Travel
For many of us summer is a time for travel and getting out and about. I thought it might be a good time to remind people of where you can find information about concessionary travel for disabled people. You can read our guide on it here:
Travel Concessions for Disabled People in Scotland – Disability Information Scotland
There is also concessionary travel for visually impaired rail travelers and a companion without the need for a railcard but you will need some evidence of certification of visual impairment. You can read more about that here:
Visually Impaired Customer without a Railcard | National Rail
What about events and concessions?
Many events will offer concessionary tickets for disabled people or sometimes free tickets for an accompanying carer. All of these will usually require some kind of medical evidence – usually to go with the disabled person.
UK Cinemas belonging to the UK Cinema Association (UKCA) have a card you can apply for called the CEA card which allows a disabled person and companion to go attend for the price of one ticket. You can apply for that on their website.
Other kinds of events and venues may offer discounted tickets. Each venue or organizer will have their own criteria for the evidence accepted. A growing number have a preference for the use of disability identity cards. It’s important to check which ones might be mentioned. There are a few of these on the market and it can be hard to pick which to opt for but Nimbus Disability Access Card is probably the most commonly accepted one in Scotland.
It is a useful one because not only does the card provide evidence of your disability, you can add specific information about your condition and needs on a space on the card.
There is a range of acceptable sources of evidence of your disability that can be accepted for the Access Card. Examples include:
- Evidence of disability benefit award.
- Letter from appropriate medical professional
- Other documents evidencing disability – such as blue badge.
You can apply for the Access Card below.
Access Card – application form
There are other cards. The National Disability Card UK for example, is widely known and accepted in other parts of the UK and some places in Scotland.
The National Disability Card UK
A third one you may hear of is the Disabled Identity Card (DID) which sells cards for the disabled person and carer’s cards:
Apply for a card – National Disabled Identification Card
Bear in mind that these are different from cards such as those that go with the Sunflower Lanyard as these don’t require any evidence of disability to purchase. While they can make an invisible disability visible to others, and communicate needs on them, they will not usually be accepted as evidence that you would be entitled to a concession price or free spot for carer at an event.
Be sure to check what evidence a venue accepts before you go.
Wheelchair accessible outdoors
Being able to travel outdoors independently or with a companion can bring great joy and help put life into perspective. However it’s not always easy to find outdoor areas with good accessibility for wheelchair users. We have replaced our Accessible Outdoors guide with a new one [insert name of replacement guide & link to it] which details one accessible outdoor path in each of the 32 local Authority areas in Scotland. We’ve selected places where there’s access to accessible toilets and a reasonable sized area to travel in. I have seen places described as accessible where there is simply a short path to a viewing point. That can be frustrating if you want to spend some extended time outdoors. Some of these paths are familiar to me personally but the majority are not so please do give us feedback if you find any of the information inaccurate or have any useful information to add. I hope you enjoy exploring some of them.