UON showcases accessibility for disabled students, visitors and staff

Comprehensive details about how accessible the University of Northampton’s buildings, rooms and facilities are to help disabled staff, students and visitors are available online, all under ‘one roof’.

UON has partnered with AccessAble to create Detailed Access Guides to over 200 teaching/meeting spaces and routes across the University.

The guides contain facts, figures, and photographs to help staff, students and visitors plan their journey to and around the University.

They cover everything from parking and hearing loops, to walking distances and where facilities such as accessible toilets are located.

As individual people’s accessibility needs are different, having detailed, accurate information is important. So, the website also lets users know whether a car park surface has a tarmac or gravel surface or there are mirrors in the lifts, to better aid people who use wheelchairs.

All of the details can be found in the guides, which have been checked in person, on site, by trained surveyors.

The AccessAble website can also be tailored to visitor’s accessibility needs, including changing the colour of the site, text can be switched to speech and there is a magnifying option. The website will also work with any voice-over software already installed on an individual’s browser or phone.

Becky Bradshaw, Director of Estates & Campus Services at the University of Northampton, said:

“The University of Northampton is committed to providing a vibrant, ethical and sustainable work, study and living environment that values equality, diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to be working with AccessAble to identify improvements we may need to make to ensure our environments are as accessible as possible whilst also providing genuine practical support to students, visitors and staff through publication of our professionally-assessed Access Guides.”

Dr Gregory Burke, Founder of AccessAble, added:

“We are delighted partner with the University of Northampton to launch Detailed Access Guides University’s buildings, ensuring that vital, in-depth access information is available for disabled students, visitors and staff.

“I’d like to sincerely thank the University for funding this work and recognising that detailed, accurate accessibility information is crucial to improving student experience.”

Take a look at the University’s Accessibility Guides.

The guides are also available on the AccessAble App which is free to download from the App Store and Google Play, and provides accessibility information on the go.