Reporting an Access Issue through KCIL

What type of issue can I report?

We believe accessibility covers every aspect of your day to day experience, not just the physical environment, so we welcome reports of any and all circumstances that have negatively impacted you because of any impairments you may have. We have listed a few examples of access issues below, though there are many more.

• Poorly designed spaces – Doors and corridors too narrow, no room to manoeuvre between furniture.

• Inadequate facilities – Lack of lifts or Accessible toilets

• Personal Safety Risk – Evacuation plans that do not take your specific needs into account.

• Lack of accessible information – Written information provided without easy read or large print options; media provided without subtitles or audio description; websites without font or contrast options.

• Poor treatment/Customer Service – a lack of awareness training amongst staff members to demonstrate appropriate and inappropriate levels of assistance.

Why should we also report Good Accessibility?

At KCIL, we believe in promoting those venues or businesses that have taken appropriate steps to increase their overall accessibility. This allows us to guide our members to services they can feel safe and comfortable using. It also allows us to showcase to those who have yet to take such steps the positive results they can bring.

How can I make a Live Access Report?

You can find the Live Access Report form on our website here. To help us to address the issue properly, please provide as much information as possible; for example, some key things to include would be:

• Your Name – For ease of communication between yourself and KCIL. You will still remain anonymous when we pass on details of your report to the appropriate parties, and we will share no personal details without your consent.

• An email address or phone number – In case we need to contact you for further details or to let you know how an Access Report has progressed since it was submitted.

• The nature of the accessibility issue – a description of what caused the issue and how it affected you specifically.

• The location of the accessibility issue – The name of the venue/business as well as the town or specific branch, plus the website/media address if applicable.

• Response – How the staff/owners reacted to the accessibility issue if they were made aware of it and any assistance they attempted to offer.

• Photographs – While the Report Form does not yet allow attachments, please indicate it within the form if you have photographs of the access issue. We will reach out to request them from you.

What happens after a report is submitted?

Once we have received a Live Access Report, it is forwarded to our Access Team. The Access Team will then reach out to you if you have provided contact details. We will confirm we have received your report and request further information from you if needed.

Once we have assessed the information, we reach out to the appropriate venue/business management and inform them of the issue. We will inform the management of the venue or business of the specific parts of the Accessible Building Regulations and Local Plan that they may be in violation of, and to suggest a possible Best Practice solution to the issue itself. We at KCIL pride ourselves in providing both professional experience and lived experience when dealing with accessibility. This allows us to offer solutions beyond the bare minimum required to meet the local access requirements.

Afterwards, we then invite the venue/business to make use of our other Access Services, so that we can work with them to find and prevent any future Access Issues that may arise.