Just to add a wee bit to something I said earlier about going to Murrayfield. They have track side accessible seating which I’ve been in but the best place I’ve personally had is in two locations in the main stand that sits level to where the coaches sit watching the game. It’s a great view, is nice and dry and has a number of spaces for wheelchairs and a companion, also has seats behind if like me you have kids wanting to or needing to sit with you. It’s serviced by one lift that’s big enough for one wheelchair and a couple of people standing. Never any great issue getting in and up the two flights it takes you. Go in the main entrance of Murrayfield to get to it. Most people don’t arrive at the same time and not really huge queues at the end to get out.
My visit to Murrayfield when we played Hearts there was a major disappointment, shit view pitchside miles from the action, no access to a proper toilet but a portaloo outside.
The problem I have mainly with Ibrox is the availability of accessible tickets for games. There is an impossibility long queue for season ticket in accessible area and simply so few match to match tickets to be had. The area in the old enclosure is not the greatest position to view anything with stewards and police constantly in the road.
It's absolutely beyond scandalous, there is simply no defence whatsoever for the lack of action over the decades. I genuinely believe now that we will see it being tackled, not as quickly as we would like probably but tackled nonetheless for no other reason than they know they have no option.
The club at times want to make a big deal about helping kids with disabilities or veterans who have been injured but it doesn’t really show that in the facilities that are on offer if I’m being honest.
This is something that has always made me feel uncomfortable as it painted an extremely false picture of the reality, basically wheeling someone out for some PR pics then discarding them when they'd served their purpose. We told the club in no uncertain terms that we did not feel included in the Everyone Anyone stuff, they actually photoshoped and cropped wheelchairs and wheelchair fans out of the PR photos, they didn't engage with the Disability Matters Group or the Rangers Disabled Club. The fancy video they made conspicuously omitted the disabled from the list of those that shouldn't be discriminated against.
Somebody above mentioned about these things cost money and yeah that’s right but there is a LEGAL REQUIREMENT to treat disabled people equally and there are obligations in that to ensure things should be on a more level playingfield for people who need their requirements met
Yes there's a financial cost but in my decades of dealing with the club on this issue to me the bigger barrier to improvements has been a complete and total lack of will and a deeply ingrained mindset (with a few honourable individual exceptions), they readily enough acknowledged the shortcomings but just did virtually nothing to address them.
That's why I view the the recent AGM as heralding a sea change in the clubs attitude and I really do believe we will begin to see major progress though perhaps not as fast as we would like but advancement as opposed to the status quo.
The new DAO has a bit of a poisoned chalice on his hands but appears to me so far to a very welcome addition and is light years ahead of what we had previously.
I don’t know for instance if there is a separate more descriptive commentary for blind people or is it just the TV commentary from RTV which only really lends its self to the pictures you see as it’s not descriptive enough.
There is and while I've never personally heard it the Blind Party speak highly of it.
A reasonable adjustment as I said above could be deemed as reducing the capacity of seats to ensure there was appropriate facilities for disabled people. Maybe needs a group of disabled fans to get together and really be more vocal about this and get the help of MPs/MSP or challenge it in court under the equality act. The old excuse about the club doing it’s best perhaps doesn’t wash
For years I too thought that the only way to get the club to take the issue seriously and force change would be to do like you say and go down the legal route and several times over the years I along with others were on the cusp of doing so.
As I've said previously I firmly believe we will now start travelling down the road we need to travel simply because the board have reached the conclusion they have no option.
