New guides have been produced by people with disabilities to help anyone visiting six popular parks in Torfaen discover how accessible they are before they visit.
The adults from Torfaen People First spent time in Garn Lakes, Pontypool Park, the American Gardens in Penygarn, Llandegfedd Lake, Pontnewydd Park and Cwmbran Boating Lake.
During each visit, they scored the facilities and accessibility by looking at things like the availability of benches to sit down, toilets, clear pathways, the steepness of paths, and public transport links.
The six guides were launched last week at an event held in Able in Upper Cwmbran that was attended by around 50 people.
Jenny Mushiringani-Monjero, Torfaen People First group facilitator, said: “We’ve turned the findings of those audits into printed accessibility guides and we’re in the process of creating video accessibility guides.
“They will [also] be downloadable] links so people can print them off if they want to or have a look online. They’re up on our website.
“We also have an accessibility radio show that’s going to be going out on Able Music so we’re going to have six shows, one around each of the audits we did.
“[They] will get people engaged in a conversation about nature and thinking about their local green spaces differently.
“We wanted to celebrate the project. It’s been a really big achievement for us. It’s been really hard work and we wanted to have a real day of celebrating
“So this morning [Thursday 22 January] we invited lots of guests. We’ve had lots of people come to the event. The guys have had an opportunity to share what they did and what they learned.
“We did an activity around ‘what stops people enjoying nature and their local green spaces. We had cardboard bricks and they built a wall that ‘separated’ them from their local green space and then smashed that wall down because what we’re trying to say is ‘yes, those things might exist’ but we can find ways, there are always solutions.
“We’ve made partnerships that I don’t think we would ever had made before. There are a lot more organisations who know who People First are. We’ve got people from Bron Afon here, Cwmbran Community Council here.
“We never did this accessibility project to tell people what was ‘wrong’ with the parks. This project is all about making an informed decision about whether that park is suitable for their needs.”
The Stepping Out To Nature project was funded by the UK Government’s Share Prosperity Fund.