The parliamentary estate is dangerously inaccessible for wheelchair users like me
Wheelchair access to Houses of Parliament (Credit: Serge Mouraret / Alamy Stock Photo)
4 min read
I am a SEND specialist caseworker for two MPs. I am also a wheelchair user.
Every time I head to Westminster, which I’m encouraged to do by my supportive bosses, it is with a mix of emotions. I love the history and architecture, and feel incredibly privileged to have the opportunity to work here. But I also come with feelings of trepidation about the access challenges I’m going to face.
I’m fiercely independent and pride myself on the fact that I have a ‘can do’ attitude – I just might have to do things in a different way. One of those ‘different ways’ is that, to navigate the estate, I have to bring a carer with me because it is so challenging.
If I’m in a meeting with colleagues, I often cannot join them as they make their way to the next meeting or for something to eat because I need to take convoluted routes or diversions if lifts are broken or areas blocked off. I get to see parts of the estate many aren’t even aware of – but that doesn’t make up for the inconvenience.
Take the meetings rooms in Westminster Hall. To get down the few steps to that floor, I have to use an antiquated platform lift that can only be operated by very few trained members of staff, who have to be found while I wait. There is also no disabled toilet on that floor, so quietly ‘popping out for a comfort break’ means someone must find a member of staff to repeat the whole lift spectacle once again.
Part of my disability is a chronic pain condition, which is exhausting in itself and gets worse as the day goes on. The thought of trying to wheel myself up one of the steep ramps on the estate – like the one from the mail room corridor to access Richmond House, or from the Tube station underpass exit up to Portcullis House – fills me with dread and leaves me wondering whether I even have the energy to reach the top without slipping back down, humiliated. There are no handrails or level areas partway to help me.
If I’m trying to open any of the heavy doors, I must hold them open whilst also wheeling with one hand. It’s unlikely I’m able to do that successfully. I could be – and have been – stuck between two doors, or I’m forced to push doors so hard that I almost fall out of my chair – which has happened.
Almost all the doors on the estate are not automated, and many aren’t wide enough for a wheelchair. Automatic doors would be easier for everyone. I only know of one 24-hour accessible entrance/exit, which is a long diversion for me from Richmond House, and again would be impossible for me to do at the end of the day independently.
There is a lack of information about accessible routes around the estate. This would be an easy fix: produce different types of information about the accessible routes on the estate, which could be shared with the security team and visitor assistance staff as they’re often equally unaware of these routes.
Frighteningly, there are no fire lifts in the building, and I can’t use the stairs; in the event of a fire, I would have to wait alone in a refuge area and hope that the fire service reaches me in time!
It was more than 15 years ago that the historic Equality Act was passed by Parliament, yet the building still does not reflect the standards that the legislation aims to uphold. There are some simple, easy fixes for accessibility. The knowledge of people with lived experience of these problems must be used to enact them – we know best what needs to change. I would be happy to give my time to be part of the solution, and work with the modernisation committee to ensure the parliamentary estate is equitable and inclusive for everyone.
Anne Humphrys is a caseworker SEND specialist for Terry Jermy MP and Jenny Riddell-Carpenter MP
