The Importance of Accessibility
As we move closer to the Unite for Access campaign (run by Level Playing Field and supported by the Hull City DSA) we were interested to find out how important accessibility is for many disabled supporters. To help illustrate this, Ellis Palmer, from the Tranmere Rovers DSA provided us with some insight with something he wrote for his programme a few months ago:
“Recently, I was privileged to attend the AccessibAll global summit in the Spanish capital at Atlético de Madrid ultra-modern Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium.
When Rodri hobbled up to the podium on his crutches recently to collect his Ballon d’Or award, it may have hit home to a few folks that accessibility can be a major issue for all reaches of football.
You may think that disability access doesn’t concern you. Statistics would suggest otherwise. 24% of people in the UK have a disability. You’ll know someone who is hard of hearing, struggles with their sight, uses a wheelchair or is neurodivergent.
As many of you know, I’m a wheelchair user and I’m deeply embroiled in improving the football experience for fans and all people in the world of football.
My father - the renowned football commentator, Rob Palmer - and I gave a talk at this event, reliving our experiences of the last 26 years attending football matches together.
The first game my father and I went to was a France 1998 group stage match between Morocco and Norway; at the second, he carried me up to the top of the Anfield Kop on his shoulders. He admits he knew nothing about access and accessibility in football stadia at this time.
Fortunately, over the last three decades, we’ve learnt together. From World Cup finals, Premier League stadia, and - yes - converted bus shelter wheelchair user seats at a pre-season game at Southport, we’ve seen access and accessibility come on leaps and bounds. But it’s not perfect - there’s still a way to go to make all stadia and the matchday experience accessible for all.
The conference earlier this month aimed to set global standards for football stadia, and it was great to hear from many clubs around Europe about the work they are doing in the upper reaches of the game. But it also caused me to think about how much we’ve been able to do as relative minnows here at Tranmere. Compared to 15 years ago, we’ve now got covered and raised level seating for fans who use wheelchairs or have mobility impairments, audio descriptive commentary for blind and visually impaired supporters, and sensory packs for neurodivergent supporters.
What was interesting is that many clubs who are playing much higher up the pyramid in their respective countries do not offer the facilities above that we do in the English fourth division.
Sure, there’s still a long way to go and it’s far from perfect. Improving sightlines for wheelchair-using fans and ensuring that disabled away fans can sit with their own fans are especially prescient challenges in the years to come - not just in our own ground, but across the Football League.
Something else I pressed upon the delegates last week is ensuring that disabled fans have access to sustainable transport options to and from games in much the same way that non-disabled fans have. We’ve got space on the club coaches now for disabled fans on our away coaches and that’s great - but there’s nothing worse than being turned away when waiting on the bus on Borough Rd because there’s only one wheelchair user space there and it’s already taken. Hopefully with the arrival of the new buses with two wheelchair user spaces on them, this’ll be resolved soon across the Liverpool City Region. It’s not about special treatment, but about a proportionate space at the table - or on the bus, in this case.
So, after you’ve read these notes, maybe you’ll be more cognisant of the difficulties disabled supporters have when attending matches. There’s lots to do for disabled fans to have an equal matchday experience, but there’s also lots that’s been done to improve that in recent decades too.
Join us as we try to make things better for all.
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