Henshaws

Challenge – raising awareness of city infrastructure issues

We have been working with our client, the sight-loss charity Henshaws, to campaign for accessibility improvements in Manchester city centre. With over a year of providing PR and communications support for Henshaws, High-Rise Communications is proud to help raise awareness around the issues with city infrastructure for those with sight loss.

Our approach – sharing personal experiences

We initially worked to identify the accessibility issues. With our office based in Manchester city centre, we were certainly aware of the criticisms surrounding the recent revamp of Stevenson Square and saw that these ‘improvements’ posed significant challenges for individuals with sight loss. We consulted with Henshaws and confirmed these concerns.

We met with Dave Steele, a patron of Henshaws with retinitis pigmentosa, and Stephen Tongue, Director of Fundraising at Henshaws. Dave shared his experiences navigating the revamped area, highlighting numerous design flaws that made Stevenson Square unwelcoming for people with sight loss and wheelchair users. His insights were captured in a video made by High-Rise.

Watch our video here.

Impact – extensive coverage and real life improvement

Our efforts resulted in extensive media coverage across major outlets including ITV News, BBC News, ITV Granada, Manchester Evening News, Bury News, Yahoo News and BBC Radio Manchester.

The campaign also garnered an estimated 984,000 views and over 50 shares on Facebook, receiving widespread support from the sight-loss community and other accessibility advocates. 

“The new infrastructure at Stevenson Square is incredibly disappointing and nothing like what we were promised. A lot of problems for users walking and cycling through the area, particularly for disabled people.” – Walk Ride GM

Additionally, The Royal National Institute of Blind people also showed support by liking and commenting on our post.

The substantial media coverage has led to promises of real-life improvements in the city’s infrastructure, particularly for individuals with sight loss. The increased awareness has sparked further conversations about the need for inclusive urban design.

We are committed to continuing our campaign for accessibility and encouraging further dialogue around inclusive urban design. If you would like to contribute to the discussion, please email [email protected] or contact us here.