Poor recognition to disabilities
1
1
Date of visit: September 2019
I have experience of challenges around: hearing and moving around.
Overall Rating
Bad
Let down badly by mistakes from the operators to those in wheelchairs and hearing impaired guests. There was nothing provided anywhere that we saw that catered to hearing impaired guest, of all the animal experience encounters only one was made available to wheelchair guests, and then was nothing like they promoted. Instead of animal enrichment and getting stuck in, it was just a glorified accompanied tour of the zoo.
Disabled Access In and Around
Average
Many of the exhibits was reachable in a wheelchair, although there were manual doors to access bird exhibits, and the doorway at the Otters wasn't wide enough to allow wheelchair into it. There was no provisions at all for hearing impairments, and some staff did not have comprehension to understand the difficulties for the disabled.
Parking & Transport
Poor
Although there was over 400 parking spaces for the zoo, only 12 were accessible parking spaces (3%). These parking spaces needed payment which had to be done at a parking meter that was not suitable for wheelchair users. On speaking to upper management about the lack of provision, the response was that they did not follow government guidelines unless it was legislated.
Accessible Toilets
Average
There was an accessible toilet at the entrance and near the cafe, although they didn't have an emergency cord. There was a sign suggesting "personal care facilities including a hoist" was available at reception.
Staff
Average
I interacted with six members of staff, three spoke direct to me and were very nice in their demeanor. The other three were not very friendly, one saying he was the operations manager was quite hostile, one responded to my carer when I was talking to him, and another totally ignored me.
Additional Information
Of the 14 animal experiences they offer, when advising them I was in a wheelchair, only 1 experience was available for me to book. This experience suggested a three hour tailor made experience that took into account my disability and was promoted as including talking about and devising animal enrichment, preparing food, and mucking out. The actual experience was a glorified tour for just over two hours, of which nearly half that time was the keeper talking to other guests of the park.
