Houses of Parliament

We were lucky enough to get tickets for Prime Minister's questions which was in the middle of the Brexit debates. Ask your MP for tickets.

I attended the House of Commons in July 2018 for #Trailblazersat10. We were escorted through as a group via a flat walk way through security. Guards offer to put your VIP laylards over your head if you lack the ability as common courtesy which I thought was great! We were then taken inside where we had to go up in the lifts. The lifts are VERY small so we each (many wheelchair users) had to go up in the slow lift with an older gentleman escorting us. It did take near an hour to get everyone to the floor the event was on. Although I didn't use it this time, there is a Changing Places toilet in the House of Commons, all you need do is ask and you'll be escorted to it. You'll even have a security member wait outside to assure all is well! The rooms throughout are lovely and spacious for navigating in a wheelchair. The only thing I'll say is due to the structure and decor, it is very dark inside so my visually impaired partner did struggle somewhat.

We were attending a reception on The Terrace. Our taxi was allowed to drop us off in a restricted area and then we were pointed towards the normal ramp leading down to security and were told that they would take us through quickly and then guide us to our reception. We had to wait about 15 minutes in the queue heading towards screening (luckily it was not raining) and then we were quickly and gently screened. We were then taken through the back corridors to our reception. Everywhere was wheelchair friendly with the exception of the step onto The Terrace itself. Staff were very alert to our needs and difficulties and even staff who were not involved with us were amenable to helping us out when we asked for assistance. There are not than many disability friendly toilets but the one near Westminster Hall is very good and an audio track tells you where everything is inside the toilet. We had to wait outside of one Disabled Toilet whilst a member of the catering staff was using it (she was appropriately embarrassed when they came out and found us waiting).