Blackwood volunteer reports on the Edinburgh Fringe's Accessibility

Volunteering for bespoken has been a good opportunity to explore innovative solutions and interview interesting people; being a wheelchair user myself it allows me a platform to share my unique perspective.

With this in mind, we thought it would be an interesting experiment to find out how accessible the festival is. Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival is a particularly busy time of year for the capital; people the world over descend onto the city to absorb the festivities.

So what is it like for a disabled festival goer? Can it be considered truly accessible? By documenting the experience to discover the difficulties encountered by a wheelchair user, we felt it would give an interesting viewpoint. The idea was to see a show in the Fringe – as a regular consumer would do – and document the whole process of getting to and from a venue and everything in between.

Pre-show

The evening started by meeting up nearby the venue for a drink or two. A pretty simple task one would assume. Complications often arise with transportation, or at least with finding an ideal location to be dropped off – particularly with countless routes restricted and parking suspended – when you have to factor in ramped access.

On this particular evening, a [relatively] ideal drop-off point was found, however it was on a cobbled street with high pavements unsuitable for traversing with a wheelchair – a common occurrence in Edinburgh’s Old Town. After travelling down the side of a one-way street with oncoming traffic [albeit low speed] while being violently shaken on the uneven surface, I was able to find my way onto a pavement.

Getting into the show

The venue was at Bristo Sq. so we met at a venue inside Potterow. Getting a drink was the easiest part of the evening, which is always a good start. We headed towards the Gilded Balloon shortly afterwards about 20 minutes before the start to ensure we had enough time in case of unforeseen hurdles – there is always one unforeseen situation.

After negotiating stray festival goers, we scouted the surroundings to familiarise ourselves and locate the external lift – which I had read about on the venue’s website. Any trouble locating the lift was eliminated when an alarm went off, seemingly alerting us to another wheelchair user on said lift [WARNING, WARNING, I thought] being assisted by a member of staff who clearly wasn’t well versed on the venue’s own accessibility.

When it was my turn and being a veteran of lift travel, I knew the protocol. Hold button down, open gate, hold button down, go up, and finally, hold button down, open. Not possible without assistance, however. Once inside we had to locate the lift to the lower level, it wasn’t clearly sign-posted but the staff were helpful. Having arrived at the correct place another staff member asked who we were seeing and guided us to the room via a backdoor fire-exit.

Post-show

Unfortunately the stand-up comedian didn’t do his title justice and was particularly unfunny; you may be able to bring the mountain to Mohammad but the mountain might not make Mohammad laugh, if you will.

We decided to go for an after-show drink at the venue and again had to make use of the lift, unfortunately to access the bar we had to go via the utility area – for want of a better term - and were greeted with the smell of urine and, to make matters extra tricky, I was faced with a large fire door that would have been unmanageable without an accompanying person.

Verdict...

Overall I would conclude that the accessibility was middling to average, it was a fairly straightforward process and wasn’t drastically time-consuming, but as ever there is room for improvement. It definitely wouldn’t be possible to navigate the venue without assistance, the example may have been more stark had I decided to attend the show on my own and reliant on the assistance of strangers or staff members.

Blackwood volunteer reports on the Edinburgh Fringe's Accessibility

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