{"id":1339,"date":"2009-09-02T19:49:40","date_gmt":"2009-09-02T23:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/?p=1339"},"modified":"2009-09-02T19:49:40","modified_gmt":"2009-09-02T23:49:40","slug":"observations-on-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2009\/09\/observations-on-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Observations on Accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing that I have been noticing a lot about London is the accessibility and services available for people who are disabled or handicapped in some way.\u00a0 Much like what you would tend to expect from American cities, there are handicap accessible entrances, ramps, elevators, and automatic doors leading to many of the major museums and tourist attractions around London.\u00a0 However, I have observed less-than-wonderful wheelchair-friendly services in the Tube stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking at the Underground map, there are only 9 stations within Zone 1 that have step-free access from the platforms to the outside world.\u00a0 Now, I grant that the map shows that the bigger stations or those with rail stations attached tend to have wheelchair accessible facilities, but there are still a number of problems.\u00a0 First, there’s the gap to mind, which while it is not beneficial to the elderly or\u00a0buggy-pushers, seems to be a very large potential problem for people in wheelchairs and using crutches to get over.\u00a0 Secondly, with the current construction projects occurring at many of the major Tube stations, some facilities that would normally be easier to maneuver around are currently out of order.\u00a0 The only saving grace of the transport system for those\u00a0movement-impaired seems to be the bus system.\u00a0 From what I have noticed of the buses, the majority of them are fitted with a hydraulic system that either allows the bus to be lowered curbside or a platform for a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

Despite my criticisms of the Tube as a vehicle of transport for people in wheelchairs, London has managed to greatly surprise me in the leaps-and-bounds of services for other handicapped peoples.\u00a0 When\u00a0I was\u00a0at the British Museum the other day, I noticed a sign that mentioned that there is a Touch Tour for people who are blind or visually impaired.\u00a0 I’ve never encountered anything like this before, but think that it is a brilliant idea!\u00a0 This tour allows them to touch specific objects in certain sections of the Museum in order to get an idea of what the art from that culture “looks” like.\u00a0 Accompanying these objects were plaques in Braille explaining the object they were “looking” at.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"Scarab

Scarab from the Egyptian section of the Museum - on the Touch TourSign for the Blind Touch Tour<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I was struck again by the services provided for disabled\/hard-of-hearing peoples tonight at the performance of All’s Well That Ends Well <\/em>at the National Theatre.\u00a0 One of the last things I was expecting when I entered the theatre was to have a closed captioning screen for the play!\u00a0 Despite this service being aimed at those deaf\/hard-of-hearing people, I benefited greatly from being able to see some of the dialogue I missed either by zoning out or simply not being able to hear.\u00a0 Although I did find the screens slightly distracting at times, I think that it was a brilliant idea that should be implemented at many more theatres in the world.<\/div>\n
Overall, I am finding London to be a very mixed city of accessibility and services for people who are disabled or handicapped in some way.\u00a0 I think that the Tube stations need some work, but as construction is constantly being done on them, I know that they will be improved upon eventually.\u00a0 On the other hand, I think that the Touch Tour and the closed captioning in the theatre were both wonderful ideas that should be implemented in the States and around the world if they haven’t already.\u00a0 Any thoughts or observations on services and accessibility?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing that I have been noticing a lot about London is the accessibility and services available for people who are disabled or handicapped in some way.\u00a0 Much like what you would tend to expect from American cities, there are handicap accessible entrances, ramps, elevators, and automatic doors leading to many of the major museums […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[744,77,78],"tags":[1113,898,1116,1115,1114,1065,1117,1111,1112],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kelley","category-museums","category-theatre","tag-accessibility","tag-british-museum","tag-closed-captioning","tag-disability","tag-handicap","tag-national-theatre","tag-touch-tour","tag-transport","tag-underground"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}