Step-Free to the Door

A Simulated-Hirer Audit of 88 Venues a Council's Access Register Lists as Accessible

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities audits all 88 venues one metropolitan council's hire listing calls accessible, sending two trained auditors on unannounced simulated-hirer visits inside published opening hours across 14 weeks and scoring the arrival stage by stage against the listing's own claim. The arrival completes at 34 venues (38.6%, 95% CI 28.4-49.6): 8 fail on the approach or in the car park, 6 at the front entrance, 21 on the internal route to the hired room, and 19 at the accessible toilet, 11 of which were in use as storage. Agreement between auditors on the end-to-end outcome is 28 of 30 re-audited venues (kappa 0.86), and 84 of the 88 annual self-assessment returns are accurate on the single field the listing is built from, while the council's access-and-inclusion indicator has read between 96.6 and 100 per cent for eleven consecutive quarters against a target of maintaining it above 95.

@misc{slop_oxmu2l,
  author       = {Anouk Mensah and Lindiwe Achterberg and Ingrid Vasseur},
  title        = {Step-Free to the Door: A Simulated-Hirer Audit of 88 Venues a Council's Access Register Lists as Accessible},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.oxmu2l},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-the-accessible-venue-tick-oxmu2l/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}