Football brings people from all walks of life together but there are accessibility barriers to the unique thrill of attending live fixtures for disabled fans. Ensuring stadia are inclusive and accessible, then, has become a crucial part of any football club's management.
Here, Football Ground Guide outlines what disabled supporters can expect when attending fixtures in England and the United Kingdom.
Football stadium accessibility: The legal framework
Contents
The rights of disabled individuals to access public facilities, including sports venues, are protected by various laws and regulations. These accessibility requirements include seating, toilets, parking, and more.
Football clubs have been required to make “reasonable adjustments” to facilities since 2004, and the UK's legal framework means policies cannot discriminate against disabled fans. Furthermore, there's the Accessible Stadia Guide. This provides a set of standards for grounds to meet with regard to the quality of their facilities for disabled fans and their location.
How to improve your football club's accessibility
Level Playing Field, founded in 1998, recommends the following steps:
- Appoint a Disability Liaison Officer who will oversee accessibility issues and provide day-to-day guidance to disabled supporters where necessary, and for other employees who are seeking to improve accessibility in their departments.
- Ensure accessible toilets are available and clean with emergency assist alarms.
- Allow assistance and guide dogs and create space for them to accompany their owners.
- Provide audio description commentary for the blind and partially sighted.
- Reserve at least 5-10% of car parking space for disabled supporters and create an accessible drop-off and pick-up point.
- Create a Disabled Supporters Association to gain further insights into potential improvements.
- Introduce automatic doors.
- Install handrails.
- Install ramps instead of stairs where possible, even if temporary ramps if costs are too high.
- Create a disabled supporters' section within the home support, not separated from their fellow fans.
Tips for disabled football fans attending a match
- Visit the Level Playing Field website to learn about what disabled access and support is available at the stadium you're attending.
- If you're particularly anxious about attending, you can contact Level Playing Field directly for more specific advice at [email protected] or 01923 545370.
- If driving to the game, check to see whether you need to pre-book parking at the stadium.
- Contact the disabled supporters liaison officer or the releavnt Disabled Supporters Association for more information and to meet with other fans.
The below guide from Level Playing Field will provide all you need to know. It's a fantastic organisation.
🏟️ Are you thinking about attending live football for the first time this weekend?
Level Playing Field have put together a guide for disabled sports fans and personal assistants, to help them plan for the best matchday experience possible.
Read➡️https://t.co/P5SJjUyIQ8 pic.twitter.com/aBT8Qkqf3t
— Level Playing Field (@lpftweets) August 3, 2023
What problems do disabled football fans find at stadiums?
A Football Supporters Association report found in July that these are the most common barriers to disabled fans attending live sport:
- Physical access at stadiums
- Anxiety or lack of confidence
- Lack of information
- Attitudes of others
- Unable to travel to the stadium
- Difficulty purchasing tickets
- “I don’t think stadiums are inclusive for disabled people”
- Cost of attending
- Stadium policies and rules
- Lack of support from club staff
Football stadiums with the best accessibility
We are proud to announce that Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has been awarded the IOC IAKS Gold Award and the IPC IAKS Distinction for Accessibility. 🏟
— Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (@SpursStadium) October 28, 2021
Looking at the Premier League exclusively, the vast majority of stadiums in the division are fairly accessible – they need to be in order to comply with the rules and regulations of the league.
In a recent study, Tottenham Hotspur were adjudged as having the most accessible ground in England's top flight, taking into account ticket prices, the number of accessible entrances, lifts and toilets as well as the overall percentage of accessible seats in the stadium. All in all, Spurs received a score of 6.55 out of 10.
The top three is completed by St James' Park, for which Newcastle United scored 5.87 and Arsenal, whose Emirates Stadium was branded a score of 5.82.
However, rather interestingly, when looking at the total number of accessible seats within a ground as a percentage of the total capacity, it was actually Bournemouth‘s Vitality Stadium that came out on top, with their figure of 298 giving the Cherries a percentage of 2.64%.