Media & Disability

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• Guide on media & disability
  • Who Created this Guide?
  • Disabled People as Programme Participants
  • Employing Disabled People
  • Access to Broadcast Services
  • Communicating with Disabled People
  • Adjustments and Aids for People Specific Disabilities
    • Working with People who are Blind/Visually Impaired
    • Working with People who are Deaf/Hearing Impaired & People with Speech Impairments
    • Working with People with Mobility Impairments
    • Working with People who are Learning Disabled
    • Working with People who have a History of Mental Illness
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Guide on media & disability

Working with People who have a Mobility Impairment

There is a huge variation in degree of mobility amongst people who use wheelchairs or walking aids. You can attempt to ensure the basics of good access in advance but wherever possible discuss individual requirements.

Some people require a high level of accessibility, others will be able to manage a few steps or a short walk but may need to sit at regular intervals; some wheelchair users will find it acceptable to be lifted over or around obstacles, others find this painful, dangerous or undignified. Each person is the expert in his or her own access needs.

If you have invited wheelchair users or people with mobility impairments to be part of your programme, it essential that they are treated in the same way as other invitees. If people are regularly interviewed from their seat in the audience then clearly it is quite acceptable to do the same with disabled contributors. If interviewees are usually invited onto the stage or rostrum then it is not acceptable for their disabled counterparts to be forced to peer up from the audience area at the presenter who crouches down in order to make eye contact.

Try to choose accessible offices, studios, and locations, but where there is no choice, assess the difficulties and do everything possible to remove barriers or find alternative routes/solutions.

Checklist:

• Is there parking or set-down space near the main entrance?
• Internal route to site of filming/interview/audition/etc – is it level or is there a lift? Always check access to lifts – it is easy to overlook a single internal step here and there.
• Where there are unavoidable steps, internal or external, find out if they can be ramped or a platform lift used. There must be space for the ramp to extend out from the bottom of the steps. Optimal gradient is 1:20, if that’s not possible try for 1:15, the maximum gradient should be 1:12.
• Door widths and door types – heavy doors are tricky for some, but OK if there are always staff on hand to assist; revolving doors are impossible for wheelchairs, is there an alternative? Doorways should be minimum 800mm clear width, but some wheelchairs can slip through 750mm or narrower, some require 900mm or 1m.
• Corridors and turning spaces – ideally 1.2m unobstructed width of corridor; check entrance or other lobbies, and turning space into lifts – where there are doors in parallel there must be sufficient space to manoeuvre a wheelchair between them.
• Meeting rooms/offices should be cleared of clutter to avoid obstructing a wheelchair, walking sticks or crutches.
• Check seating – if disabled people are involved in queues (for example, for auditions) or have to wait around a lot (for example, on location) make sure there are seats available for people who are unable to stand for long periods.
• Toilets – if there are no accessible toilets on the premises, are there any nearby or is it possible to hire/install an accessible unit? Ideally the design should allow both left-sided and right-sided transfer from wheelchair to the toilet seat. Ensure they are clean and clear of clutter.
• Assistance – if you’ve said there will be someone available to assist, make sure this happens.