Acessibility

Acorn Farm Accessibility statement

DDA Summary (Disability Discrimination Act)

Web Accessibility statement

Acorn Farm Accessibility statement - Created o9/06/2008

Click here to download this document as a PDF.

Introduction

Acorn Farm is an award winning visitor attraction which provides an educational and leisure resource for people from the local community and further a field. We offer special support to enable individuals with disabilities to fully access our services and facilities.

Pre-Arrival

• Phone fax and e.mail contact
• Website with clear visible text and interactive text size adjuster.
• Images contain alt tags and header tags to allow for speech
• Images are adjustable to produce larger version
• Information regarding public transport is available on the website.

Arrival & Car Parking Facilities

• Car parking for approximate. 40 cars.
• Drop off point by main entrance doors to farm building.
• No kerbs,steps or barriers.
• Ramps to building entrance with hand rails
• Rear access to vehicles
• Contact phone number at entrance
• Some braille signage

Main Entrance & Reception

• Open 7 days per week. 10am to 4pm
• Guided Tours available
• Two side hung entrance doors to farm building Double door entrance most accessible
• Ramps with hand rails
• Seating available at entrance
• Grab rail in accessible toilet.
• Floor level throughout
• Site signs in Arial typeface black print on white background. Laminated on matt finish

Public Areas - General (Internal)

• Flooring lino with no joins
• Building on one level
• Pay phone at wheel chair accessible height
• Ample seating
• Lighting uniform,minimal use of fluorescent tubes
• No thresholds or steps
• Doors side hung
• Baby changing facilities available

Public Areas - WC

• Accessible unisex toilet easily accessible from entrance
• Side hung door with sliding bolt, door width 760 mm .Newton's measure less than 20
• Floor is a slip resistant surface
• Toilet seat height 475 mm
• Cistern handle large spatula type.
• Basin with lever taps and thermostatic mixer
• Accessible toilet paper,soap and paper towel dispensers.
• Baby changing facilities
• Located outside pay boundary

Restaurant / Dining Room, Bar & Lounges, Take Away & Cafe

•Café situated by main entrance.
• Moveable tables accessible for wheelchair use
• Menus with Arial font and menu blackboard.
• Serving counter 990mm ffl
• Uniform lighting
• Waitress service on request
• No steps
• Accessible WC by cafe
• Several picnic areas with accessible benches

Shop

• No steps
• Located by main entrance
• Assistance available on request
• Counter height 860 mm ffl.
• Price list large print black on white.
• Uniform lighting
• Low level accessible public phone

Outdoor Facilities

• Farm Animals to feed and stroke
• Wide ,smooth paths with different textured surfaces
• Small animal petting area for "hands on " contact
• Horse riding arena .Mounting block with ramped access. Specially adapted equipment.
• Sensory garden
• Children's play areas.
• Animal housing with low level viewing windows
• Fully accessible lambing shed.
• Ample seating
• Some braille signage

Attractions (Displays, exhibits, rides etc.)

• Open 10am to 4 pm seven days per week.
• No barriers or turnstiles
• Animals easily accessible
• No steps or kerbs
• Small animal petting area offering "hands on "experience.
• Sensory garden. with musical chimes
• Horse riding
• Ample seating

Grounds and Gardens

• Even paths of tarmac and flagstones
• Sensory garden with musical chimes
• Ample seating and picnic tables
• Horse riding and small animal handling activities available
• No water features
• No steps
• Some braille signage
• Play ares with bark chipping safety surface

Additional Information

• Clear signed fire escape routes
• Fire alarm system and staff trained in evacuation procedure
• Staff trained in disability awareness
• Staff have attended Welcome Host and Welcome All training courses.
• Service dogs welcome
• No smoking in enclosed areas
• No background music
• Members of Riding for the Disabled Association.
• VAQAS accredited.

Contact Information

• Address: Depot Road, Kirkby. Merseyside L33 3AR
• Telephone: 0151 548 1524
• Fax: 0151 548 3687
• Email: info@acornfarm.co.uk
• Website: www.acornfarm.co.uk
• Postcode L333AR
• Hours of operation: 10 am to 4 pm . Seven days per week.
• Emergency number: 0151 931 5936
• Local carers: N/A
• Local equipment hire companies: N/A
• Local public transport numbers: Meseytravel 0870 608 2 608
• Local accessible taxi numbers: Radcliffe Taxis 0151 547 2699

Future Plans

• Upgrade paths in sensory garden [November 2008]
• Renovate woodland walk to make it more accessible [March 2009]

We welcome your feedback to help us continuously improve if you have any comments please phone 0151 548 1524 or email info@acornfarm.co.uk

DDA Summary (Disability Discrimination Act)

Acorn Farm commissioned a DDA Audit in 2006. We have implemented all the priority coded recommendations and written the less urgent issues into our development plans . Thus Acorn Farm meets the legislative requirements of the DDA.

Our access statement is available to download from our website by clicking here.

Web accessibility statement

Acorn Farm has developed this website to serve the largest possible audience by addressing the needs of people and systems with differing abilities. The site conforms to the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, levels 1* and 2 W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. We are continually making improvements to meet these guidelines, and our website has been designed with the following accessibility guidelines in mind:

  • Our pages are designed so that they can be viewed at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, but as our designs are fluid this site can be viewed in other resolutions.
  • Page structure is conveyed using header elements.
  • A stylesheet is used on our website and relative font sizes on all text with the exception of graphical text.
  • Text can be increased or decreased in size by using the "view" option in your browser or the built in text re-sizer above the main navigation menu.
  • Images that convey important information have alternative text.
  • Validation complies to XHTML 1.0 Strict*
  • *Some information is conveyed using colour.
  • **The contact page uses XHTML 1.0 Traditional

A footer navigation menu reflects the map of the site to provide information about the layout of the website.

Downloading pdfs documents

To read PDF documents with a screen reader please link to the Access Adobe website which provides useful tools and resources. Adobe also has a free online conversion tool for pdfs.

Browser compatibility

The standard support browser versions are:

  • Internet Explorer v7.0
  • Internet Explorer v6.0
  • Firefox v2.0
  • Netscape 6.2+

On Windows platforms only (NT4, 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista and Macintosh).

Further information
Get in touch

If you have difficulty accessing the site or have any comments or feedback, please do not hesitate to get in touch.