Overview

The majority of the museum has plenty of wide walkways and areas which are easy to negotiate with a wheelchair. There are lifts to all floors although, on this visit, a number of facilities were 'out of order' i.e. one lift, a lot of the information video boards and the hand-dryer in the ladies! The planes themselves were, on the whole, easy to see with their information boards at a good level for wheelchairs.

Transport & Parking

Plenty of disabled parking spaces in the car park at the front of the museum. All on the flat. A charge is made for car parking (£4 for 6 hours so quite reasonable) but entrance to the museum itself is then Free!

Access

Main access to all of the separate buildings is very good. Wide areas inside the exhibition spaces and in the restaurant and cafe. A few exhibits are accessible only via a couple of steps and the Sunderland Flying Boat interior can only be viewed from atop a flight of steps. Also, some of the doorways in the Battle of Britain exhibition are very narrow - a relatively small fold-up wheelchair just managed to get through but a larger wheelchair or mobility scooter would not be able to.

Toilets

Disabled toilets are situated in all three of the main halls and are well signposted.

Staff

Lady at Reception Desk gave all required information as to access pleasantly enough but other staff around the museum seemed rather detached; sometimes not even a friendly nod. When having difficulty negotiating backwards through double doors, a guard at a nearby desk did not even bother coming to offer assistance. Certainly room for improvement in this area.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

If you like aeroplanes, you'll love it here!