Disability Awareness Training at the Rural Life Living Museum

Megan, the Coalition’s Involvement Officer shares with us her day at the Rural Life Living Museum providing Disability Awareness Training with colleague Jennie.

On Saturday 28^th February my colleague and I, alongside my Assistance Dog Rowley, delivered Disability Awareness Training to around 80 staff members and volunteers at the Rural Life Living Museum. This was part of a wider project to improve access and disability awareness at museums and heritage sites across Surrey.

The training was developed alongside our members using their real-life lived experiences and included a visit to the site where we offered ideas on how to improve access. I was really pleased to see on Saturday that many of our suggestions have already been implemented, such as adding a grab bar to the accessible toilet door making it easier to close and securing the carpet where my wheelchair had previously gotten stuck.

During our Disability Awareness Training workshop, we covered topics such as different types of disability, how to support people with mental health conditions, welcoming visitors with Assistance Dogs, legal responsibilities, how to make reasonable adjustments, models of disability, and more.

We received some lovely feedback from the staff and volunteers after our training session who say they now feel more confident in supporting visitors with varying types of disability and long-term health conditions.

We look forward to running more workshops like this in the future which are made possible thanks to the generosity and support of our funders. Thank you to the Surrey Cultural Partnership, Community Foundation for Surrey and National Lottery Heritage Fund for supporting this project through the Surrey Heritage For All fund.