Access: An Issue For Everyone

Selina Bonnie is a veteran gig-goer and like lots of people, loves to cut loose on the dancefloor when the humour takes her. Music plays a significant role in our social lives and for Selina, this is certainly the case. Except, while most people do not have any problems attending gigs or getting into clubs, Selina is a wheelchair user and regularly encounters difficulties pursuing her social life.

“I’ve been turned away from nightclubs by bouncers who claimed that I was a fire hazard”, says Selina, who has been active in the Irish Disabled People’s Movement for over ten years. One of her biggest grievances is that at standing gigs in one well-known Dublin venue, wheelchair users have to stay at the back and have little or no chance of being able to see the stage.
Referring to one of her visits to this venue, Selina points out that the staff were helpful and in fact, upgraded her and her sister to VIP status. While she was delighted to have access to the VIP area, it meant that a member of staff had to carry her up the stairs and another had to bring her wheelchair up. “If the staff are good or helpful, this can sometimes make up for the lack of facilities,” she says.
Last month, the Irish Government introduced the long-awaited Disability Bill 2004, which establishes a statutory basis for placing obligations on public service providers to support access to services and facilities for people with disabilities.
Unfortunately, however, we would still seem to be some way off ensuring that disabled people have full and equal access to services and facilities outside the public service domain. While the Equal Status Act 2000 prohibits discrimination by those providing goods and services, there is evidence that exclusion and inequalities still exist.
Philip Quinlan, who works with Spinal Injuries Ireland, was a keen cricketer, golfer and rugby player before breaking his neck in an accident. He is now a wheelchair user, but still maintains his interest in sport and music.
One of the main problems he finds in the venues that provide areas for disabled people, is that the site is often too far away from the stage. He is also worried about the slope of some ramps, as he has taken several tumbles out of his chair because the gradient was too steep.
He suggests that music venues should take a leaf out of the GAA, FAI and IRFU books. Philip commended these non-commercial organisations on the services they provide for people with disabilities, especially in providing half-price tickets to disabled people and their PAs for football matches – and free tickets if you are lucky enough to get some through the rugby allocation system.
Outdoor gigs and music festivals seem to present the most problems for disabled people. Both Selina and Philip tell harrowing stories of negotiating difficult, uneven terrain when travelling from the car park to concert site and recalled rain-lashed, windswept, open viewing platforms that provided no shelter or escape from “typical” Irish festival weather.
Selina remembers one exceptional gig at Marley Park a couple of years ago, when the area for disabled people was a three-sided structure with a roof.
“Exceptional because at last, we were sheltered. The gig wasn’t bad either!” she says. She also mentions an enterprising Carlow man who has invented a trailer-like attachment for his quad bike which he uses to transport disabled people around tourist sights.
“Why not employ someone like him to ferry people with disabilities backwards and forwards from car parks to festival sites?” she asks. “ They have courtesy buggies for VIPs. Why not have transport like this for those who REALLY need it?”

WRONGFULLY LAUDED
In addition to wheelchair users, there are people with other disabilities who often experience difficulties with access to venues. Mary Cahill-Kennedy is Equality Officer with Fine Gael and is visually impaired.
“Physically negotiating steps and uneven ground can be a big problem”, she says. “Features, such as lighting strips under steps and attention to the whole issue of lighting is important, to facilitate visually impaired customers. Then there is the whole area of people with intellectual or learning disabilities – people who sometimes have difficulty reporting the discrimination they encounter.”
This section of the disabled population receives less attention because people with intellectual disabilities often don’t even get as far as the door of venues. Some of those who do, reveal unpleasant experiences when they felt that they were often turned away because they looked or spoke in a certain way. “He said I couldn’t come in because I was drunk. This is because I speak funny,” is one such comment.
Although refusal of entry for various reasons can happen to members of the non-disabled community, this does not make it right or excuse the lack of access for disabled people.
Olan McGowan, National Advocacy and Media Coordinator with the Irish Wheelchair Association and presenter of RTÉ radio programme, Outside the Box, agrees.
“I am deeply disappointed with the new Irish Disability Bill, which has been wrongfully lauded by the Government as the best disability bill in the world”, he says. Olan [pictured] believes that legislation is vital if disabled people are to enjoy full participation. He finds it ironic that just across the border, the final part of the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act was enacted this Summer.
“People in the North enjoy a law ensuring equal access for people with disabilities, but just a few miles down the road, there is little to guarantee a disabled person’s access to venues,” he reflects.
As a music executive with Sony, Olan was a regular visitor to venues throughout Ireland but following a diving accident in 1995, he is now a wheelchair user himself.
“Small gig venues are not great,” he says. “Many of them are situated upstairs with no likelihood of lifts being installed. Some pubs and clubs could make it so much easier, with minimal expense, if they levelled areas and ramped entrances.”
He accepts that in some cases, the costs are prohibitive but that does not make exclusion fair. When asked about his decision to quit the music business, Olan said, “Amongst the reasons I gave up the business is the fact that most of the venues and studios I needed to get into were inaccessible once I became a wheelchair user.”

URGENT ATTENTION
Clearly, more needs to be done to put supports in place to promote the participation of people with disabilities. When disabled people are not able to participate, they can seem invisible, and services are designed and delivered which continue to exclude them.
Consulting with disability organisations is important when a venue or club is deciding on how to better serve its disabled customers. There is generous FÁS funding available for Disability Awareness Training for staff and according to many disabled festival attendees, this is one area that needs urgent attention.
Venues and entertainment companies need to develop disability policies and have disability access information clearly displayed on websites. With one in ten people in Ireland having some kind of disability, venues are often unknowingly excluding a huge number of potential customers.
As one disabled music lover said, “My money’s as good as the next man’s and I want to go to the same places and do the same things as my mates. Why is that made so difficult for me?”
Over to you, venue owners.