Disabled Access Day
Today is Disabled Access Day in the UK.
According to the Abouts page on the website this is about promoting existing accessibility resources. This is great! lots of UK museums, attractions, and other fun things are highlighting accessibility resources such as Changing Place toilets, British Sign Language tours, I even saw one bud depot open up so that wheelchair and powerchair users can test out the accessibility of the buses.
That’s a great idea! I love it. I wish we had it over here.
One drawback I noticed on twitter this morning is the ‘soft openings’. Soft openings or quiet openings are special events for autistic and SPD visitors. These are not really existing resources because they are not regularly scheduled resources. They kinda just pop up and surprise you. (One Canadian Example: I looked on Ripley’s Aquarium accessibility web page for autism resources. None. I contacted them ‘oh yes soft opening in one in April’)
As Part of Disabled Access Day, a whole bunch of normally inaccessible (to autistics) spaces are holding soft opening. What if I wanted to go to two? Or three? I have actually gone to four museums in one day before It was hard. By the end of it I was badly shut down and non-verbal.
Wouldn’t it be better for the museums participating in Disabled Access Day to promote that they “now have monthly/bi-monthly soft openings“?
