Social Story - Attending Meeting Place

I arrive at The Wheeler Centre – a large grey building with a glass and steel entrance – and proceed up either the stairs or the accessibility ramp on Little Lonsdale St.

I enter the foyer of the building. The space may be loud and busy with people walking through and talking. I can see that the toilets are available to the right. A drinking water station is available, so I refill my own water bottle. There is someone at the door to the left who welcomes me, and invites me to enter the main room.

The main room is long, with a stage right down the end and rows of seats taking up most of the space. I pick any seat that I feel comfortable with and sit down.

I see the stage has some chairs on it for the presenters as part of the event, as well as a podium where some people will speak from. There are steel trusses either side of the stage that hold up lights and speakers.

I can see several television screens positioned throughout the room, all of which show a closer view of the participants on the stage.

During one of the sessions, I get a bit overwhelmed at the sound, and so I ask the staff in the foyer behind the main desk to let me access the lift to level 3, where I sit in the open library space for a while to gather my thoughts.

During the lunch break in the program, I go downstairs to the Moat Cafe to get a drink and some food. As I’m not able to walk down the stairs outside, I ask the staff in the foyer to swipe their access card on the lift, which lets me use the lift to get down to the basement floor.

After lunch, I use the lift to go back up to the foyer. A few of my friends instead decide to go over to the QV building across the road from Little Lonsdale Street to get food, so I go over after I’ve eaten to meet them.

After the last session at the Wheeler Centre has finished, I make sure I have all of my belongings and head to tram stop #8 on Swanston Street, to travel to the Arts Centre Melbourne to attend a final event for the day.

I get off the tram at the Arts Precinct stop, outside the Arts Centre Melbourne and the National Gallery of Victoria. I walk past the forecourt of the Arts Centre, which is located underneath the tall spire of the main arts building.

I follow St Kilda road back in the opposite direction that the tram traveled, heading back to the Hamer Hall building. I follow the path around the building towards the riverbank, where I find the entrance to The Channel Arts Centre Melbourne venue.

Following this final event for the day, I go home.