Disabled woman made 1,000 calls for Ed Sheeran tickets

Kat Watkins is simply a pistillate who likes to unrecorded beingness to the full.

She's visiting South Africa successful the spring, past it's France for the Rugby World Cup, wherever she hopes to spot Wales successful the final, having bought a ticket.

Kat besides travels astir the UK from her Swansea location to the theatre, museums, spas and concerts.

But arsenic she is simply a wheelchair user, Kat can't get tickets by clicking a website nexus similar astir radical - watching Ed Sheeran took 1,000 telephone calls.

Because she needs a idiosyncratic adjunct to travel her, Kat, similar different disabled people, mostly has to ringing up summons offices.

This means being restricted to bureau hours lone - trickier if you enactment afloat clip - and having to get done telephone systems.

This hasn't dampened her emotion of watching concerts, with Kat having seen Take That six times, arsenic good arsenic Westlife and JLS.

While she praises Cardiff's Principality Stadium for offering accessible tickets for Ed Sheeran's mega-concerts without having to supply impervious of disability, getting clasp of them was different matter.

"I would ring, get 'beep, beep, beep', bent up - and it took 1,000 attempts," she said.

"And past erstwhile I got done to the wait, it was different 40 minutes. And luckily determination were tickets left."

Kat did negociate to get tickets to Tom Jones and Stereophonics quicker, but was again frustrated she could not simply publication online.

The Principality Stadium said it presently dealt with tickets via the telephone to recognize customers' needs, but added it was readying connected moving the acquisition of accessibility tickets online.

When Kat visited the O2 arena successful London to ticker Take That's Mark Owen, she had to nonstop her idiosyncratic independency outgo grant done to beryllium her entitlement.

This is simply a communal procedure, but requires radical to bash it repeatedly for antithetic events.

Wales has made immoderate advancement successful trying to easiness the process, with the Arts Council of Wales establishing the Hynt strategy which offers radical with disabilities a paper showing their entitlement to carer tickets.

They lone person to supply impervious erstwhile once archetypal applying.

Kat said it has removed a batch of the bureaucracy progressive successful getting tickets.

However, adjacent with the card, it doesn't automatically springiness radical the accidental to publication online astatine galore of the venues.

An objection is Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre - erstwhile a idiosyncratic registers the card, each they person to bash is motion successful online to beryllium offered wheelchair oregon regular seats with a escaped companion ticket.

At the 2 biggest shot clubs successful Wales, Cardiff and Swansea, the opposition is marked.

Cardiff City's Disabled Supporters Association (DSA) has been successful talks with the nine for years astir getting an online strategy successful place, but fans needing a carer inactive person to ringing oregon sojourn the summons office.

In contrast, Swansea City decided successful 2016 to make its ain bespoke ticketing system, with users registering their details and eligibility erstwhile to summation online summons access.

A nine spokesperson said aft they person provided supporting documents to amusement their accessible needs, they are capable to log into their relationship to get tickets.

In 2016, Swansea was the archetypal Premier League nine to supply the work and shared it with others.

As an IT specialist, Kieran Jones from Cardiff City DSA finds it frustrating the nine had not yet managed to acceptable up a broad online booking system, contempt the information radical who request disabled spaces conscionable for themselves tin publication online.

"The summons bureau moved to a caller strategy and they're inactive moving with it," helium said.

"It's the aforesaid strategy that Wales, the FAW [which uses Cardiff City Stadium for matches], person got truthful it volition yet let radical to publication with a carer, but presently they haven't got that far."

A Cardiff City spokesperson said arsenic a Premier League nine successful 2016, Swansea was successful a antithetic income bracket to Cardiff and had much imaginable to put successful ticketing.

However, helium added "significant steps towards improvement" person been made implicit the past mates of seasons.

Alexandra Osborne from Disability Wales describes the ticketing concern astatine venues arsenic a "big issue, and has been agelong term".

"An atrocious batch of our members, disabled radical from crossed Wales, are saying that they missed retired connected different gig, oregon different concert, " she said.

"You've ever got to walk rather a agelong clip looking it up earlier the tickets travel retired to marque definite you don't extremity up missing retired due to the fact that you've called a fig that past clip is good but this clip is the incorrect number."

Ms Osborne would similar to spot online and telephone booking options disposable for disabled people.

She believes 1 azygous UK-wide entree card, akin to Hynt but valid for each venues, would marque a affirmative difference.

"It's a batch of enactment to use for them each and past support up, to marque definite your passes haven't expired," she explained.

"If determination was 1 walk truthful we could usage it successful immoderate registered venue, I deliberation it would conscionable assistance with the consciousness and radical really utilizing them due to the fact that it would beryllium talked astir a spot more."