I feel very upset after visiting Riverside today 9/2/14
We organised a trip for our disabled students but it soon turned into a disaster when we found out that none of the Riverside staff had the correct training to use any of the disabled access points provided within Riverside.
We also noticed that when we asked one member of staff a question on these matters there was a total lack of communication between your staff and us as the costumers. As we asked question on where to store the wheelchairs it was obvisius that the staff had no experince with a disabled people and they had to keep leaving us waiting this was for at least more then 20 minutes leaving our disable students cold in swimming costumes.
We even still had to go and find a member of staff at one point and when we did find him he was sat on the life guard chair so we had to ask another member of staff the same question again as the other forgot about us waiting in the changing room.
When we finally got an answer about the disabled chair lift in to the swimming pool he said it was broken as the battery was not working and we did question them about shouldn't there be regular checks put in place to prevent such a embarrassing situation but this was not the case.
We had choice but to have to guide/ help our students using 2 of us either side of them as if we cancelled swimming it would have left out students very dissapointed and leave them feeling inadequate.
The swimming pool was very cold, so we asked a member of staff if we could use the spa which they eventually agreed for us to do so.
But the disabled access to the spa was very disappointing as we had to help our students up the stairs using 2 staff either side again but the students did really enjoy using the Sauna and jacuzzi.
Our students wanted to leave Riverside after using the spa a costumer told us that there was a lift in the spa that leads you into the changing rooms and we tried to use the lift but there was no clear instructions on which floors you may need, the carpet was very dirty but we had no choice.
We must have been to every floor in riverside by using the lift provided as when the doors opened it looked like a warehouse / building site substantially lacked in safety and had numinous objects laying around.
Even the changing rooms are very difficult for disable people no rails provided, no disabled changing rooms, 2 disabled toilets which are very dirty and at the back of the changing rooms so very difficult to access and the normal toilets are very dirty with excrements left in them.
We are very disappointed by the lack of disabled access and cleanness in this establishment and hope this will encourage some changes to made for the future as Riverside does have to potential to become great for everyone.
09-02-14
Tags:
Disappointed
