Case Study - ‘Access Volunteers’

Clackmannanshire Access Volunteers

�The Access Panel started in 1993 with a mixture of lay-people with personal experience of disabilities and professionals who worked with people with disabilities. The Panel was originally called a District Access Group but when the local authority set up a Council Access Panel, the Access Panel was asked if they would change their name to avoid confusion. The group then became known as Community Access Volunteers.

The Secretary of the Panel believes that there are some benefits to being called ‘volunteers’;

“Shopkeepers … are going to be more open to training by a voluntary group who actually have problems rather than just being told by the Council that you must do this or you must do that. Hopefully they’ll be more sensitive to why they’re being asked and why it’s important that they don’t just pay the DDA lip service, but the reasons why it’s there and we’re not being unreasonable asking for it”.

The members of the Panel don’t see themselves as ‘volunteers’ but do the work because they want to make a difference not just for themselves but “so many of their friends all have problems, they want to make it better for everybody”.

“I personally think it’s a really good mix having able-bodied people and people with disabilities because I can see what we’re doing from the point of view of a carer and the problems I have … whereas the other members of the group with disabilities, they can see it from their point of view“.

The Panel currently has seven active members, four of whom have been on the Panel since its start. As well as a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, it also has two Vice-Chairs, both with disabilities. Originally the rules of the Panel were that it had to be disability-led and the Vice-Chairs “wouldn’t be able to fulfil the functions of the Secretary, Chairperson or Treasurer without help … whatever they do they go along with either myself or the Chairperson or the Treasurer to enable them to represent the group. They always go along with a personal assistant”. Because the Panel is small, tasks are distributed to whoever is available to carry them out. When the Panel first started and numbers were bigger, the tasks were carried out by members with specialist knowledge or skills, for example a member who was partially sighted did audits for people with sight problems, and someone with a converted wheelchair specialised in access to countryside paths and transport. “…we tried to take a particular aspect that was of particular interest to us. As I say, at the moment that’s not possible”.

The Panel made a decision to meet during the day as they felt that this was more accessible to current and potential members; “almost everybody who was initially involved with the group said day meetings were better for people with disabilities because lots of people with disabilities don’t like coming out at night and a lot of people with disabilities are at the day centre which is why we meet [there]”.�

Adverts for new members are placed in the local newspaper and leaflets are distributed in, for example, health centres and libraries. These advertise for Panel members but not specific tasks on the Panel. Events organised by the Panel are also advertised in local newspapers. Despite this, no one new has joined the Panel in the last year.

The Panel has been involved in some successful projects, for example the renovation of a walled garden, and has been pioneering disability awareness in the area by training local shopkeepers. They are hoping to work on a local access guide in the future but would need more volunteers with different expertise for this. The Panel recognises that a specific project such as this might be an ideal way to attract more volunteers; “They think ‘oh that sounds a good idea - I’d like to get involved in it’”.

The Secretary is determined that the Panel will work but is also aware that it’s currently struggling especially with the potential increase in planning consultations.

“There are so many people who go to the Day Centre, or even people who don’t go to the Centre that we’re aware of, and that don’t really want to get involved. And I think they feel that in some ways it would be really good to get more support from the local community of people with disabilities. Because when we were just saying that people like to get involved on a particular issue, very often that involves saying yes we’ll get people from voluntary agencies who are expertise in… whatever, but they themselves do not necessarily have a disability. And I think that the feeling of the group is that they would just like to get more disabled people in the area to come along to the meetings”.

October 2005

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