Most bookshelves inaccessible to wheelchair user - not recommended
1
1
Date of visit: July 2015
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
Bad
Step-free entry into the bookshop, but I was unable to get at most of the bookshelves. Not recommended for wheelchair users.
Disabled Access In and Around
Bad
Easy access at the main entrance, a lift to the upper floor (with boxes of toys stacked in front of the lift doors!!), but the display tables throughout the shop are so wide and so closely packed together that it's not possible to squeeze past them in a wheelchair or powerchair. So you can't touch or browse most of the books on shelves. This is a major failure to consider wheelchair-users. See my pictures below.
Parking & Transport
Average
There are no step-free stations nearby. At Angel tube station you can get from street to platform using only escalators, which is a bonus (no fixed steps at all). Many bus routes pass Islington Green, amongst others the 43, 73, 19, and 38.
Accessible Toilets
0No toilets in this shop.
Staff
Bad
Staff are friendly and willing to help. But they get almost no stars because of their policy of cramming wide tables in front of bookshelves, with tiny gaps between the tables, blocking access to the shelves for wheelchair users.
Additional Information
I would not recommend this branch of Waterstones to wheelchair users. Their policy of blocking bookshelves with tables is contrary to both the spirit and the letter of the Equality Act 2010 and will lose them customers - including myself - I will not be attempting to shop there again. There are no tables blocking online bookshops.
