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Accessibility barriers scavenger hunt

Explore how to spot barriers for disabled people and brainstorm ways to make spaces more accessible for all.

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You’ll need

  • Pencils or pens
  • Clipboard
  • Spot the barriers sheet (optional)

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and setting up this activity

  • Take pens, paper and clipboards to make a record of what you find. You could also use stickers or take photos.
  • An adult volunteer should plan a visit to somewhere in your local area. It could be a playground, a park, a shopping centre, a library, a cinema or somewhere else. Use our guidance on planning an outing.
  • See if anyone from the location is available to give a talk about the site and what they are doing for accessibility. If no-one is available, a volunteer should do some quick research to find out a little more about the place.
  • If anyone in the group has lived experience of disability, they could share their story if they feel comfortable to. It’s important that no one’s made to share anything they don’t want to, and no one should talk about someone else’s disability unless that person says it’s okay. All discussions should respect people’s privacy, and a person’s disability should never be disclosed without their direct consent. You may wish to tell everyone about the topic in advance of the session.
  • You may need to offer reassurance to anyone who may find this topic difficult. Remember to always follow the Yellow Card.
  • Find out more about young carers and disability inclusion in Scouts.

At Scouts, we follow the social model of disability. The social model of disability is a way of viewing the world, developed by disabled people. The model says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. Barriers can be physical, such as buildings not having accessible toilets or not having access to an BSL interpreter. Or they can be caused by people's attitudes to difference, such as people assuming disabled people can't do certain things. 

The social model helps us recognise barriers that make life harder for disabled people. Removing these barriers creates equality and offers disabled people more independence, choice and control. 

You can find out more about the social model of disability on Scope's website. 

Remember, although we'll use certain wording, in-line with the social model, it'll vary from person to person on how people view or describe their own disabilities. It's important to take the person's lead, and use the words that they use if you're having a conversation about disability.

 

Running this activity

  1. Meet everyone at your venue. Gather everyone together and explain that they'll be looking for any barriers that might make it hard for everyone to access or enjoy the space. Make sure to give everyone a safety briefing for the venue and remind everyone to be respectful to other users.
  2. You may wish to get into small groups, with at least one adult with each group.
  3. Tell everyone to try to find and spot things that might be difficult for people with:
    • Physical disabilities, such as wheelchairs or mobility aids
    • Visual impairments, such as blind or partially sighted individuals
    • Hearing impairments, such as people who are deaf or hard of hearing
    • Learning disabilities, which may mean people who have difficulty reading or understanding information
  1. Some examples might be not having a ramp or lift (physical disability), having signs without large text or pictures (visual impairment), not having visual cues for announcements (hearing impairment) and complicated signs or instructions (learning disabilities)
  2. At the end of the visit, gather back together and ask everyone about the barriers they found, who barriers might impact and what could be changed to make the venue more accessible. Some ideas might be having large text or pictures on signs, having more lifts or ramps, having disabled parking and toilets, or installing a hearing loop.
  3. You may wish to see if there’s someone that people can feedback to at the site or ask questions to. If the area is owned by the local council, such as a park, you could write to them or speak to your local MP too.

Reflection

This activity was all about identifying barriers to accessibility in our community. Has anyone ever thought about how hard it might be for a disabled person to navigate a public space? What kind of challenges do you think they face? What are some solutions you can think of to make places more accessible for everyone? 

Sometimes, we don’t notice the barriers until we actively look for them. Was there anything about accessibility that surprised you? What barriers might we have at Scouts? How can we make Scouts more accessible?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Outdoor activities

You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.

Visits away from your meeting place

Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts. 

  • To make this activity easier, you could provide people with a checklist or a list of common barriers to look for, such as steps, narrow doorways or hard-to-read signs. You could also ask questions to help prompt people.
  • To make this activity harder, you could ask people to identify more subtle or less obvious barriers, such as lighting issues, lack of clear signage, or crowded spaces that might be difficult for someone with a disability to navigate.

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Cubs Disability Awareness Activity Badge