Accessible Venues Guidance

Foreword by Jane Hutt AM

At some point in our lives, all of us face barriers that prevent us from fulfilling our potential and needless to say, these barriers are greater for some people than others.  Recent changes to disability legislation has extended rights of access and has also rightly increased disabled people's expectations of the level of service they should now expect to receive when attending meetings and large scale events.

It is vital that we, as the Welsh Assembly Government, and our partners throughout the public sector in Wales take the lead and act as an exemplar to ensure that disabled people are able to participate in society.  I am therefore pleased to announce that we have developed a good practice Accessible Venues Guidance document as a result of a recommendation of the Voluntary Sector Partnership Council.  The guidance aims to promote good practice amongst organisations that arrange public events.

The development of the Accessible Venues guidance is an important achievement.  This unique on-line guidance should be used as a tool by venue providers for assessing how best to meet the needs of disabled people. For example, by venue providers commissioning comprehensive audits of their premises and issuing access statements will, hopefully demonstrate to disabled people and venue organisers a like a real commitment to achieving accessibility.

I would like to thank the representatives from the Disability Rights Commission, Disability Wales, the JMU Access Partnership (RNIB) and the Wales Council for the Blind all of who gave up their time to help take this forward. I am grateful to them all for all their hard work and determination in producing this document.

I have no doubt that this guidance will contribute towards the Assembly Government’s vision of creating a more inclusive society in Wales, where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.  

Jane Hutt