‘I was kicked out of bar because of my wheelchair’

I was kicked out of bar because of my wheelchair

An 18-year-old woman from Oldham, Maddie Haining, recounted being asked to leave a Manchester nightclub due to her wheelchair, calling the experience “embarrassing and infuriating.” The incident occurred at Club Tropicana in the city’s Gay Village on Saturday evening.

Maddie arrived with a friend, only to be told by a bar manager within minutes of entering that her wheelchair posed a safety risk. She shared a video on Instagram, stating:

“It’s not okay to be removed from bars because you are disabled and different to other people. If they can be in there then why shouldn’t we.”

Maddie insisted that the staff had initially allowed her and her companion entry without issue, but later decided to evict them.

She explained that security personnel had helped bring her wheelchair inside before the decision to remove her was made. Her friend left to get a drink, and shortly after, security approached Maddie, apologizing but stating they had been instructed to ask her to leave. When Maddie requested to speak to the manager, he responded with “horribly rude” behavior, she said.

“I asked ‘how was I a safety risk?’ If I was a safety risk, they wouldn’t have let me in in the first place,” she said. “They wouldn’t explain why, and then the story changed to that I was a fire risk.”

To challenge the decision, Maddie displayed the 2010 Equality Act on her phone, highlighting that wheelchair users cannot be excluded based on a fire risk without an inclusive evacuation plan. “I said ‘you can’t make me leave because I’m in a wheelchair – this is discrimination,'” she added. “But he wasn’t having any of it. He just kept repeating himself and not acknowledging anything.”

Club Tropicana confirmed an investigation was underway, noting they had not been directly contacted by Maddie but were aware of the incident. Manchester City Council also stated it was examining the event following her complaint to its licensing committee.

Under the Equality Act, venues are required to make reasonable adjustments for disabled individuals, such as ramps or additional support. Refusing entry due to disability is considered a breach of the law. Maddie said the manager threatened to pass on any fines the club might receive to her, but she eventually left after requesting staff details to file a formal complaint.

“The whole thing was really embarrassing. I was in a bar with my friends and kept getting security sent over,” she said. “It was infuriating as I showed them the law and they had not taken any of it on board. I’d never had anything like this happen before, and I know my rights. Being disabled for nearly five years, you kind of just learn about this stuff.”