Overview

I had an amazing experience trying skiing for the first time at Soar at Breahead shopping centre. The ski sessions are run by Disability Snow sports UK. The charity have a whole team of instructors who will ski with people who have never skied before. It was such an immense feeling of freedom if you have never tried skiing before I highly recommend trying it! The disabled participant can use a byski which is like a sledge with skis on the bottom. It is surprising comfortable and stable to sit in.

Transport & Parking

Soar at Breahead is very accessible by car with lots of disabled parking spaces available.

Access

Overall access to the venue is very accessible it is very open and spacious, it also has automatic doors at the main entrance to the building. The gallery and the ski slope itself is accessible through Bar Varia. There is a small door sill which leads you out to the ski slope and viewing gallery. This is quite difficult to get over in a wheelchair unless you go backwards. This could be improved by the venue perhaps investing in a small portable ramp to help wheelchair users negotiate the obstacle.

Toilets

The accessibile toilet in this venue is not great for wheelchair users. The toilet itself has a good turning circle to move around. However a lot of the main hadrails have been removed. This makes transferring very difficult. This really is an issue that needs to be addressed. As an alternative there are more accessible toilets and changing places toilets in Breahead shopping centre next door

Staff

Staff could not be more helpful and friendly Special thanks to instructor Cat for making my first skiing experience so phenomenal!

Anything else you wish to tell us?

The centre does have a hoist to help participants transfer to the Byski If you need to use the hoist please don’t forget your own sling. It would be great if the centre staff could be given some hoist training to help carers and participants transfer process.

Photos

Video