Kelly Vincent – Vision Australia Interview on Access at the Adelaide Zoo
03/02/2016
On Wednesday 3rd February 2016, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent was interviewed on Vision Australia radio station about the new accessible playground at the Adelaide Zoo. Ms Vincent also discussed the Zoo’s plans to allow assistance dogs into some areas of the zoo. Here is the audio and transcript from the interview.
Pam Green: Time now to welcome to 5RPH, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent to question time. Hi Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Hi Pam.
Pam Green: Well I understand you took part in a consultation meeting last week about the new accessible playground at the Adelaide Zoo. Can you tell us a bit about the new playground? Are there any challenges with toilets and lifts?
Kelly Vincent: Sure, so this discussion centred around the Nature’s Playground which is the new facility at the Adelaide Zoo. It’s all about trying to get children back to playing around in nature rather than spending time on screens and computer games and all that kind of thing. So it’s a really great concept, but unfortunately there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of disability access. And as you pointed out, the main issue that brought this discussion group together was access to the lift. Because whilst they do have a lift that will take you up to the aerial walk way if you can’t use the stairs, the old aerial walk way being part of the playground. Unfortunately what’s happening is that a lot of the children are using the lift as part of the play equipment. So that’s causing a lot of technical difficulties and also safety concerns, because there is concern that the children could actually get locked in the lift if they play with it enough times to activate the safety mechanism. So we’re trying to find the least restrictive way possible to get people thinking about whether or not they actually need to use the lift and so far the best solution we’ve come up with is that we might look at installing a key pad at the lift and then having the passcode for that key pad printed on the map which everyone gets when they enter into the zoo. Therefore you don’t have to ask for a special key or anything like that, you still have permission to use it at free will but the passcode will hopefully restrict access to the children and also get people thinking about whether or not they really need to use the lift or whether they can take the stairs and leave the lift for the people who really do need to use it.
Pam Green: Right and I believe that there is also some discussion about assistance dogs being allowed in at least some parts of the zoo?
Kelly Vincent: That’s right. The board of the Adelaide Zoo is currently teaming up with Kate Thiele from Guide Dogs, who is actually one of the members of the zoo board, to discuss how the zoo can change its policies around allowing assistance dogs into the Adelaide Zoo. There are unfortunately some concerns around quarantine and also the fact that if a lion for example sees a dog…
Pam Green: Exactly!
Kelly Vincent: It might react in a way that isn’t entirely what we are going for. So they are looking at ways of relaxing that policy a little to allow assistance dogs to enter into some parts of the zoo. So because of the quarantine and other concerns it’s unlikely to be every part of the zoo which is unfortunate but given that we are speaking about some pretty serious animals here that could do a lot of damage, the situation dictates that we need to be a little bit restrictive in terms of where assistance animals can go. But as I said given that they’re currently not allowed anywhere in the zoo this is still a great step forward and allowing greater access to this great tourism aspect and community aspect for people who might use assistance dogs.
Pam Green: Absolutely and the practicalities! Who would have thoughts about those practicalities if it wasn’t for you.
Kelly Vincent: Oh, thank you very much
Pam Green: Once again, thanks so much for your time today Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Pleasure Pam.
