DA Day Message from Club Chairman

Saturday is also a very important day for our club, as it has been chosen as our Disabled Awareness Day, or DA Day!

Our own players will wear specially created tops with the emblem of our Disabled Supporters Club woven in to them, and all tops will be auctioned off after the match. In addition, as previously highlighted many of our usual match day activities such as the mascot and our 50-50 draw will be performed by some of our own disabled supporters.

Saturday is all about raising awareness of the work the Dunfermline Athletic Disabled Supporters Club (DADSC), and formerly the Disabled Access Group, undertake alongside our club in trying to not only improve facilities for home and away disabled supporters attending East End Park, but also improving their match day experience. However, Saturday is not to be seen as a “one off” day, it is only part of an ongoing project of continual improvement.

Since our club reformed as a community club, after it came out of administration under Pars United CIC, the Board of DAFC wanted our club to be accessible to all supporters and we proudly boast 31 wheelchair spaces, and 12 ambulant disabled spaces for the benefit of both home and away supporters. Unfortunately, unforeseen emergency repair works as part of our gym building programme in the SE corner of East End Park, will require our wheelchair platform in the SE enclosure to be closed on Saturday for safety reasons. After consulting with season ticket holders who use our wheelchair platforms in the Norrie Stand, it now appears that all our designated wheelchair spaces for home supporters will be taken on the day.

In addition, our further progress can be demonstrated by the fact that we have appointed a Disability Liaison Officer, implemented a match buddy system, provided further new equipment such as windshields and blankets and have improved match day parking as well as our toilet facilities. Local companies such as the Purvis Group, AK Moyes and Stephen Vaughan Electrical have supported us greatly, as have Tesco Fire Station and ESPC.

We are fortunate that our DADSC is full of many passionate people, all of whom I don’t have space to mention here unfortunately, who want to make a real difference to the lives of others. So, it was with some sadness that Ishbel Russell recently stood down from her position as our club’s Disability Liaison Officer, due to other commitments. I have place on record my thanks to Ishbel for the commitment and enthusiasm, alongside the considerable expertise she provided to our club.

We should all be proud that East End Park was recently awarded, by some distance from Dundee FC in second place, the highest possible rating for facilities and underlying infrastructure for disabled supporters in Scotland.

Many people have worked together as a team to make this happen.

COYP!

Ross McArthur, Chairman