Change needed for all abilities access

MEMBERS of Ballarat’s disabled community as well as their carers have expressed concerns at the lack of suitable changerooms for the city’s main swimming facility.

Aruma disability support worker Travis Brown regularly takes four clients to the Ballarat Aquatic and Lifestyle Centre for hydrotherapy sessions, one of whom is Keiran Callinan, who has cerebral palsy.

Currently, the centre features two disabled changerooms, only one of which has a hoist, with both being installed since the site’s opening in 1994.

Mr Brown said his clients’ appointments are frequently halted by the lack of changeroom amenities.

“Kieran gets support once a week for water therapy,” he said. “He’s paying for two staff for three hours and you can’t pre-book the rooms.

“So, you’ve got to pay for a cab to get up there, find out you can’t get the room, and basically go home. He’s paying for six hours of service he’s not getting.

“It happens with a lot of the wheelchair-bound customers that come up here. A lot of other carers I know have put in complaints as well, and they get no feedback.

Mr Brown said the situation is often worsened by the changerooms being regularly closed for maintenance as well as from poor signage leading non-disabled customers to use the facilities.

He said he’d like to see the number of disabled changerooms doubled.

“Even the manager agreed with me that they need to mirror that other changeroom, to have two with hoists and another for people with walkers and stuff like that,” he said.

“They need to be clearly marked too that they’re for disabilities only.

“The water therapy sessions are very important for our customers. With Keiran, he’s able to stretch more in the pool because he gets quite constricted in his chair. We notice he gets more movement in his muscles afterwards.

“We have a woman who couldn’t walk after she had an operation to fix her tendons in her leg. They brought her here for hydrotherapy and now she’s walking again.”

The facility is run by the City of Ballarat, and acting director of community wellbeing Mark Patterson said the municipality is working on expanding the site’s disabled amenities.

“The Ballarat Aquatic and Lifestyle Centre has a strong working partnership with the City of Ballarat Disability Advisory Committee, as well as local support agencies, and is consistently seeking feedback to ensure that the facility is meeting the needs of members of our community living with a disability,” he said.

“Some of the recent initiatives implemented as part of this feedback includes concept plans for the redevelopment of the disabled adult change facility into two Changing Places rooms, introducing sensory quiet time, installing hearing loops, guide dog stations, mobility scooter recharge points, additional aquatic wheelchairs and an aquatic pool hoist.”

The pool hoist was unveiled earlier this month, and centre management are looking into funding options to expand the disabled changeroom offerings.

With centre staff collecting attendance data based on customer experience surveys, 21 per cent of responders identified as having a chronic illness or disability.