about accessible gardens
How Accessible Gardens can help you
Accessible Gardens is a new website (launched April 2011) - voluntary and free to download.
Like a lot of new things it is starting small, but has big ideas! Our aims are:
- to cover the whole of the UK with independent reports of the accessibility of gardens written by people with disabilities.
- to put people in touch with new ideas on accessibility for all people of all abilities, organisations that undertake work already and encourage more work with communities and schools.
- to review tools and gardening techniques for people with disabilities.
- links to websites of interest to people with disabilities and their families, to school gardens and community projects.
- to assist gardens with their accessibility and with the information they put on their website.
- to put people/organisations in touch with gardens/organisations and with each other.
- to get more people into more gardens!
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Garden Accessibility Reports
The reports sent to this website must be independent.
All reports are sent to the gardens involved so they can comment and add extra information to the report.
The reports are kept up-to-date through new writing and news from the gardens themselves.
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How Accessible Gardens started
Bella D'Arcy Reed is the founder and editor of this website. Bella is slightly disabled in that she cannot walk too far or stand too long. Bella uses a wheelchair, a mobility scooter for big gardens, and a stick or two (one being a seat-stick) for small gardens. Bella's reports cover some areas in the South of England but her aim is to add reports from the Midlands and the North, Wales, and Scotland, as well as reports from people who have visual impairments and disabilities that Bella doesn't experience personally. Reports from carers, families and friends are also most welcome.
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Send us your Garden Accessibility Reviews
Please send your garden accessibility reviews to: belladarcy@accessiblegardens.org.uk
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Gardens and People
Our sister website - www.gardensandpeople.co.uk - is the place to go for articles on garden history, the work of garden designers, plants, garden people and book reviews and anything else that is of interest. There are articles about gardens in schools, designing with schools, community gardens - a wide range except for actual gardening - we think there are plenty of websites which do that!
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We invite all gardens running projects for disadvantaged people, for school children and older people to tell us of their projects, and for people with disabilities who visit gardens to write to us about them.