Physical Barriers
These may include:
The room you usually use for Board meetings is on the first floor of a building which does not have a lift.
The offices your governing body use are in an area of the building which is not particularly accessible (e.g. rather than entering the offices through a main internal door and then going down the corridor to the office doors because there are 3 steps through the internal door, someone who uses a wheelchair needs to go out and round to the back of the building, through the external door, then through a number of other heavy manual doors, to get to the other end of the corridor where your offices are).
A partially sighted person has entered a governing body organised tournament/competition/event and finds it very difficult to move around the venue because the walls and doors are painted the same colour.
A potential coach who uses a wheelchair has booked onto one of your coach education workshops, the venue for the workshop is a centre which you have used many times before, but you hadnt realised that the doors to the sports hall were too narrow for a sports wheelchair to get through (with its wheels on).
You have a new staff member who uses a walking frame, you ring to book a meeting room for your staff meeting in the usual place but there are no accessible toilet facilities.
Physical barriers are generally thought to be most relevant to those people with a mobility impairment, and when thinking about physical barriers people will often think about the implications to wheelchair users. However, physical barriers can impact on anyone with an impairment. Responsibility for changing the physical structure of the building rests with whoever owns the building, and sometimes financial implications may mean that changes arent made which would make the venue more accessible. In order to address some physical barriers there may be other, cost-free changes that can be made which would ensure that disabled people can gain access to the facility, opportunity or event.
Possible solutions to physical barriers:
The easiest thing to do in this case is to change the venue of the meeting to one which has a lift, or is not effected by stairs or different levels. It may also be that owner of the building could look long term to installing a lift.
It would be good practice to ensure that all governing body offices are accessible to disabled people, without then having to make a very long (and possibly very wet if the weather is bad) journey round to another entry/exit point. However, if there is no scope to remove the 3 steps inside the internal door, it may be that you arrange to meet the person at a more convenient area of the building (i.e. a seating area in the reception, an appropriate quiet space in the cafe, etc).
If the tournament/competition/event has been organised and is running at the venue it will be too late for the venue owner/manager to repaint - so it may be that an appropriate solution would be to either put some high visibility tape around the door frames, or to arrange with a volunteer to act as a guide for the person for the duration of the event.
Whilst most sports halls have double doors as entry/exit points into the sports hall, often the second door will be locked. Athletes using sports wheelchairs who wont be able to get then through a single door with the wheels on will take the wheels off and transfer into the chair in the sports hall. It would be good practice in the future to ring the centre and ask them to ensure that double doors are unlocked for future workshops.
Would be essential that staff meeting venues have accessible toilet facilities, so potentially explore other local options.
Back to Barriers ...