Access awareness - part of the #WellBuckingham Festival

This morning lots of people were out in force to explore the accessibility of Buckingham Town Centre and develop our awareness of the issues faced by people with various kinds of impairments. Naturally, as this morning was organised by the Buckingham Access for All group, many of those attending were only too aware of challenges faced by some people. Others like me were keen to find out and increase our understanding of the issues involved.

I spent several hours with a team of people from the Opportunities Centre. We examined paths, steps, portable ramps and accessible loos. All the while I was learning about the inevitable challenges faced by living in a river valley (some of the hills are very steep when you are pushing someone in a wheelchair) and some of the not so inevitable (the shocking state of the pavements in some places that mean not only a bumpy ride but on occasions a positively dangerous one!) challenges.

Here is the team after the cup of tea to debrief (from the left) Ellen Skelton, James Colman, Sylvia Griffiths, Tara Cowell and Rosie Cheshire.

It might look like just another piece of dodgy pavement, but to many this is a real hazard. Indeed one lady buttonholed me in the Post Office to tell me about this portion of pavement (which I will be reporting on the BCC website later)

Disability awareness is not just about wheelchairs and mobility issues of course. It is also about sometimes hidden disabilities. These glasses emulate what it is like to have tunnel vision. And you don't see this from the outside.

Indeed Chris Wayman, the Town Clerk, took some shots of me with the glasses mimicking various eye conditions which you can see here.

And here are some pics from Cllr Mike Smith who was out and about with his camera this morning. Here is Esquires putting in place their temporary ramp (Looby Lu's has one too)

And here Kings Head have installed an accessible entrance (prefer this language rather than 'disabled access' which you sometimes see)

And this is Ryan Watts from the Advertiser being pushed by Cllr Margaret Gateley through (?) a rather narrow piece of pavement...

And here is the summary report that the group I went with, compiled.

A fascinating morning which I hope will be repeated soon.

And here is a link to a tweet from Cllr Robin Stuchbury of Mr John Russell giving a rousing speech to start the morning off.