Improving facilities used by the public Many community organisations and small businesses could improve the services they provide to the public by improving access to their buildings or facilities.
How can I get a grant to improve access?
Kirklees Council’s "Buildings are for People" scheme provides grants to organisations to help them improve access to their public buildings and facilities. Improvements could include disabled parking spaces, accessible toilets, levelling paths or floors, loop systems for people who are hard of hearing or tactile signs for people with a visual impairment.
The scheme can also cover smaller organisations such as family doctors, dentists, cafes, small shops, leisure facilities and community organisations.
It does not include private houses or the branches of major companies or organisations.
Access to schools
Kirklees Children and Young People Service has an accessibility strategy which aims to:
increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the schools’ curriculum
improve the physical environment of schools to increase the extent to which disabled pupils are able to access education and related services offered by schools.
improve the delivery of information to disabled pupils in the formats which best meet their needs - for example, Braille or computer screen reader.
DisabledGo
DisabledGo is a website which provides a guide to the accessibility of many venues and services in Kirklees. DisabledGo is at www.disabledgo.info
Planning your journey
Remember to telephone people in the building in advance for information if you need disabled access. It is helpful to take along a National Key Scheme RADAR key for accessible toilets, which are located all over the UK. You can obtain the keys from Gateway to Care – please see the contact details in the Information and Advice section in this Guide.
In addition, the Charities
Information Bureau and Voluntary Action Kirklees will enable you to use their Fundfinder Database. In that you will find funding bodies that provide grants to improve access.
