Megan’s Peer Researcher Celebration

Megan, the Coalition’s Involvement Officer, has recently taken part in a peer researcher training programme with NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration Surrey. In this blog post Megan talks more about the training and her research project.

As part of this training, I completed my own research project about Accessibility and Disability Awareness in Surrey. The aim of my research was to identify where accessibility issues are happening most so that we can target our resources to provide disability awareness training where it will have the biggest impact. Around 100 people took part in my survey and focus group, and I am very grateful to everyone who gave their time and shared their experiences with me.

The results from our survey and focus group discussions highlighted that accessibility challenges for Disabled people are present in every type of business and service that we explored, suggesting that Disability Awareness Training would likely be beneficial for them all.

There were however three main areas that we would like to prioritise for training. These include high-street retail stores, pubs, cafes and restaurants, and public transport. Between 70-80% of Disabled people who accessed these services across Surrey over the past year reported facing difficulties due to both physical barriers in the environment such as no wheelchair ramps or blue badge parking, broken lifts, or no hearing loop, as well as due to poor attitudes or understanding about disability.

Nikki, Yasmin and I along with my lovely Assistance Dog Rowley, were invited to attend a celebration event at the Reigate and Banstead Borough Council offices where I was presented with a certificate for completing the training to become a peer researcher. I also got to speak a little bit about my research project and results which will hopefully lead to some additional opportunities for the Coalition to do more work in this area.

I enjoyed taking part in the project and being able to use my own lived experiences as a Disabled person to do something positive. Thank you again to everyone who took part.

Well done Megan for completing your training to become a peer researcher!