Visit to The British Library

Last Tuesday I was travelling to the British Library which is across the road from the new St Pancras International Station. After experiencing my poor level of service at St Pancras station, I proceeded to depart the station to walk over the road to the British Library. The pathways have been newly paved and all the dropped kerbs were in fact dropped kerbs i.e. completely flush with the road surface. They were also very wide and obstruction free. However, all the way through from the station there was a clear lack of visual contrast, as everything (paving, kerbs, railings etc), was a light grey colour and there was no differientation between the objects.

I then passed the front of the British Library (where there was a non-accessible entrance with steps) and I saw a sign with the wheelchair symbol telling me to go around the building. It was lucky it was not raining that day as the route was quite long and it was uncovered.

When I got into the British Library, there was a courtyard outside where there were some steps (which did not serve any purpose) but again there were no warnings at the top of these steps to alert you to the fact of their presence. From the point of view of a wheelchair user, these steps cannot be seen.

I then walked around the courtyard, again uncovered, to go into the entrance to the British Library. At which point, the security guards carried out their security checks but I was slightly concerned that as a disabled person, they just did their check without telling me what they were doing i.e. they seemed frightened to talk to me. Anyway, after this, I went up in the lift which did meet the required dimensions under the access regulations. However, it did seem rather small and maybe unuseable in some situations. I then went up in the lift to the Business and IP Centre in order to meet with Rachel Elnaugh who I was seeking business advice from. Her advice was extremely helpful and gave me a positive way forward. The only point I would make about the room I went to was that, again, the dimensions were all correct as per the access regulations but a sofa was positioned right by the turning circle so by using my wheelchair I found it difficult to manoeuvre in and out of the room. This is the type of barrier that staff need to be aware of within organisations such as the British Library i.e. that small steps of repositioning the sofa shows that they want to include disabled people within the services that they provide.