TV presenter Mik Scarlet with friends and family at the Clerkenwell Festival

COMMUNICATION is key to ensuring public events can be accessible for disabled people, a campaigner has said after being forced to leave the Clerkenwell Festival early.

Mik Scarlet, a disability campaigner and award-winning TV presenter based in Camden, was enjoying the festival with friends and family, until he needed the toilet.

Mr Scarlet, who uses a wheelchair, said that upon first inspection, all of the festival’s toilets were inappropriate for wheelchair users, or locked.

He told the Tribune: “I’d only been out of hospital for just over a week and a bit, I was really quite unwell. I’d just wanted to have a nice day out with my mates.

“The accessible Portaloos were locked, and the only pub nearby had a step up. So as far as I could see, they didn’t have a toilet, and I was forced to go home early, whilst my wife stayed.”

As it transpired, the festival in fact did have accessible toilets, but disabled attendees were expected to find a steward to unlock the door for them – something Mr Scarlet said was not made clear at any point.

After he shared his frustration online, festival organisers made contact to apologise, and have now invited him to join the team for next year to improve their accessibility.

“To be honest, although I had a moan on the day, the organisers have been fantastic about it since, I was really impressed with how they responded,” he said.

“I’m hoping that together we can make improvements for next year, but there is a wider conversation to be had here about making things clear for disabled people.

“Lots of these smaller events and festivals have these issues – they don’t have the money or knowledge to make these events fully accessible.”

Clerkenwell Festival is partially funded by Islington Council. Mr Scarlet added that he felt it was the responsibility of local authorities and funders to ensure that accessibility was effectively communicated to people going.

He added: “The problem is that if the communication is not clear, then lots of disabled people might just not attend these kind of events.

“Having clear and accessible information packs or publicising key information like the toilets means that these festivals can be an enjoyable space for everybody including people like me.”