Doors thrown open to all as city celebrates Disabled Access Day

Euan MacDonald with sister Kiki. Picture: contributed

The Scottish National Gallery, Scottish Parliament and the Royal Yacht Britannia are among attractions offering tours and other sessions to mark this year’s Disabled Access Day.

Organisers want to encourage disabled people, their families and friends to choose new places to visit.

And they hope visitors will gain confidence when spending time at unfamiliar locations.

The Lyceum Youth Theatre's production of Eclipse at the Traverse is offering a touch tour and audio description for the blind for Disabled Access Open Day. Picture: Toby Williams

The day will feature more than 40 of Scotland’s independent venues, with staff highlighting the results of work to boost accessibility.

Free activities and events are to be held across the country, including sensory tours of the Capital’s Royal Botanic  Garden.

Lauren Pluss, a disabled access day manager in Edinburgh, said the event would benefit individuals and  organisations.

She said: “Disabled Access Day is a great day for Edinburgh’s attractions and activities to showcase their accessibility, engage with customers and try new things themselves.

“It’s fantastic to see over 30 venues in Edinburgh taking part, including many places that people might not necessarily think are accessible, like Royal Yacht Britannia and Mercat Tours.

“I hope that many people will take the opportunity to visit somewhere new and help celebrate the accessible venues in Edinburgh, thereby encouraging those that aren’t taking part to start thinking about accessibility and put Edinburgh on the map as an accessible city.”

Disabled Day organisers have called for as much as possible to be done to boost access across the country. Recent surveys show that attractions which make an effort are much more likely to benefit from return visits by disabled people, their friends, relatives and carers. Trips by individuals with disabilities are also estimated to be worth more than  £200 billion.

Euan MacDonald, co-founder of the disabled access reviews website EuansGuide.com, which is the main sponsor of Disabled Access Day, said: “We hope that Disabled Access Day 2016 surpasses last year’s and continues to raise awareness of accessibility across the UK.

“There are some fantastic events taking place in some great venues so we hope everyone gets out there to try something new and see what is on offer to disabled people, their friends, families and carers.”

Other cities taking part in Disabled Access Day 2016 include London, Leeds and Newcastle.

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