Wheelchair blocked from human rights film festival

Philip Patston says disabled people's needs are commonly ignored. Picture / Richard Robinson

Disabled comedian Philip Patston has spoken out against the Human Rights Film Festival, after furniture had to be moved from his wheelchair's path before he could see a movie.

The organisers yesterday apologised, admitting too little had been done for disabled people at the festival's Auckland venue, the Academy Cinemas, beneath the Central City Library.

"Obviously they weren't expecting disabled people," said Mr Patston, a former human rights worker.

He attended the festival's Auckland opening on Thursday night, which included a short film, Winner Every Day, about a disabled Wellington man.

Disabled people's access to the Academy is through a library lift, but Mr Patston said the corridor from the lift to the theatre was blocked with chairs, tables and pamphlets.

Once "embarrassed festival organisers" cleared the route, they had to move a speaker from in front of the theatre doorway, said Mr Patston. He was with London Disability Film Festival officials, who were appalled.

He also had to wait 15 minutes for a security guard to escort him out of the theatre after the films, as the guard could not be found immediately.

A co-director of the Human Rights Film Festival, Carol Nelson, when asked if the organisers were embarrassed, said: "Yes, on behalf of all of us I'm prepared to say this is not appropriate and certainly not intended. It's not what we would have wanted to take place."

She said Mr Patston was mistakenly taken into the wrong corridor, one used for storage. Organisers now had a mobile number for the security guard.

The Academy was a difficult venue for disabled people, she said, but the festival's theatre options were limited.

Academy marketing and operations director Gina Dellabarca said that in response to Mr Patston's concerns, the city council had agreed to extend access times through the library lift for disabled theatre patrons. Previously this was restricted to library hours.

Mr Patston said the incident showed disabled people's needs were commonly ignored or given low priority.

Disabled people's advocate Barry de Geest said Mr Patston's experience was common.

"What you often find when you go into a bar or recreation place is that they use the accessible [disabled people's] loo to store stuff. If it's not used regularly they will store stuff there because they are such big loos."