Brilliant, Inclusive Literary Celebration
5
5
Date of visit: August 2026
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.
I use or have experience of: changing places toilet, disabled toilet, powerchair, toilet with hoist
Overall Rating
Excellent
Fantastic wheelchair accessible event in the heart of Edinburgh with other accessibility features available. We were kindly invited by the Edinburgh International Book Festivals organisers to attend Chris Brookmyers talk on his latest book.
Disabled Access In and Around
Excellent
It is all level access within the book festival, with lifts within The Futures Institute where the book festival is held, leading to other levels of the book festival event. I feel the courtyard at the front of the book festival is very spacious to get around and the pathways make it easier to drive around. The bookshop is quite tight to get around, especially if it is busy. Luckily the end cashier was free when we got to the till, so I was able to easily pay for my purchase. The only thing I would say about the book shop is that the threshold to get in is a little rocky if that makes sense. You have to go up a ramp and then right down a little ramp to into the shop, so I feel I needed support going down into the book shop because I feel I shot forward a little. Maybe having the ramp, a little longer within the shop would help with this. We visited Venue T again for our show and as usual it was great. They had an accessible entrance that we got straight through to get to our show, and staff were very helpful in showing us to our reserved seating. It was great to see captions on the screen for the show, even though they weren’t 100% accurate. It was also fantastic to see staff members had a QR code on their lanyards to get access to BSL interpreters for people who need this. There was also an information hut in the courtyard of the book festival which I haven’t noticed before, with members of staff willing to help. When we were leaving the staff had opened the access exit to make it easier for people to leave as it was torrential rain and busy with everyone trying to get away from the rain.
Accessible facilities: Lift to all areas, Step-free entrance, Seating at regular intervals
Parking & Transport
Excellent
I travelled to this place by walk or wheel
I walked to the book festival from the Euan’s Guide office on Castle Terrace. Even though some streets are quite bumpy, they are manageable in a powered wheelchair. They are also manageable in a manual wheelchair, but some streets are uphill so that might cause some strain. There are no dedicated car parks for the book festival, but I think there are a few paid car parks nearby. The tram does not stop anywhere near where the book festival is held, but there are bus stops right beside the book festival.
Accessible facilities: Public or on street parking
Accessible Toilets
Excellent
There are lots of toilets all around the book festival and it was fantastic to see on their site map that there were signifiers to let people know where the accessible toilets were right or left-handed transfers. Also, it was good to see larger signs on the actual doors of the accessible toilets to show whether the toilet is a right or left-handed transfer, this means you don’t have to physically open the door to check. It was also fantastic to see that they had the Mobiloo Changing Places toilet this year. It was very modern and clean, not clinical looking, with a wooden effect on the walls. It was also nice to hear music playing in the CP toilet through the radio and different lighting being available too. The only downside I would say though was that the signage wasn’t very good to know where the CP toilet was located. You were able to see on the site map where it was, but I got a little confused of what side of the book shop it was on. Along with standard toilet cubicles the CP toilet is hidden away so having a sign at the edge of the main pathway of the book festival, pointing down to where the toilets are, would be very helpful. The standard cubicle toilets were also very modern looking and clean.
Facilities: Changing Places toilet, Accessible toilet
Staff
Excellent
All staff that I encountered at the book festival were very friendly and were on hand to help with anything you needed. It is very clear to see they have all been trained in accessibility features that are available at the book festival as they were all very knowledgeable.
