The Stage

Wheelchair access needs Shawing up

Published Tuesday 22 April 2008 at 10:35

I regularly attend the theatre with disabled friends or family members. At the New London Theatre on Friday, April 11, the staff were excellent. My friend was escorted to the lift and her seat and a member of staff was waiting at the end of the performance to accompany her back to the foyer.

On Saturday, April 19, I took my mother, who is in a wheelchair, to the Shaw Theatre, Euston. The wheelchair space she was allocated partially blocked the main gangway from the foyer to the auditorium. During the interval the wheelchair had to be taken out of the auditorium to allow another wheelchair user access to the foyer. Even transferring to a seat didn’t solve the problem as if there is anyone at all sitting in seats A2 to A4, a wheelchair cannot get through.

The staff were very aplogetic and other theatregoers were¬†helpful and sympathetic but the duty manager passed the buck saying that she wasn’t aware two wheelchair users were going to be in the theatre.

My role on both occasions was that of carer and in the past I have always been confident that in an emergency I would be able to get whoever I was with out of the theatre. Sadly, this was not the case at the Shaw.

Health and safety rules are there for everybody’s benefit and theatre staff regularly remind patrons to remove bags and coats from gangways. I cannot understand how the Shaw can justify a wheelchair partially blocking the main gangway.

Kathleen Mackey

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