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Disability advocates call for more nightlife venues to accommodate needs
ABC NEWS (Australia)
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9/19/2024
Advocates say more venues like bars and nightclubs need to accommodate the needs of the 1 in 5 Australians who live with disability. For many, planning a night out poses frustrating challenges.
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00:00
Look, there's lots of challenges for people living with disability in planning a night
00:06
out.
00:07
One thing, speaking with Elisa, she's a wheelchair user here in South Australia.
00:12
One thing was access, first of all, to a lot of places.
00:16
A lot of places have steps on entry, or if they don't have steps in their entryway, they
00:21
have steps to the bathroom.
00:22
So going to a venue, the bathroom's not fully accessible, and so she has to leave different
00:27
places.
00:29
Roughly around only 40% of nightlife and clubs and bars in Adelaide are wheelchair accessible.
00:37
And Elisa says of that 40% that say they are, sometimes she goes to places and she can't
00:44
get in, and the information online is mismatched with what's actually going on at the venue
00:50
itself.
00:51
So accessibility in terms of information that's freely available online, Elisa wants better
00:58
access to that information.
01:00
The South Australian government introduced an app called Pavely, which kind of highlights
01:05
the accessibility of each venues, but there's been struggles to take that app up.
01:12
Elisa hadn't heard of it, and a lot of the venues on there require reviews from the public
01:19
in order to be able to see what's accessible.
01:23
So I chatted to Elisa for this story, as well as Lily Durkin, who lives with disability,
01:27
about some of their experiences.
01:29
You're 20, you're in your 20s, you want to be able to go out, it's like such an amazing
01:35
time of your life.
01:36
You know, I'm in my 20s at the moment, and you know, I want nothing more to be able to
01:40
just go out to a bar, to a restaurant with my mates, and not have to think about access.
01:45
You shouldn't have to think about that as a young person, when you're just trying to
01:49
have a good time, have a few drinks, have a little boogie.
01:53
You know, you don't want to have to think about whether you're going to be able to use
01:55
the bathroom or have to go home.
01:57
Oh, I get bored, absolutely, of the same places.
02:01
As much as they're nice, you don't want to be getting the same food all the time.
02:06
You want to try new things.
02:08
It says they're accessible, you get there, and it's just this little corner away from
02:13
all the action.
02:16
There's a lot of recommendations that Lily was saying.
02:20
The big one is, for venues, updating your accessibility information, whether that be
02:25
on your website or on your social media.
02:28
That's a really simple and easy solution that venues themselves can do.
02:34
It's just a matter of making a post on your Instagram page or making it really accessible
02:39
on your website.
02:40
The other thing is little things, like are the lights in your venue dimmable?
02:45
Can you turn lights down for sensory issues?
02:47
In the toilets, one, are the toilets accessible?
02:50
Two, do the toilets have hand dryers and hand towels for people with sensory issues?
02:56
The other thing Elisa was talking about is ramps to venues.
03:00
Ramps can be bought, portable ramps.
03:03
They make them in all shapes and sizes, and it just takes away that hassle of actually
03:08
getting into the venue.
03:10
Lily actually called on the South Australian Government to make some changes in order to
03:16
bring in some grants to help venues out with these changes.
03:20
It can be really hard for venues to close down for periods of time to make accessibility
03:25
changes, so that's where she wants to see the government step in and provide some grants,
03:31
make it easier for venues to make these changes, and so it's easier for the one in five Australians
03:38
living with disability to just access all of these venues and live their lives.
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