Access All Areas Update

You’ll remember that a team of staff and members visited Dorking in September to check the accessibility of the town.

Following the visit, we wrote to all of the shops and businesses that were of concern asking them to review their accessibility. We offered our support and expertise in helping them to make these changes.

We’re pleased to report that Nationwide Building Society have been very proactive. We wrote to them with the following accessibility concerns:

• They had a ramp into a shop followed by a slope inside.  You would need quite a lot of strength to get up the slope on your own.  There was no bell for assistance
• One of the main causes of concern was to exit the building, you go down the slope, the door opens automatically and if you are not being careful you could end up wheeling straight out of the shop and into the road!

We received a response from Nationwide within 48 hours.  They got in touch with Yasmin, our Involvement Lead asking for a meeting. Yasmin met with them, and Nationwide are in the process of implementing all the improvements we recommended, including a call button, handrails and a safe area for disabled people to discuss their bank accounts without having to use the ramp

In fact, they were measuring up while Yasmin was in the building!

This is a fantastic example of how we can work together with businesses to improve accessibility for all.

Thank you Nationwide Dorking for listening and working with us. Looking forward to coming back to the branch, once the changes have been made!