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Home > News > Working To Help Improve Accessibility At IRN-BRU Carnival

Working To Help Improve Accessibility At IRN-BRU Carnival

We will be working with QD Events, the organisers of the IRN-BRU Carnival, to look at improving the accessibility of the event.

The IRN-BRU Carnival is Europe's largest indoor funfair, a staple of Glasgow's festive season for over 100 years. The Carnival offers a variety of thrilling rides, games, and family-friendly attractions. From the waltzer and dodgems to traditional fairground games.

There will be specific autism-friendly sessions at the Carnival on Tuesday 31 December between 11am-2pm and Monday 6 January between 4-9pm.

During the 2024/5 run of the Carnival, we will attend to gather feedback from autistic people and families attending the event to ascertain what they want to see being changed for 2025/6 to make the event more accessible for them.

We will use our 'My Five' campaign to ask visitors what five simple changes they would make towards a more accessible environment.

Following this, we will work with QD Events throughout 2025 to provide training, improve knowledge and understanding and implement recommendations ahead  of the 2025/6 event.

Our External Learning and Consultancy Lead, Joanna Panese commented:

"We are delighted to be working with QD Events as we look to support them in their mission to make the IRN-BRU Carnival as accessible as possible. We will be working with and alongside the autistic community to ensure that their voice is heard within that work.

"Over the next twelve months we will be working with the team to support them in exploring what could be changed to make the event more accessible while increasing their knowledge and understanding.

"We will also be in attendance on Carnival days to speak to people and get an understanding of what would be helpful for them. We will then feed that back to QD Events and work with them with a view to increasing the accessibility of the event ahead of its 2025/6 run."

Margaret Cowan, Group Operations Manager at the IRN-BRU Carnival said:

“We are delighted to partner with Scottish Autism who are advising on our Autism friendly sessions. Over the past three years we’ve seen increased demand for these sessions, showing their importance to the local community.

"We’re grateful to Scottish Autism who will support us in improving and evolving these sessions, helping autistic people and their families, and those with sensory processing differences enjoy the IRN-BRU Carnival.”

You can learn more about our My Five campaign and how to get involved here - My Five

Photo credit to John Clark Photos