Yesterday the BBC responded fully to Samatha’s blog complaint about her visit to the Dr Who Experience in April 2011.
Their email* (cc’d to Pesky People by the BBC and printed here with their full agreement) unreservedly takes on her complaints and they will address them fully including offering Samantha a return visit as their guest and a full refund for her and her party (of 7).
It is a fantastic result for Samantha and will not only benefit her but any disabled person visiting the attraction in future.
Pesky People has been really pleased to help, it is what we are here for. This really all started with a tweet from Samantha on Twitter.
Samantha says: “I’m delighted the BBC have taken my concerns so seriously and addressed them so comprehensively. I’m really pleased my experience with hopefully help other people have a great time at the Doctor Who Experience. Many thanks to Pesky People for the blog space and support, and thanks to everyone who shared the story.”
From: Philip Fleming, Head of Communications, Global Brands, BBC Worldwide
Date: 16 May 2011
To: Samantha
Cc: Alison Smith (Pesky People)
Subject: RE: Doctor Who Experience visit
Dear Samantha,
Thanks for contacting us and letting us know why you were so disappointed with your visit to the Doctor Who Experience recently. Without honest feedback and advice on what we are doing right (but more importantly about what we’re not doing right) we would be unable to improve the visitor experience to the attraction.
On behalf of BBC Worldwide may I just say how sorry we are that you encountered the problems you did on the day. The Venue Manager who provided you with the iPod Touch in error has apologised for any insensitivity caused and assures us, and you, that it was a misunderstanding and that absolutely no offence was intended by offering this to you or in asking for your driving licence as a form of identification.
However, having discussed the situation with our Head of Exhibitions and Events, it’s clear to us that the needs of visually impaired visitors at the Doctor Who Experience could be fundamentally improved upon.
Therefore, as a direct result of your complaint, we are taking the following steps:
- We will work with our booking agents to improve the level of support provided to people calling in relation to disabled access.
- We are organising additional staff training on site in order to better assist visitors who are visually impaired.
- Visually impaired visitors and their companions/carers will be invited to repeat the walk-through element of the Experience if they have been unable to enjoy the full effect of that part of the Experience.
- A visitor information guide in large print will be produced for the artefact section of the Experience which will include a copy of the accompanying text featured on all of the graphic panels from the exhibits.
- We will update the visitor information on our website to include more comprehensive information for different access requirements and to clarify any areas which may make the Experience less suitable for people with certain disabilities, such as the 3D film at the end of the walk-through element.
- We will investigate the possibility of providing an Audio Description tour of the Experience for visually impaired visitors.
- We have been in touch with Alison Smith at Pesky People regarding the Go Genie pilot programme and we are currently exploring how the Doctor Who Experience can participate in this programme.
We would like to implement as many of these changes as quickly as possible and our team are now working on doing just this – but do please appreciate that some may take slightly longer than others for logistical reasons. We will communicate all details of the changes to all box office, ticket agency and on-site staff as they happen.
Finally Samantha we think the true test of whether these changes will improve the Doctor Who Experience for visually impaired people would be a return visit and review by both you and your friends as our guests.
To date tens of thousands of people have stepped into the TARDIS and had a great day out. We’re hugely proud of the Experience and the majority of the customer feedback since we opened it in February has been overwhelmingly positive – but that doesn’t mean that we can’t always improve it.
We ran a series of pilot days ahead of opening the Experience, which involved a number of evaluations for customers with different disabilities and access challenges and we made some changes to better accommodate visitors with disabilities as a result. Clearly, we can do better. Your feedback on what we got wrong has already helped us make further improvements.
In any event, I’d like to offer you and your companions a full refund in recognition of the fact that your visit was not as enjoyable as we would have liked it to have been.
I will ensure you are kept fully aware of the adjustments as we make them and I look forward to welcoming you back in the very near future.
Kind regards,
Philip
Philip Fleming, Head of Communications, Global Brands, BBC Worldwide
Media Centre (2C6)
201 Wood Lane
London, W12 7TQ
* Personal details have been deleted from the above email. Text in bold has been added by Pesky People as part of the editing process
Nice to see a company respond without any defensiveness. They simply acknowledge the problem, without assigning or dismissing blame, and almost see it as a challenge to themselves. The BBC’s motivation may be profit, it may simply be fear of bad press. What I’m impressed with is that they simply didn’t judge and dismiss it – what? why would a blind person want to visit a Dr. Who exhibit – a common theme or response over here in the States.
Some improvements will take time, fair enough; as long as they’re demonstrating an ongoing commitment and ongoing improvements, and don’t treat it as just a one-off, cheers to the BBC. and, Cheers to Samantha for speaking up such a large corporation – sounds like your argument or presentation was pretty convincing!
I’m so glad to hear these positive results but sad to report that I had a poor experience with my granddaughter (aged 10) at Olympia. She has a possible diagnosis of photosensitive epilepsy and is terrified of having another fit in case she needs to go onto medication. We had established from information and enquiries that there were some flashing lights and we knew that this would be ok. Whilst we waited to go through the walkthrough experience we watched two groups being prepared to go through ahead of us and she would have been fine if we had joined either of these.
When it came to our turn the guide for our group announced that there would be strobe lighting, which she has been told to steer clear of. This was the first time we had ever heard anything about strobe lighting. This upset my granddaughter and we decided to leave. I went up to one of the attendants to say that this was now a problem because of the strobe lighting and she explained it ‘wasn’t really strobe lighting’ but of course my granddaughter and I did not now know what to think. The attendant called the guide over who explained that it was not strobe lighting he had just used the words because there were some flashing lights ‘a bit like strobes’. This was again not helpful – we simply needed a straight yes or no on strobes – not to be told that they were a bit like strobes. In fact there was nothing strobe like about any of the lighting effects that we saw.
Whilst I realise that this was a mistake on the part of the guide, which he did try to put right and for which he did apologise, he clearly had not been trained to have any idea what a difference that word would make to me and my granddaughter. His offer to be there to take her to an exit if she became frightened was meant to be reassuring but not helpful when what she was worrried about was blacking out. Although she enjoyed the experience it was marred by her anticipation that there might be a light somewhere that would flash at the frequency that affects her – which wold have had to be very fast and nothing like the lights in the ‘experience’. For example, she was sure from watching the TV series that there would be flashing lights from the daleks’ weapons whereas in fact there was nothing that she might have needed to worry about, but she kept her face buried in my arms in that section. The daleks are her favourites. She would have loved to have watched the whole thing.
So still some room for improvement in the awareness training of staff.
Thank you for taking the time to share this with us. I am saddened to hear of your granddaughter’s experience at Doctor Who Experience (DWE). Would you allow me to pass on your comments to The Head of Worldwide Branding who is responsible for the DWE?
They have since changed their policy to allow disabled customers to walk through a second time to get the full impact of the experience. They have also produced subtitles videos of the interactives and large print guides. From our discussions and meeting with them I know they are keen to get it right.
Thank-you, that would be great. I am sure that they could easily get some clear guidance in order to be able to provide specific information and avoid the distress that my granddaughter experienced.