The Chiswick Book Festival, like the Bedford Park Festival in the summer, supports the Wheelchair Happy campaign launched on The Chiswick Calendar by Alan Weavis, seen here with Fr Kevin Morris in the porch of St Michael & All Angels Parish Hall.
The campaign has been a catalyst for many organisations in Chiswick to improve their treatment of wheelchair users. The number of places with Wheelchair Happy stickers is growing and you can see them here – but there is still a long way to go.
At the Chiswick Book Festival, the campaign has focussed our attention on how best we can look after wheelchair users and those with other mobility issues, as well as visual and hearing impairments and other physical difficulties. It has also highlighted where we have more work to do – and Festival-goers and church-goers are keen to tell us when that is the case!
At St Michael & All Angels Church, which runs the two Festivals, there is a slope for wheelchairs to enter the Parish Hall and a lift to go up to the Michael Room on the first floor, where many events take place. Fr Kevin insisted on this when the Hall was being rebuilt in the year 2000, despite pressure to cut the costs! There is a ramp if a speaker needs to gain access to the platform in the church or to the side chapel.
Most rooms in the Church and Parish Hall are accessible for wheelchair users, but the authors’ Green Room (the Vestry) can only be reached through the church itself, or via the back door through the car park.Our other venues – the George IV, where the Local Authors Showcase takes place, Chiswick House’s Garden Pavilion, The Chiswick Cinema and Hogarth’s House – are all fully accessible but the Tabard Theatre is reached up a narrow staircase and does not have a lift. We have reduced the capacity at some venues to ensure safe access for wheelchair users.
We know that the sound system in the church is imperfect, particularly for those with hearing difficulties, and though there is a hearing loop it doesn’t always function well. For the Chiswick Book Festival we hire in a professional team of sound engineers to provide high quality sound in the church, the Parish Hall and at Chiswick House.
Carers are entitled to a free ticket when accompanying an attendee. We ask people to contact the box office at boxoffice@chiswickbookfestival.net to arrange this. We also encourage others who will be accompanying wheelchair users to let us know in advance, so we can make sure our volunteers are prepared. Sometimes we need to make audiences wait to come into a venue while it is prepared for the session: we will do our best to keep these occasions as short and few as possible.
We welcome guide dogs and other assistance dogs, but for health and safety reasons we cannot let in other dogs – even for our session ‘Man & Dog: A Love Story’ with Tony Parsons and Sophia Money-Coutts!