AccessibleConsulting

Antonia Font is a group from Majorca that have been around for a few years now. I’m not even going to pretend to be a music critic as that’s not my job but they’re one of those bands that you don’t really need to understand the lyrics in order to enjoy the music. This in itself is a great relief as they sing in Majorcan which is similar to Catalan. They play a variety of different styles and have both serious and silly lyrics including a song about a family of sharks that eat fishermen.

L’Auditori is opposite the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya near Plaça de les Glòries, Barcelona. Getting to l’Auditori isn’t really a problem from the centre of Barcelona, there’s the L1 metro (Red line) which can be caught from Plaça Universitat to Marina. Both metro stations are adapted with lifts for wheelchair users and there is ramped access to the train, however, there is still a slight step to negotiate before boarding. The main problem with the L1 metro is that although some of the stations are adapted the trains themselves are old and there isn’t a reserved space for wheelchair users. I went to see Antonia Font with some friends one of which is also a wheelchair user and we really got in the way of other people on the train when they were trying to get on or off. There is also the L2 metro (Purple line) which stops at Monumental which is also adapted but it is further away from l’Auditori.

There are also adapted buses and the tram which pass by l’Auditori, please see the TMB website for further information. (There’s a link at the bottom of this article) The biggest problem with public transport and this venue is at the end of the evening during week days when the metro closes at midnight and there are only the night buses. The only real option is to catch a taxi which are few and far between in this neighbourhood and then some of them won’t stop and pick up wheelchair users. Don’t fret at some stage I’ll write a complete blog on taxi drivers and wheelchairs users!

At the moment outside the building there is a temporary bar as they are doing some refurbishment work. The bar is accessible with a ramp to enter and there is also a temporary disabled toilet. So from the outset it looked as though the management of l’Auditori have been thinking about disabled people.

When inside the picture changes slightly and once again wheelchair users become second class citizens. The “Disabled Seating Area” is nothing more than the upper entrance to the last row of seats in the auditorium. In most theatres and auditoriums they at least make an effort to take out a seat and have a full space for a wheelchair. With both myself and my friend in wheelchairs at the top of a flight of stairs it made the passage considerably narrower for other people to pass. It was also quite dangerous for our able bodied counterparts because of the dim lighting it would be easy not to see a wheelchair and trip over it.

The view from the last row in l’Auditori is good even if everyone on the stage look like ants because you’re so far away. There is always the problem in theatres, auditoriums and cinemas of where to seat wheelchair users and we always seem to get the worst deal. It doesn’t just effect us either, it also effects our partners, friends and family that want to enjoy the show with us. We don’t have a choice that we are in wheelchairs and we don’t have a choice as to where we can sit and for some reason the management, planning department or architects or whoever seem to think that the best place for us is at the back. Maybe it’s like the Second World War hospitals in the United Kingdom which had a philosophy along the lines of “out of sight out of mind”.