Half the shop inaccessible to wheelchair users
2
2
Date of visit: May 2016
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.
I use or have experience of: disabled toilet
Overall Rating
Poor
This is a branch of Cotswold Outdoor, the suppliers of clothing and paraphernalia for outdoor activities. The entrance is step-free, it's hard to get around some areas of the ground floor, and the lift was out of order so I wasn't able to visit the basement, which contains half of the shop.
Disabled Access In and Around
Average
The entrance is step-free. So far so good. But some areas of the ground floor are so crammed with closely-packed display-racks that it's impossible to manoeuvre between them in a wheelchair. There is a lift to the basement but it was broken down on the day I visited, so I never got to the basement. The lift had been filled with clutter, and was surrounded by accumulated clutter, so it seems to have been out of order for a long time.
Parking & Transport
Poor
There are no step-free stations nearby. Several bus routes will drop you off in the Strand, which is just a block away.
Accessible Toilets
0This is not the sort of shop in which I would expect to find a toilet. I didn't find one.
Staff
Poor
The staff are strange. I waited for a long time at the till, because an inattentive member of staffing, manning a free till, didn't spot me waiting. Another man was busy ignoring me at a different till, deeply engrossed in looking at stuff on his screen. For these oddities, and for failing to keep the lift in good working order, three stars lost.
Additional Information
Cotswold Outdoor may not realise this, but their clothing is very useful to wheelchair users. I buy a lot of stuff at this sort of shop, as it's resilient, wind-proof and waterproof. They are missing good business by making their shops (not just this one) partly or wholly inaccessible to wheelchair users. They are also disregarding their obligations to disabled people under the Equality Act 2010, which could expose them to legal difficulties at some point in the future.
