Immy finds her feet

Campaigns

Wheelchair access to Welsh schools

When we found out that Imogen had been accepted for the surgery I had just finished some work, in my spare time, into the problems that wheelchair-using children can face in negotiating school buildings in Wales.  We have been struggling to get a disabled toilet put into Imogen’s building – it is due to happen, but about six months too late, and it’s been a fight.  At the moment she has to travel across the yard to another building whenever she needs the toilet.  I began to realise that many other families were facing similar uphill battles.   So I asked Cardiff Council to tell me what proportion of its buildings have level access to the ground floor, disabled toilets etc.  Although they have a legal duty to plan to make their school buildings more accessible, they told me they didn’t store this data, and instead sent me 130 individual access audits, some dating back 8 years.  I analysed all of the audits, phoned each school to update my record, and then marked each one red/amber/green.

The headline results are that, of Cardiff’s primary schools:

·         51% are green (almost entirely wheelchair-accessible)

·         23% are amber (significant issues remain, e.g. no disabled toilet)

·         26% are red (largely inaccessible to a wheelchair-user)

For secondary schools:

·         30% are green

·         10% are amber

·         60% are red 

This situation can mean a child has to attend a different schools to her/his local peers or family members simply because of the wheelchair. I also found that at least a third of schools have, or have had, a wheelchair-user.   I also collected nine pages of case studies from families that I know who have had difficulty in getting adaptations made, and looked into the legal background and issues around transparency and accountability.

I sumarised my findings and then wrote letters to politicians at the Welsh Government and the Council, and the Children’s Commissioner for Wales. I have also corresponded with my MP.  The letters and annexes are all attached here.   So far I’ve had holding responses from the council and have spent an hour discussing the issues with my Welsh Assembly Member.  I plan to continue this campaign whenever I get a spare moment between fundraising activities.

Download Sections:-

1) Dear Mr Andrews
2) Dear Councillor Woodman
3) Accessibility case studies
4) Annex B – legal duties and responsibilities
5) Annex C – Cardiff School Accessibility
6) Cardiff Schools Accessibility Analysis