The Irons don’t need a Hammering on Accessibility, but Westfield let them down

Yesterday I continued to watch era of Jurgen Klopp come to an end, sadly the scriptwriters are not getting the blockbuster they hoped for.

It was my third or fourth visit to the home of West Ham United London Stadium and the former Olympic Stadium. One of my good friends had qualified for a way ticket so doubled up as a PA with my other PA for the day. I generally do all the booking online for all of us so managed to get him a seat in the row in front of me.? Having two PA’s makes such a difference, especially in this cold weather. But in reality he shouldn’t be a PA and the same offering I get at Anfield should be replicated across the away experience.

London games are considered almost a home game for me as I live in Cambridgeshire and therefore avoid the 3.5 to 4 hour commute to the North West. However, when you reflect on the day, it’s not that much shorter experience.? Because there are no guaranteed Changing Places UK facilities for away fans at the stadiums I like to make sure that I’m all good before I leave the house.? Yesterday my alarm went off at 5:15 which gave me 3 1/2 hours to get myself set for the day. Water, Coffee, Poop, Shower, Meds and Breakfast. We set off just after 8:30 to catch the train from our local station.? It takes me straight into Transport for London London St. Pancras in less than an hour. We changed onto the “Hi Speed” line headed for Stratford International and arrived there by 10:50. All pre booked assistance worked perfectly, but throughout the day there were so many elements of non inclusive design. I’ll touch on these throughout and where remembered I have pictures.

Getting on the train, a couple setting off on there holiday had put their suitcases in the entrance to the accessible seating area. If we offered proper luggage holds on trains this would eliminate the issue. Getting off the train at St. Pancras is easy, it has step free level access. Less than 300 metres at the same station I need a ramp to get on another train and 7 minutes at the next station a ramp to get off. If Rishi or Keir want more disabled people back at work and more income start fining rail providers for inaccessibility.

Football matches by default will see more disabled fans travelling at the same time to the same place. The train from Central London out to Stratford only has 2-3 spaces for wheelchairs in 2 carriages - call it 5 spaces on the train. In the carriage I was on there were five wheelchairs and it was very tight and stopped non-disabled passengers being able to pass without risk. More flexible design of train carriages with more flip up seats could allow flexibility for not just wheelchair users but parents with prams and pushchairs.

Arriving at Stratford International, the main lifts are out of order for four months. Just read that again, four months - how is this acceptable?? Luckily there is another lift, but it’s at the far end of the platform, and when I say far end of the platform, it’s nearly as long as a football pitch. Easy for me in my electric wheelchair, but imagine somebody with mobility difficulties who can walk?

Eventually, when we exited the station we were able to roll straight into Westfield shopping centre, although the push button to operate the accessible door didn’t work. No idea how to report it, but why isn’t there an option to scan a QR code or push button to report that something is broken?

After a quick visit to the accessible?wc, which was very “document m” and not as glitzy as the standard wc’s we headed for the stadium. There are lots of people with signage and the pathways are level and flat.

As you cross into the Olympic Park, there is a dedicated accessible line to avoid queueing.

The walk round to the end is quite far and requires going through what eventually become barriers once the game has started.? Unlike Fulham last week where the speed humps were treacherous these were really quite easy to manage.

As we rolled round to our section I was greeted by my favourite accessible steward from Liverpool Football Club , Tina. It’s always nice to have a connection and then I was greeted by Kieren one of the West Ham access team who I met 5 years ago. He is always so helpful, friendly and engaging and goes out of his way to make away fans feel welcome, unlike many other grounds where the home stewards really don’t like travelling fans!

Once we got into the ground both my PA and friend needed the toilet.? Whilst I waited for them, I noticed how clear the signage for the male and female designated facilities were, but there was actually no sign to indicate where the accessible wc is. Briefly skipping forward to half time the accessible wc appeared locked. I knew there was more than one, but I didn’t know where it was. It got me thinking that Football Club could really do with having detailed access guides provided by AccessAble .

Concourses are interesting places for disabled people as they are generally rammed.? Whether your disability is related to your mobility or other non-visible neuro divergent conditions pre-match and halftime experiences are generally not accessible at all.? West Ham do have a fair size and places to escape the main huddle.

The accessibility seating area is very large with plenty of match-day stewards around to help.? But even in this modern stadium, the site lines are compromised by people who stand in the row in front.? My Permobil wheelchair rise and fall feature is broken and my engineers can’t get it working despite three visits and reassuring me it’s fixed Simon Greenway

Anyway, the match was not that great and finished with a drab draw. We left the stadium pretty quickly and headed back for Stratford International and what could’ve been a really good day was ruined by the lack of inclusive thinking in the exit and post match experience. The perimeter of the stadium is no longer a barrier free route of choice with physical barriers erected. When I ask the stewards how I get back to the station, they simply said get in the lift and follow the road.? Which way?? They were pretty unhelpful.? I don’t understand why an access route couldn’t be left open for wheelchair users and mobility challenged who have the relevant ticket.? We could simply flash our ticket or you could observe that we’re in a wheelchair user and let us through.

We use the lift to get to the road level and based on my previous visits I knew I needed to head right. Unfortunately, the majority of people are heading left so immediately I’m walking into a bunch of people who are busy checking their bets or catching up on social media on their mobile phones rather than looking where they’re walking. There’s no signage and unfortunately we take a left and end up going over a bridge and then down a well designed zig zag access route. But we then reach a road and another bridge over a canal and now I’m completely lost.? I can just about see Westfield in the distance.? But I’m now in a road with traffic coming both ways.? And it’s taken nearly 30 minutes compared to the 10 minutes it took to get into the stadium.? We arrive back at Westfield and there is a pedestrian control stop go procedure.?

Again there is no access line so I’m lowdown at bottom height and people naturally all want to get home.? It’s a very claustrophobic and unhelpful situation to be in.? We cross the road and we end up outside the entrances to Westfield which have all been shut off.? There is no consideration for disabled people and we’re just told to go in a certain direction, adding further distance to the journey.? My hands are freezing by this point and I can’t wear gloves to control my wheelchair so I’m really struggling.? I come across some security guards and ask them if they could just let me through the barrier as I can see where I need to get to and thought if I got inside for five minutes, I could warm up before attempting to get to the train.

I did this film this on my glasses but I’m honestly a bit embarrassed to use the material as I don’t conduct myself in my best manner as I’m really frustrated.? What was interesting was the amount of non disabled people and also disabled people who had prosthetic legs who joined in to try and get the security staff to let a few people through.? The security guards are given no empowerment, common sense or accessibility awareness training as they just didn’t understand the situation and refused to help.? I was told to head round the corner where there was a lift. What they failed to tell me was that that involved entering the car park.? We then had to get into a lift to go back into the the shopping centre to come back out of it to get to the station.? If you stay with me long enough on this blog you read that the lift was out of order.? By this time I’m all disorientated on where I am and I enter the station passing through several security staff guarding the accessible entrance. I passed through them in my wheelchair but not one of the 10 said you do know the lifts are out of order and you need to head down to the other entrance. Eventually, I reached the gate line and the station manager says oh by the way the lifts are out of order you need to go over that way. I’m not sure why those security guards didn’t tell you that. Do we see a common theme regarding security people?

Luckily we made our journey home, but it was over 3.5 hours compared to the 2.25 there. Perhaps driving would have been better.

Overall West Ham are doing well on accessibility but some joined up thinking with their neighbours could make egress as good as entry.