Physical Access within SMB
Historically, research environments and universities have not taken the altered needs of disabled students or staff into account. Understandably, this has resulted in reduced accessibility within our older buildings. We are working to ensure our older buildings are as physically accessible as possible, and are dedicated to improving physical accessibility in laboratories, office spaces, and social spaces; and review these issues on an ongoing and 1-1 basis.
If you feel you would benefit from physical accommodations to help you work, please contact your line manager; the Institute’s Disability Coordinator, Colin Molloy or Disability Services, who can raise systemic issues at the Disability Equality Working Group. On a campus-wide basis, physical access issues on campus can be reported directly to Estates & Buildings: physicalaccessissues@gla.ac.uk
The University of Glasgow has 284 AccessAble guides to help people through our buildings. All buildings within SMB (Bower, Joseph Black, Wolfson Link, Davidson, James Black and the ARC) have step-free access points, but not all parts of these buildings may be step-free or accessible without a) prior notice or b) at all. It’s key to liaise with line and building managers to ensure access is available, or alternative arrangements can be made for you.
All emerging issues affecting accessibility (e.g. lift malfunction) should be brought to the attention of the building manager immediately. Any issues that may influence your ability to work in the lab (e.g. desk height, lack of turning circle for a wheelchair) should be raised with your line manager. We are in the process of creating supportive guidelines to empower disabled researchers to advocate for adjustments, and to signpost the adjustment and accommodation process. Alterations to physical spaces will be made pre-emptively if a new SMB member with a disability is joining us, but we appreciate that everyone’s needs are different.