At Wonderseekers, we believe that every child should have the opportunity to explore the wonder of science. Our goal is to break down as many barriers to science as possible. One of the ways we do this is by making sure our science experiences at Winchester Science Centre are fun, engaging, and inclusive. But we also need our iconic pyramid building to be able to support a wide range of needs. Here’s what happened when we asked AccessAble, the UK’s largest accessibility information provider, to help us turn our Science Centre into the welcoming space it is today.
To successfully update our Science Centre, we needed to overcome three main challenges; changing the physical design of the building, making our online resources more user-friendly, and introducing more training for our staff. The guidance and support we received from AccessAble throughout this process was vital in helping us get to where we are now.
An audit of the Science Centre was completed, which, alongside visitor feedback, helped to increase our understanding of our visitors’ experience. The feedback we received was invaluable and included a number of suggestions to make the building more accessible. Adaptions that were made included updating the toilets with user friendly locks, introducing signage warning people of the hand dryer noise, and adopting a new parking payment system to create an easier experience for wheelchair users. These changes have been a great success, providing visitors with greater independence.
Our Charity also understands that barriers to access are more than just physical. That’s why we created a collection of online guides covering every aspect of what to expect during a visit. The guides include pictures to help decrease the stress of visiting an unfamiliar and busy place. AccessAble were able to provide advice on what to include in these guides based on discussions with over 1500 groups of disabled people. This ensured that our guides cover everything disabled people might want to know about our Science Centre before they visit.
It is also important to us that our team feel supported, so we introduced online training available to all staff. Based on authentic voice and lived experience, it has been very beneficial with staff saying they now feel well equipped to help visitors and represent the organisation.
Andy Keenan, Head of Equity, Community Engagement and Outreach, said: “The online training is probably the best and most informative online training I have completed. It weaves authentic voice throughout and gives a great insight into the challenges faced by people disabled by society’s barriers. The audit visit and feedback have been really useful at setting our baseline and identifying how we can further improve accessibility at our Centre.”
This was just the start. Since then, we’ve introduced many other facilities to increase the accessibility of our Centre. Fancy joining us for a day of spectacular science fun? Make sure you check out our accessibility information before your visit.
