Sight loss

Writing on the wall

Musings on a WC cubicle wall.

Musings on a WC cubicle wall.

London's Granary Square has become a favourite place to meet friends: it's easy to get to (King's Cross and St. Pancras International have been step-free for a few years now) and there's a good variety of bars and restaurants. The accessibility of these venues is evident in the number of disabled people who visit them, and who knows how many more people with invisible disabilities are regulars too?

The purple pound is currently in the media. BBC News has a quick explanation, and a more in depth analysis of the statistics can be found at VisitBritain, alongside a useful list of resources for business and venues.

After Friday's dinner a group of us left Granary Square for a club in an older building, where customers had vented their access frustrations on the ladies' washroom walls.

Coat hook please & toilet seat [I’m getting too old for this!]
— Disgruntled customer
More writing on the wall.

More writing on the wall.

This exchange of words on the wall highlights the importance of legible text, but it was the comment by the doctor that worried me.

[Arrow to printed sign on wall]
Can’t read / too small, not OK for people with visual needs.

[Arrow pointing to first comment]
I’m a doctor & this isn’t even a thing.
— Frustrated customer and ignorant doctor.

I'm not advocating writing on loo walls or any other walls but pretty sure that the person who wrote the first comment wouldn't have felt it necessary to scrawl a complaint on the wall if 'visual needs' weren't a thing. If I were inclined to add to the debate I'd point the doctor in this direction: RNIB Key Information and Statistics and give them both a telling off for vandalism.