Overview

Free accessible museum in the city center of Perth full of different interesting items.

Transport & Parking

I parked my car in Canal Street car park and walked to the café from there. This is a city council car park which means you can park here for free if you have a blue badge. I think Perth is great for disabled parking as there is lots of council car parks dotted around and everything is quite close to each other. I can’t comment on any public transport though as I am not from Perth.

Access

To access the Perth museum there are two entrances, both with double automatic doors. One of the entrances has a ramp up to it, the ramp is wide enough for some to go down one side and up the other. When I visited the doors leading into the main area of the museum were kept open but I’m guessing when it’s less busy the doors will be closed and there is a push button at either side of the door at a good height for a wheelchair user. The customer reception desk is at a great height for a wheelchair user. There is also room in the gift shop to get around it in a wheelchair and the shelves are good for people in wheelchairs to see what is on sale. A lot of the information for items on display in the museum is at a good height for wheelchair to be able to read it however, I did feel some of was too small to read. You may be able to see from the images below, the green information panels I felt were easier to read as the text was big enough but the red panel I got a picture of the text is quite small. When I spoke to a staff member about accessible facilities she said that there will be audio description headsets added to the museum very soon so this might help with some text being small. There were interactive screens around the museum that looked accessible to reach. You go into side rooms to see some of the items, there are no doors you have to open to it’s accessible to get in however the rooms are quite narrow so I had to ask people to move in sometimes so I could get past. There’s seats dotted around the museum so if someone struggles to walk long distances they can have rests. I didn’t pay to see the guest exhibition so I cannot comment on that but I did visit the Stone of Destiny, which you had to book a free slot for. You couldn’t take photos in this area though. You had to open a door to get into the first room but there are staff at the entrance that could help you and the other doors inside open automatically. The rooms you go into are spacious and there’s seats that you can sit to watch the presentations they show. The museum is on two floors however I struggled to find the lift to use at first and that’s because it wasn’t a standard lift door, it was a wooden door that you have to open manually. It had a sign on it to say stay clear of the door and there was a lift button at the side of the door, but I would suggest having a sign on the door or above the door that says lift so that it’s more obvious. If you are visiting you can see a photo of the lift below. I didn’t visit the cafe as I are somewhere else beforehand but I took a couple of photos to show it. The table looked fairly spaced out and at a good height for a wheelchair user.

Toilets

There are 6 accessible toilets around the museum. I only saw one of them which you can see in a photo below. I’d say the sink is at a good height for a wheelchair and there is room underneath for a wheelchair user to get into it, but I feel the mirror is too high for a wheelchair user to use. You can only transfer from the left-hand side of the toilet and I don’t know if the toilets are positioned differently in each accessible toilets. Although there is a fully accessible toilet available. It’s fantastic to see a Changing Places toilet here. It was very modern looking, spacious and had everything you would need. The hoist covered the whole room of the Changing Places toilet, the changing bed looked soft and the toilet was positioned well. Although there is a drain system at the left-hand side of the toilet that slopes down so I don’t know if that would cause difficulties transferring from that side. The sink and mirror are also height adjustable. The Changing Places toilet is accessed by a RADAR, if you don’t have your own you can collect it from the customer reception desk beside the gift shop. I had my own though and you can visit this Changing Places toilet without out visiting the museum as it’s right beside one of the entrances.

Staff

I didn’t interact with too many staff members but I did speak to someone at customer desk about what accessible features there were and she was very friendly and helpful with talking me through them. I noticed some staff members interacting with families around the museum and showing them hidden areas around the museum, from what I could see they were all really nice.

Photos