In the run-up to London’s 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, the on-going preparations for the events have enjoyed frequent national news coverage. But disappointingly for games that set out to be the most inclusive yet, there seems to have been too little consideration of how disabled spectators will travel to the venues. As any disabled person who has visited London – or any other UK city – will tell you, an accessible travel network sometimes seems like a distant dream, and often the reality of travelling in the UK is far removed from the rights guaranteed by the law and by the operators’ own policies.

In October 2011, just as many of the Olympic venues were nearing completion, Britain’s disabled community were disappointed to learn that a disabled Canadian comedienne visiting the UK had been badly let down and left to struggle by the rail company she had been relying on to complete her journey. TanyaLee Davis, who has a form of dwarfism and uses a mobility scooter to get around, arrived at Manchester Airport intending to continue by train to Sheffield to take part in the city’s comedy festival. Once she reached the platform at Manchester Airport rail station, however, she was told by First TransPennine staff that she would not be able to board the train using her scooter, and would need to dismantle it before she could continue her journey.

To make matters worse, TanyaLee, who is 3’ 6” tall, was told that for health and safety reasons station staff would be unable to help her disassemble the seven-stone (45kg) scooter or assist in loading it onto the train. In an interview with comedy website Chortle, TanyaLee explains, “Under pressure, I had to take the whole [scooter] apart. The battery is too heavy for me to pick up, so I was just panicking and thinking ‘Oh, my God!’ There was nobody on the platform but luckily this man walked by.”

With the passer-by’s help, TanyaLee finally boarded her train, having been assured by station staff in Manchester that there would be a colleague waiting to assist her when she reached Sheffield. When she arrived she found that the promised staff member was not present, so she “had to prise the train doors open with my body and hold them until eventually the guard came running.”

Understandably angry and frustrated by her experience, TanyaLee continued, “I don’t want a carer and I don’t want a wheelchair - I’m not that disabled. I have limited mobility and this suits me fine. I just need to get where the hell I need to get to and not have people stopping me.

“It p***** me off because I don’t rip off the government, I’m making my own living. But they make disabled people more disabled in this country... they’re never willing to help, it’s just ‘nope, sorry we’re not allowed to do that because that’s against our policy and there are health and safety issues’. It’s so frustrating because I’m such an independent person and I’ve chosen to work in this country, yet I have to constantly deal with this.”

The comic says this is not the first time she’s experienced difficulties like this, having been left “devastated and distraught” following a similar incident at a station in Oxford. Various bus, train and taxi companies have left her stranded late at night, and after performing at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe festival she found herself stranded at 5am in heavy rain because local bus drivers refused to let her on board. Motivated by her experiences, in 2010 TanyaLee launched her Scooter Girl campaign, aiming to have mobility scooters recognised and accommodated in the same way as wheelchairs. Yet in spite of receiving a letter from Mayor of London Boris Johnson assuring her that she can “get on all the buses in London,” she has found that in reality, her difficulties negotiating the UK’S travel network are as serious as ever.

When approached for comment by Chortle on TanyaLee’s recent journey, First TransPennine’s PR Manager Matthew Hay said, “I have spoken to all the members of staff involved and all remembered assisting Ms Davis on and off the train. Ms Davis made no complaint about this at the time and appeared satisfied with the level of assistance provided. We are sorry if she was not aware of our policy regarding the carriage of scooters. For non-foldable scooters we operate a Scooter Card scheme so that customers can have their make and model of scooter assessed for safe travel.”

On examination, the policy documents for First TransPennine Express reveal stretches of their line which cannot accommodate scooter users. While this obviously does not excuse the behaviour of the staff that declined to assist TanyaLee Davis to dismantle her scooter or board her train, it is a feature that they share with a number of UK train operators, including London Underground. While the train company seem content to flatly contradict TanyaLee’s version of events, they do not seem willing to discuss the issue of having large parts of their service areas – sometimes, entire branch lines – that remain completely inaccessible to some disabled people.

Of course, First TransPennine is not the only operator to have sections of track that are unsuitable for disabled passengers, and no other rail operator seem to have any intention of working to change this situation. For now it seems that train companies seem content, or compelled by lack of funding, to let these inaccessible stations remain inaccessible. It is obvious both from TanyaLee’s experiences and the countless personal experiences of Britain’s disabled community that current practices are both deeply unsatisfactory and more than a little unfair, even though operators proudly display policy documents that tell a different story.

In response to the issues raised by TanyaLee’s story, this correspondent carried out a small investigation into the policies and procedures of several rail companies that operate lines that serve London. A number of operators did not make their Disabled Persons’ Protection Policies available online, but rather by special request to their Customer Service department. From those that were available online, we learned the following:

When checked, c2c, Southern and National Express East Anglia (NXEA) express size and weight limits affecting the type of wheelchairs, powerchairs and mobility scooters their trains are able to accommodate, and c2c states that it is currently unable to accept powered chairs or scooters at all. Similarly, c2c made no mention of assistance animals, but Southern and NXEA state that they are welcome on their services.

All three operators state that their ticket offices are equipped with induction loops for hearing-aid users, which staff members have been made aware of during their initial training. c2c produces a document, available through their website, that lists accessibility information for each of their stations, and Southern and NXEA state in their policies that they will organise alternative transport (usually a taxi) between an inaccessible station and the nearest accessible one at no additional charge, but advise that this service cannot be guaranteed without pre-booking.

All three suppliers operate a pre-booking system, stating that service users who require assistance boarding or disembarking from the train should contact the station 24 hours before they intend to travel, and all three make plain that all staff members that have regular contact with customers undergo training that includes awareness of issues facing disabled passengers. Several operators across the country have also adopted a Priority Seating Card scheme, which entitles disabled passengers to a card that should make it easier to ask people to give up their place in the priority seating areas.

Additionally, Transport for London (TfL) offers its disabled passengers advice and guidance that exceeds the provisions of any other operator. While London remains arguably the most difficult city to negotiate using public transport, TfL attempts to make visiting the capital easier by providing a map of the Underground detailing step-free access and a Travel Mentoring Service to assist with journey planning. Furthermore, TfL is keen to inform passengers that since 2000, all new buses intended for London’s roads have been wheelchair accessible, and recent Underground upgrade work has improved station accessibility where possible.

Of 132 stations in Zones 1 and 2, 53 are accessible to wheelchair users – only 40 per cent of London’s most central stations. Most of these are on the Docklands Light Railway, developed and built at a time of greater awareness of access issues but not serving an area renowned for its tourist destinations. While Stratford, home of London’s Olympic stadium, is fully accessible, the stations nearest to the London Eye, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Oxford Circus, Madame Tussaud’s, and the city’s most popular museums are not suitable for all disabled people.

Subsequently, any disabled visitor on the capital’s tourist trail can look forward to planning their journey in great detail, taking an indirect route, exceeding their boundaries of comfort and exertion to use what’s available, or spending a large part of their stay in one of London’s famous black cabs – not a vehicle known for its ease of use at the best of times. And the iconic red Routemaster bus, international symbol of London, was notoriously inaccessible due to its raised boarding platform and stairs; less of an issue now, however, because only a few remain, operating occasionally on two routes through the city.

During the writing of this article, the UK press reported on the case of Joanna Jones, a blind woman who was refused access to an EasyJet flight to Belfast because staff could not be sure that her Poodle/Labrador cross was a registered guide dog. The incident was resolved when the organisation that trained the assistance dog faxed through the required documentation, satisfying conditions laid out in a recent change to the airline's regulations, and the following day Joanna was put on the first available flight. Even though the flight had been booked months in advance, and in spite of informing the airline that she would be travelling with an assistance animal, Joanna was still expected to provide a document that guide dog owners are not routinely provided with, and discussion surrounding the story has revealed that her experience is by no means uncommon. Given the popularity of budget airlines, it is easy to imagine that a number of visually impaired visitors to London in 2012 are likely to meet with similar issues.

In addition to inaccessible lavatories, narrow aisles, invasive information requests, liability for extra costs to the airline, and flight crew who are not permitted to assist disabled passengers past a certain point, the welcome Britain extends to disabled visitors and Paralympic competitors looks likely to be a lukewarm one, with problems beginning even before the plane has touched the ground in the UK. Add to this the regulations governing train and bus networks, poor understanding of issues affecting disabled people, obstructive health and safety guidelines and official policies that don't encourage staff to use their discretion, and it's easy to imagine that 2012 will be the year that Inaccessible Britain receives its greatest challenge to date - an influx of disabled people keen to participate, but frustrated by the limitations imposed by ill-thought-out policies and lack or consultation.

On the whole, it is easy to see that Britain’s transport network will require considerable improvement before it can be said to be truly accessible, and the experiences of disabled visitors during London’s Olympic and Paralympic games will serve only to highlight the changes that still need to be undertaken. While it seems unlikely that the end of disrupted and difficult journeys is nearly in sight, we can hope that increased awareness of accessibility issues through continued campaigning – and maybe complaining – will result in improvements in years to come.