Council launches awareness campaign to highlight the challenges disabled people face

Peterhead Community Council recently launched a campaign that gave residents an opportunity to experience the town centre as someone with disabilities or mobility difficulties to highlight everyday challenges.

The campaign, Let’s Talk about Accessibility, involved a group from the council spending two days encouraging the public to experience town using a variety of assistive technologies.

It helped provide many opportunities for locals to discuss issues caused by the cobbles, poor access to shops, a lack of changing place toilets and the misuse of blue badge parking spaces.

The Department for Transports guide, ‘Inclusive Mobility: A Guide to Best Practice on Access to Pedestrian and Transport Infrastructure’, describes features that need to be considered in the provision of an inclusive environment and issues related to disabling barriers.

Discussing footpaths and crossings, changes in level, tactile paving surfaces, car parking, bus stops, building access, and more, the overall objective of the guide is to enable practitioners to provide an inclusively designed public realm, and through that help achieve social inclusion.

Josh Mennie, head of office and public affairs for Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Karen Adams and Councillor Anouk Kloppert, told the Press and Journal Evening Express that the campaign had been very positively received.

Josh said: “The campaign has been really effective in highlighting some of the day-to-day issues that people with disabilities face when trying to access the same venues and shops able-bodied people access with ease.

“Being pushed around in a wheelchair in Peterhead town centre really brought home the challenges people with disabilities or mobility issues face, and I can’t wait to help further the positive work of Peterhead Community Council.”

“One of the real positives for me was to see some of our town centre businesses already taking on board suggestions as to how they could improve accessibility in their premises.”