A great place to visit, very accessible in every way
4.5
4.5
Date of visit: November 2014
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
Excellent
Excellent accessibility, much thought has gone into all aspects of access.
Disabled Access In and Around
Excellent
Very nearly full marks. Wheelchair access into and throughout the museum. A platform lift to the mezzanine level felt shaky and ramshackle, as though it might break down any time. The lift to the upper floor was good. A virtual video tour of the real canal boat is provided for those who can't get inside it - very thoughtful! The permanently running films have subtitles for the hearing impaired. Braille notices direct visually impaired users to audio content on numerous topics about the canals (see my photo)
Parking & Transport
Good
The Museum is quite near King's Cross Station, which is step-free.
Accessible Toilets
Poor
There is a good accessible toilet but it has a major flaw: the red emergency cord ends well over a metre above the ground. This is useless for the very situations it's designed for, namely when someone doing the precarious transfer from wheelchair to toilet falls to the floor and is injured. The cord should reach all the way to the floor. Astonishing that, in a museum where accessibility has been thought through so well, this detail has been messed up.
Staff
Excellent
Lovely friendly staff who bend over backwards to be helpful, and are happy to chat at length about all canal matters.
