Great exhibits and accessibility
5
5
Date of visit: October 2025
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.
I use or have experience of: disabled toilet, wheelchair
Overall Rating
Excellent
I was really impressed with the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea. It was located quite close to the train station and the roads in the surrounding area all seemed to be quite newly paved so it was all very smooth and had good pedestrian crossings. The gallery itself had excellent accessibility. The reception desk had a lowered counter and the staff checked in with me to let me know where to go and what was on each floor. They had a sign at the reception desk with QR codes for an audio described tour and a BSL tour too. The lift was one of the biggest I had ever seen with a large bench inside and still enough room to have a small party inside! There were accessible toilets on two of the gallery floors and a Changing Places toilet on the ground floor. There were fold-out stools available to borrow and staff and volunteers throughout the gallery in case you needed any support. I found all the exhibits were well spaced with plenty of room for me to navigate around everything in my wheelchair and power attachment. The gallery had lots of different items, including paintings, sculptures, textiles, videos, pottery, and much more to look at.
Disabled Access In and Around
Excellent
The entrance is level with the street and has no steps or ramps to reach the main entrance. The entrance has automatic doors and leads into a reception area where there is also a Changing Places toilet, a small café area with seating and a small shop. The reception desk had a lowered section, which made it easy to speak to staff. There was also a sign with QR codes where people could have an audio tour of the gallery or a BSL tour of the gallery via their phone. The lift to the other floors was absolutely ginormous, one of the largest lifts I’ve ever seen! It had a bench inside to sit on, grab rails on both sides, and information about what was on each floor in English and Welsh, and there were also symbols to identify the toilets, café, shop, baby change and lockers. The button panel had tactile buttons that also had Braille on them and it also had a hearing loop. Each floor was well lit and although some areas had noise or videos, nothing was too loud. Some of the rooms were being maintained at a certain temperature due to the art that was on display, so some of them felt quite stuffy as I was wearing a coat due to the cold weather outside. But there are lockers if you would like to store any items like coats or bags. There were fold-out stools available for anyone to use throughout the building. On the ground floor was a small café that was closed when I was there but the seating was still available to use. The tables and chairs were long tables with bench-like seating which seemed quite heavy to move. It meant someone in a wheelchair would likely end up perched on the end. The ends of the table had metal legs that stopped a wheelchair from being able to roll beneath the table.
Accessible facilities: Lift to all areas, Step-free entrance, Seating at regular intervals, Step-free access to most areas
Parking & Transport
Average
I travelled to this place by walk or wheel
The gallery is 280 metres from the train station with smooth, flat, easy paths and pedestrian crossings between the two. There is a bus stop around the corner on Orchard Street, around 100 metres away. There is no dedicated parking. The closest car parks are the NCP Swansea Orchard Street, which is 300 metres away, or the car park by the train station, which is 450 metres away.
Accessible Toilets
Excellent
There was a Changing Places toilet on the ground floor and two accessible toilets on the first two levels of the gallery. The two accessible toilets on the gallery levels were located right by the lift and were on the smaller side. They had a wheelchair symbol on the front as well as a sign showing this was also a gender neutral toilet. These toilets didn’t require a RADAR key to get in; they had a standard door handle and the doors opened outwards. Inside, the door had a horizontal grab rail that was quite low down to assist with closing the door from the inside if the door handle was too small or far away. A small twist lock was located just below the door handle. It was fairly small and thin, so I’m not sure how easy it would be to operate this with a fist or elbow. There was also a coat hook on the door, but it was quite high up. The toilet had space for a left-side transfer; however, one of the toilets I went into had a sanitary bin and a wet floor sign left in the transfer space. The toilet also had a plastic back-rest, a height-adjustable grab rail, a vertical grab rail on the wall behind the toilet and a horizontal grab rail underneath the toilet paper dispenser. The flush was a standard lever flush. It was quite short so it may be a bit tricky to operate with a fist or elbow. It was mounted on the cistern and it was placed on the same side as the transfer area so you did not have to reach across the toilet to use it. There was a small colostomy shelf on the wall behind the transfer space as well. In front of the toilet was a small sink with a single tap. The tap was manually operated and had a long lever handle that turned up at the end which seemed like it would be able to be operated with a fist or elbow. The tap twisted to control both the temperature and flow of the water. There was a vertical grab rail on either side of the sink and a liquid soap bottle was placed on the sink by the tap. There was a large mirror opposite the sink. The red cord hung to the floor and was by the toilet. The Changing Places toilet was on the ground floor and had a sign on the door with the Changing Places symbol on it. It required a RADAR key to get in and the door opened outwards. There was no grab rail or handle on the outside of the door so it required you to insert the RADAR key, twist it and pull it at the same time. It was really large inside and well-equipped. There was a height-adjustable bench, a ceiling hoist, a standard toilet, a height-adjustable sink and a baby-change table. The height-adjustable bench had a shower at the head of the bench. The remote was hanging down from the back of the bench, close to the floor, which meant it was a bit awkward to reach. The ceiling hoist was positioned at the back of the room, but the tracks meant it was able to move around the whole room. The remote for the hoist was hanging down from it and not stored on the wall. The toilet had height-adjustable grab rails on both sides and vertical grab rails on the wall behind it too. It didn’t have a lid and there was only space for a left-side transfer. Although, a large bin had been left in this transfer area. The toilet paper dispenser was quite far away from the toilet so it required reaching over quite a lot. The flush was a lever flush with a rounded end that seemed like it could be operated with a fist or elbow, and it was mounted on the cistern. It was placed on the opposite side to the transfer area so you had to reach across the toilet to use it. The height-adjustable sink was in front of the toilet and was quite small with a single tap. The tap was manually operated and had a long lever that turned up at the end, which seemed like it would be able to be operated with a fist or elbow. The tap twisted to control both the temperature and flow of the water. There was a vertical grab rail on either side of the sink and the lever to raise and lower the sink was on the right-hand side. An automatic hand dryer was on the right of the sink. There was a large mirror by the ceiling hoist and an emergency red cord hung freely to the floor by the toilet. There wasn’t any signage or information in this toilet to show how the equipment operated or what their safe working loads were.
Facilities: Accessible toilet, Changing Places toilet, Changing Places toilet with shower
Staff
Excellent
The staff on reception were really helpful and checked in to see if I had visited before. When I said it was my first time, they gave me directions on where things like toilets, the lift and other things were. They let me know what sort of exhibits were on each floor as well. There was also at least one member of staff or volunteer on each floor so it was always easy to spot someone if you had any questions.
