The Welsh Government should “push” for a scheme to assess public transport and places on how disabled friendly they are, according to an Assembly committee.
A petition calling for an accessibility rating system in Wales was discussed by the Petitions Committee today. The petition, which has almost 2,400 signatures, was submitted by the Bridgend Coalition of Disabled People.
Simon Green, Chair of the group says it’s not “about naming and shaming people who have bad access, [they] want to promote those that have good”.
All AMs in the committee meeting this morning were supportive of the idea and are pushing for a pilot scheme to be considered.
Neil McEvoy, Independent AM on the committee, said the idea was “sensible” and he “would like to see it go forward”.
If given the go ahead, all buildings used by the public such as shops, food outlets, sports clubs, pubs and offices as well as public transport services would be assessed on whether they are accessible to people with all kinds of disabilities- physical and mental.
They would then display symbols in their windows, telling people what kinds of disabilities they cater for.
Conservative AM, Janet Finch-Saunders was positive about the possibility of the system at this morning’s meeting, saying “we’re doing it for food safety, why can’t we [for accessibility]?”.
Whilst Labour AM Mike Hedges agreed that the concept was good, he said there would be some difficulties in putting it into practice.
The petitions committee decided to continue the consultation on the issue and push for a pilot scheme to be trialed.
Simon Green from the Coalition behind the petition said he’s pleased with the outcome of today’s meeting and even if the response had been disappointing, “it’s out there now, places will be aware they have to be more accessible”.
