The Access and Disabilities Working Group were scheduled to meet on Thursday 11 September 2025, to discuss updates on the Hexagon Studio Theatre design, the town centre strategy, and the upcoming Festival of Inclusivity. The group was also expected to discuss disability pages on the council's website.

Town Centre Strategy

Sam Rackham, Acting Assistant Director of Infrastructure, Economy and Capital Projects, was scheduled to present the town centre strategy. The report pack did not contain any further information about this strategy.

Hexagon Studio Theatre

Haworth Tompkins, Architects, were scheduled to provide an update on the design for the Hexagon Studio Theatre. The Hexagon is a multi-purpose theatre and arts venue in Reading. The report pack did not contain any further information about this update.

Festival of Inclusivity

The group was scheduled to discuss the Festival of Inclusivity, which was due to be held on Saturday 13 September 2025, at Palmer Park.

Disability Pages on the Council Website

The group was scheduled to discuss the pages regarding disability on the council's website. Councillor Andrew Hornsby-Smith, Chair of the Access and Disabilities Working Group, had passed around forms regarding the disability pages of the Council's website at the previous meeting, and asked people to respond and send it to Helen Bryant, Access Officer RBC, as soon as possible.

Previous Meeting

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2025 were included in the Public reports pack.

At the previous meeting, Simon Houghton from Unseen Aware gave a presentation explaining how Unseen Aware worked.

Unseen Aware has been launched in several shopping centres, including in London, Bristol and The Bullring in Birmingham. There are different kinds of training for different kinds of job; this depends on whether the employee is customer-facing or not, and levels of seniority. There have been some very positive results so far. Lush reported an encouraging experience with two autistic customers.

Andy Briggs, Destination Director, Sabine Piech, Destination Host, Aaliyah Wilkinson, and Paul Kirton, Occupier Customer Manager, from The Oracle¹ also gave a presentation.

Andy Briggs explained that meetings with Sabine Piech, Cllr Hornsby-Smith, Helen Roche from the University Medical Group and Helen Bryant have been held to improve the information on The Oracle's website concerning Shopmobility. He said that the AccessAble Access Guide on The Oracle's website is refreshed every two years.

Olly Kierle, Outreach Team Leader from Citizens' Advice Reading, gave a presentation about changes to benefits for disabled people.

Bob Bristow from Reading Talking News² gave a presentation about the organisation.

Bob Bristow said that the first Reading Talking Newspaper had been issued in 1976, The first delivery went to only 35 people... At the moment, 150 talking newspapers are sent out, but the subscribers are getting fewer... The newspaper used to be recorded onto cassette tape, but now USB players are used. They are more expensive than tapes, but they last longer. The Talking Newspaper is also online, and can be used with smart speakers; the user just has to say Play Reading Talking News . www.readingtalkingnewspaper.org.uk