Rebecca-Anne Withey: All year round accessible places of interest for family half term fun!

For those of us with children in school, the February half term holiday is almost upon us! I’ve been scouring the internet for accessible family days out and I’ve put together a list of a few gems that I discovered.

Obviously for fail-safe fun days out you can’t go wrong with zoos, aquariums or theme parks. There are plenty across the UK with most offering concessionary tickets for those in receipt of Disability Living Allowance of Personal Independence Payment.

If you do receive one of these benefits it may be worth getting a DID card (a National disabled identification card) as you can use this to gain entry at concessionary rates and it is recognised by many establishments including theatres, museums, attractions and leisure facilities.

Anyhow, for those who with young children needing to let off steam, soft play centres are always a winner and your local National Deaf Children’s group may be holding some meet ups for those with deaf children, so I highly recommend contacting your local group to find out.

For film buffs this half term, be sure to keep your eyes on the subtitled cinema listings and if you have a CEA card you can get complimentary tickets for a carer.

As I have growing children with curious minds, I was keen to find museums or places of interest that are accessible for the whole family.

As I began my search online I noticed that in most cases museums and galleries advise you contact them directly to book a BSL tour. Some places may even offer specialist BSL tours on selected dates only. The National History Museum and and The Science Museum in London, both free of charge, ask that you request BSL support two weeks before your visit or that you book onto specialist tours.

You can also book onto a BSL tour at Manchester Art Gallery and The Black Country Museum in Dudley. Birmingham’s ThinkTank has subtitled shows in the planetarium on a Friday afternoon and Leicester’s National Space Centre states how all of its interactive screens are captioned.

All of the establishments that I researched state they have induction loops for hearing aid users. So if that’s suitable for you then you shouldn’t be disappointed wherever you go as induction loops appear to be the norm.

Captioned interactive exhibitions and BSL guided tours are a little harder to come by so I focused my efforts on finding places that are accessible for BSL users (and with captions) all year round. Here’s what I discovered:

• Glasgow Science Centre, Scotlands biggest science centre, has a BSL introductory video with captions available to view on its website. It states that you can download the free Glasgow Science Centre BSL app to use onsite as it curates some of their most popular exhibits with both BSL and captions.
• Merseyside Maritime Museum and The International Slavery Museum at Albert Docks in Liverpool have subtitles on all videos and interactive screens. In the International Slavery Museum most interactive screens have a BSL in-vision presenter too. The museums website provides a very informative video in BSL regarding all aspects of access when it comes to visiting both museums which are actually on the same site.
• Leeds City Museum provide a subtitled BSL video about their facilities online. The video demonstrates how the interactive screens onsite are captioned. They also state that they aim to provide BSL tours as part of their Special Exhibition Programme on a regular basis. You can email them to find out which exhibition is on or view their website’s What’s On guide.
• The Roman Baths in Bath have British Sign Language tours available on Opus Touch handsets which are free of charge with an admission ticket. They usually offer audio guides to visitors and so if you are a hearing aid user and prefer to use this, you can do so by using the “T” switch on your hearing aid. They also offer printed copies of the audio guide text!
• Finally, I’m aware the National Trust is looking to improve accessibility for deaf visitors so you could always contact your local National Trust building to see what they have onsite. Prior Park Landscape Gardens in Bath have BSL digital tours available to book and an introductory video available online in BSL with captions. Killerton House in Devon also provides BSL tours on a portable tablet which you can lend from the front desk there!

If you know of or happen to discover an all-year round accessible place of interest, why not share it with us?

Happy half term holidays!