ClwstwrCOP26: Minister's wheelchair access issues highlight wider inclusion failures

• The Israeli infrastructure minister, Karine Elharrar, has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair
• She couldn’t get into the first day of the COP26 climate summit because the only options were to walk, or take a shuttle that wasn’t suitable for a wheelchair.
• The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, apologised after the Israeli delegation complained.
• Ms Elharrar was able to access the second day of the summit

The UK Government says COP26’s permanent structures are “fully wheelchair accessible” and that the venue has “gold level accessibility status”. It also says an accessibility audit found temporary structures for the conference were “fully compliant”. 

However, there have also been apparent failures to provide British Sign Language interpreters and captions for COP26 broadcasts, and other disabled attendees have also said they couldn’t get into the conference because accessibility entrances were closed.

One billion people around the world live with some form of disability. That’s around 15% of the world’s population. That number is rising, because populations around the world are getting older on average and because there’s been a global increase in chronic health conditions. 

Despite being “the world’s biggest minority”, it’s clear that people with disabilities are often discriminated against or excluded from community life. Disabled people are often among the poorest and most vulnerable people in communities, but their needs are often overlooked by policymakers.

Karine Elharrar said on twitter: “I came to Cop26 to meet with my counterparts around the world and promote a common struggle in the climate crisis. It is sad that the UN, which promotes accessibility for people with disabilities, in 2021, does not provide accessibility to its events.”

The UK Environment Secretary, George Eustice, said “We deeply regret that incident.” but also said, “I know that at most of the other entrances, wheelchair access is there. It was because she came to an entrance where they didn’t have that provision.”

Inclusion Scotland said it was “appalled” at what had happened to Karine Elharrar.

It also said there hadn’t been any evidence of BSL interpretation or captions at the conference.

It said the venue was a “large, well-used events campus” with buildings that were “generally accessible for wheelchair-users”, and entrances which are wheelchair-accessible, but that the way the event had been set up meant that Elharrar could not access the conference.

Heather Fisken, from Inclusion Scotland, said “This episode sends out a shocking message which says that disabled people are not expected to be at decision-making tables.”

• We don’t have full details of how Karine Elharrar tried to access the conference and the precise difficulties she faced.
• The UK Government says the COP26 venue has “Gold Accessibility Status” but it’s not clear exactly what that is.
• It’s really difficult to gauge how many accessibility failures there are, not just at COP26, but for disabled people in general, going about their daily lives. These failings are mostly dealt with, or worked around, on an individual basis so it would be useful to collect data more systematically.