Meeting of the Parliament 25 September 2014
I am sure that Margaret McDougall would welcome me to the clan nonetheless.
I refer members to my declaration of interests. I am a trustee of a recently established charity called Friendly Access, which aims to encourage and facilitate businesses and public bodies to increase their awareness, understanding of and openness to individuals on the autistic spectrum. I will touch on that theme during my speech.
Stewart Stevenson spoke about the garden of smells in Aberdeen, which he recalled. I am not sure whether the one that he referred to still exists, but I refer to the recent refurbishment and reinvigoration of the Duthie park in Aberdeen, which was brought about through the Heritage Lottery Fund and a significant bequest. While I was vice-convener of housing and environment at Aberdeen City Council, I instigated the incorporation of a sensory area in the Duthie park, to ensure that individuals who would benefit from such an area could do so.
There has been much talk of physical disability or, rather, visible disability. I want to talk a little bit about individuals whose disability might not be obvious when they present at facilities or when they travel on holiday. Good work is being done. I certainly welcome the funding that has been allocated by the Scottish Government. I welcome the launch of the online training programme as well, which I hope that businesses across Scotland will sign up to.
One of the things that has been highlighted in the debate is that often when we think about tourism we think of a visitor attraction or a hotel, but our entire society should be accessible, because people who visit Scotland, or people who holiday within Scotland, will use all kinds of facilities and services in order to enjoy themselves. We should not limit ourselves to thinking about visitor attractions and accommodation, although, that said, I will probably spend the rest of my speech talking about those very things.
I want to focus on some of the challenges and ambitions out there and on things that could be done a bit differently. A couple of months ago, I did a large piece of work on autism in the airports in Scotland, to try to help people on the autistic spectrum who want to fly to find their way through the airport process. A lot of good work is being done in Scotland’s airports, and my aim was to bring it to the fore and make people aware of it.
That work led me to think about what happens in other countries. After all, if we want to attract people to Scotland, we must replicate the supports that people on the autistic spectrum who might need to fly into the country have in their home nations. I realise that the minister does not have jurisdiction over such areas, but it might be worth considering the issue in discussions and conversations with representatives of other Governments and finding out what they are doing to ensure that their nationals who want to come to Scotland are able to do so.
Another issue is accommodation. We have talked a lot about accessibility in this debate, but we also need to think about security. Because my son is what we might call an escape artist, we have to be very careful about the hotel rooms that we book when we go on holiday. In many rooms, one exits simply by turning the handle and opening the door. That is a genuine concern for many who look after individuals on the autistic spectrum, who often have no concept of danger or the rights and wrongs of leaving a hotel room. My son’s autism comes with a free sleep disorder, as is often the case with people on the autistic spectrum; they are up at 4 or 5 in the morning, often before anyone else in the household. If my son were to wake up at 4 or 5, turn the handle on the hotel room door and exit, we could well find when we woke up a couple of hours later that he had left the facility. We therefore have to look at this issue from a business perspective and find out whether hotels and other forms of accommodation are geared up to cater in the best way for individuals and their needs.
When I posted on the pages of a couple of Facebook groups of which I am a member, asking for people’s thoughts and experiences on this matter, one mum told me that at a certain local attraction in Scotland they had found it very easy to get in and get the discount for disabled individuals and carers but they then had to queue for everything in the attraction. For many on the autistic spectrum, the concept of queues can cause great anxiety and stress—and often meltdown—and we need to think about whether facilities should put in place the kind of fast-track procedures that some major attractions have introduced to facilitate access for families who have such difficulties.
It has been brought to my attention that there is no changing places toilet at the recently refurbished national museum of Scotland. Parents have told me that they would like that to be addressed, and I wonder whether the minister can raise their concerns with his colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs and find out whether anything can be done. After all, many families and individuals who require such toilets visit that facility, and if one can be put in place, it definitely should be.
I should also note that hand dryers in toilets are often terrifying to people with particular sensory disorders. However, because such dryers are often the only game in town, people have to either use them or dry their hands with toilet paper, which is not very dignified.
I was going to mention a couple of other issues, Presiding Officer—is it okay if I take just a little bit longer? I see that you are saying no, so I will wrap up with a couple of asks of the Scottish Government. The first is about the retrofitting of existing public buildings to ensure that they are accessible to visitors, and the second is about the definition of accessible toilets in building standards. The feedback that I have received is that the current definitions are not cutting the mustard, and I wonder whether the minister can take that issue back to his colleagues who are responsible for such matters and see what can be done.
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