Amey employees take part in "Crossing Paths: Working together to improve accessibility" event at QAC
We were recently excited to welcome employees from Amey to take part in "Crossing Paths: Working together to improve accessibility"; an event aimed at highlighting the daily accessibility struggles faced by people with disabilities.
Amey, Birmingham City Council’s highways partner, are an organisation specialising in working on areas such as highway maintenance and the management of street works. The Amey employees teamed up with Guide Dogs and QAC to run a series of exercises at the colleges’ travel training facility, Independence Street. The facility, built by volunteers from Amey in 2014, was turned into a mock road works site for the day, with workers getting first-hand experience of navigating obstacles in wheelchairs, in blindfolds with canes, and with Guide Dogs’ demonstration dog, Natalie.
QAC’s Rehab & Travel Training Team also gave Amey employees advice on guiding people with vision impairment in a safe and appropriate way.
The focus of the sessions was to explore different roadwork set ups to see how they could be navigated using canes and wheelchairs, putting them in the position of someone with a visual impairment or other mobility needs.
Many of the employees from Amey had expressed that the experience had highlighted issues faced by disabled people when they encountered unexpected obstructions and they would factor this into their work in the future.
Lara Thorns, Communications and Community Manager for Amey in Birmingham, said:
“It has been fantastic to work alongside these two great charities on what has been an enlightening day for everyone who took part. Safety barriers and cones are inevitable as we carry out works to improve the city’s streets, but the inconvenience they can cause is not. Hopefully, after today’s event, our teams will feel more confident in approaching and assisting people who may need that extra bit of help around our sites.”
