felt like an inclusive experience’.
Least Appreciated Aspects of Inclusion and Accessibility
- Paths & Buildings: All the tourists, even those without mobility impairments, had concerns about the physical access to many of the buildings, the spine road and most paths.
- Toilets: All the tourists had concerns about the ‘accessible toilets’.
- Parking: All the tourists highlighted problems with the car park.
Recommended or Highlighted Access & Inclusion Improvements
- Paths & Buildings: The top recommended access and inclusion improvement sought was to the physical accessibility of paths and buildings. A series of micro-audits of individual or groups of buildings and spaces was recommended to establish plans of action.
- Disabled Toilets: It was felt that improvements needed to be made to all disabled toilets. This might require entirely new disabled WCs in some locations. Temporary units might be a good option until permanent ones could be installed.
- Sensory Trail: The Tourists saw the existing sensory trail, and strong sensory elements of the buildings, exhibits and demonstrations, as a huge strength of COAM. As such, they felt there was a lot of work which could be done to improve and extend the sensory trail and sensory elements. A series of micro-audits of individual or groups of buildings and spaces was recommended to establish plans of action.
Confidence in Accessibility & Inclusion
Tourists were asked to look at available access and inclusion information about the COAM site and to rate their confidence in being able to enjoy a visit as a disabled person. The overall confidence score for the site prior to the visit was 2.5 out of 5 before the visit. This reflects a poor degree of confidence that they could enjoy a visit as a disabled person and highlights that accessibility and inclusion information on the COAM website could be better.
Confidence that Tourists could enjoy a return visit to COAM, after experiencing it for themselves, was 2.9 out of 5. This indicates that the visit improved Tourists’ confidence, but that confidence was still too low.
Covid Safety
A running assessment of Covid safety was made during the Tour and CO2 levels3 were measured in all visited buildings.
The COAM site is outdoors and most of the buildings on the day of the visit were well-ventilated, with doors left open. This meant that CO2 levels were low and that the risk of virus transmission was also low. However, some buildings, including the café, toilets and ticket office, did have higher standing levels of CO2 which presented a moderate risk of virus transmission. CO2 levels also quickly built up during indoor demonstrations. Given this, the Covid-19 risk for the whole site has to be set as moderate rather than low. Better through-draught ventilation of higher-risk buildings, even in good weather, is recommended to lower the risk.
A simple Covid safety guide could be produced as a leaflet or webpage, and information signs placed on areas where risks can be higher. Installing CO2 monitors inside buildings is also recommended.
If these steps were taken, the museum could be legitimately advertised as a safer place to visit for older and clinically vulnerable people even when virus levels are high.
In wetter and colder weather, with doors closed, CO2 levels will rise inside buildings and the risk of virus transmission will rise accordingly. Better through-draught ventilation of all buildings when doors are closed, and the wider use of facemasks, is recommended to lower the risk.
The BuDDy Tourists rated Covid safety at COAM as only 2.9 out of 5, which indicates a perception that the site was more dangerous than it probably was in reality. Better information and the provision of Fair4All masks would help address this – perceived safety with the precautions used by BuDS was rated at 5, or excellent.
Fair4All Card
Becoming a Fair4All Card Partner is a simple and zero-cost way for COAM to underline its commitment to disabled people and accessibility. The Card will help staff and volunteers understand how best they can help disabled visitors, without the need for potentially embarrassing conversations. And being a Card Partner provides a framework for a long-term relationship between COAM and BuDS.
Copyright Buckinghamshire Disability Service, October 2022
Footnotes
[1] By ‘accessibility’, we mean a disabled person’s ability to move around, experience and access the facilities and cultural content of the venue. If a disabled person cannot fully access or use a facility or cultural content, it is inaccessible to them.
[2] By ‘inclusion’, we mean whether a disabled person can access or experience a facility or cultural content in a manner which is within the normal range of experiences of non-disabled people, and which offers an experience of equal value to a non-disabled person. Flat entry to a building through a rear door only is accessible, but not inclusive; having only one handling artefact for blind people in a large display is not inclusive.
[3] CO2 levels in the air are indicative of the percentage of recycled air, i.e. air which has been exhaled by others. Higher levels of CO2 indicate that the risk of inhaling the airborne SARS-Covid-19 virus, if exhaled by others present, is high, and vice versa.