Friday 19 September 2008

My experimence of the No Limits 2008 show

I was travelling from Cheam, Surrey to No Limits show which was held at the Excel Centre in the Docklands. I used the train and tube to get to Canary Wharf on the way there. Then I went to Heron Quays DLR station. The lift to the platform was out of order, so it meant I had to travel the other direction one stop and then return. I did this, but the route between the platforms was terrible. There was no obvious or well signed route between the platform and the dropped curbs were blocked off due to road works. However the route between platforms is covered under DDA part 3, as tested in the Central Trains v Roads case. I then proceeded to Customs House DLR station and walked to the Excel Centre.
Overall the DLR, which is meant to be a state of the art, fully accessible railway, was not accessible at all, in my opinion.- for various reasons e.g. Lack of colour contrast, lift dimensions were too small, poor platform marking etc.
I think the DLR needs to take a good look at its access and make changes accordingly, as accessibility was achieved when it was built, however it should surely evolve with time.
The show itself was a disappointment. Mainly, due to the lack of disabled visitors. In my opinion, the reason for this was because of the poor location of the Excel centre, as it is not easy to get to.

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