General

Determined to keep trying!

~ Alison ~ Leave a comment

Feel free to send this same or adapted text to any papers or mags that you read if you feel it would be good if accessibility got a bit more of a mention!

Dear Red,

I have been a subscriber for many years and regard you as the best women’s monthly available. I enjoy the inspirational reading, fun articles, cookery and travel ideas (not so worried about fashion and celebs!). Something that has come to be important to me lately is the idea of access. Because I have become more and more limited in my mobility, I have, albeit reluctantly, had to consider accessibility when choosing places to visit or stay. To this end I have started reviewing places, Tripadvisor-style but with an emphasis on accessibility. I have also started writing to the newspapers and magazines I read to ask them if possible that they could give a brief mention to whether for example, a hotel has any accessible rooms, whether a place to visit is accessible to all and to occasionally have an ‘accessible special’ in the same way as you might have a special feature on adventure, family or romantic holidays. After all, there are about 12 million disabled people in this country with spending power of £212bn a year so it’s a big market!

I would really love it if my favourite magazine took a lead and inspired others to help create a more inclusive society.

Searching for accessible accommodation

~ Alison ~ Leave a comment

Maybe I got it wrong or maybe they have improved, but you can now filter for various accessibility features on Trivago.websites

Looking at a few cottage website the other day I realised that if you have entered dates and there is nothing accessible at that time, then ‘wheelchair accessible’ doesn’t appear as a filter but it will if there are some available – this applies to various sites. Seems like an odd way to do it – other sites show it as greyed out or have a (0) to show there’s nothing available with a particular feature but you live and learn – something to watch out for in the future!

“Courting the ‘purple pound'”

~ Alison ~ Leave a comment

BrailleThe ‘purple pound’ was a new expression to me when I read the supplement in Wednesday’s Guardian about the Disability Discrimination Act. If I could find the article online I would link to it but there’s no sign of it so here are the highlights of the piece by Linda Jackson: “It is estimated that there are about 12 million people with disabilities in the  UK with a combined household spending power of about £212bn a year – the so-called ‘purple pound.’ However, there are some businesses that are ignoring their needs, with the result that they are losing £1.8 billion a month.”

The article does cite some companies who are doing good things such as BT, EE and Sainsbury’s who have introduced a system for British Sign Language users to be able to contact their call-centre via video – brilliant! RBS, NatWest and Barclays are developing apps to  help disabled customers.

George Selvanera of the Business Directory forum says: “The rapid ageing of the  UK population, growing numbers of older and disabled people, and changing technology make the case for business investing in improving accessibility more and more compelling.”

It seems so obvious yet it isn’t happening very fast. Anyone know of any more good examples of companies which are doing something to make themselves more accessible?

Cymru Hygyrch Part 1 The Seaside

~ gillianuptonholmes ~ Leave a comment

I am quite impressed that the Welsh have a word for accessible. This is almost as impressive as their word for microwave which is ‘poppety ping’, but I digress. We spent a week exploring South Wales in early September and found lots of places to go and things to see which are just fine for a wheelchair user.

Seaside and Beaches

One of my favourite things to do on holiday is to amble along the beach dipping a toe in the water and gazing out to sea, so it has always been a sadness that this is well nigh impossible in a wheelchair, without investing in a cumbersome all-terrain vehicle which needs to be transported to the beach, and rather detracts from the spontaneity. So it is a great joy that beach wheelchairs for hire seem to be springing up at seaside resorts all over the place, both in the UK and in Europe.

They are available at Saundersfoot

saundersfoot beach wheelchair
A poster advertising the beach wheelchairs so you don’t actually need to search the internet to find out that they exist.

which is a pleasant laid-back sort of a seaside town with lots of parking in a big car park on the seafront. We had good crab sandwiches from a stall in the harbour and a decent pint of SA Brains at The Old Chemist Inn overlooking the bay, where staff were very welcoming to Hal.  Saundersfoot also has plenty tarmac surfaces to the water’s edge along the harbourside,  and an accessible sensory garden. Beach wheelchairs may be hired in advance: more information here.

Tenby is much busier, and much hillier, and parking is tricky, but don’t let that put you off because it’s a charming town with lots to explore. There’s an accessible bus from the car park in the lower town, but the car park at the south beach is probably best for wheelchair users. There’s an accessible path or boardwalk down to the sand, and quite a few mobility scooters were in evidence. Beach wheelchairs may be hired from here. If I am honest, I think there’s more that Tenby could do to encourage the purple pound, but I still liked it!

(Also that walk along the south beach is so worth it, if only for the MASSIVE dead jellyfish littering the shore – I felt much better about wimping out of swimming after seeing them).

south-beach,-tenby,-pembrokeshire

Friday surfing

~ gillianuptonholmes ~ Leave a comment

Disability links are always popping up in my Facebook feed due to fb’s scary ability to read my mind so it knows that I am interested in all things disability and accessibility! However these two are very handy:

http://www.accomable.com lists “accessible homes, apartments, swaps and holiday rentals around the world”. I was sorry not to find anything listed under Azerbaijan, but the site is really easy to use with a nice clean layout. I might give it a go for our next holiday with Hal

http://www.disabledgo.com/ “Remember, if your planning accessible days out, DisabledGo.com provides FREE online access information for over 125,000 places to go in the UK, including hotels, restaurants, hospitals, tourist attractions and much more!Every single venue has been visited in person by one of our specialist surveyors” This is a very comprehensive review site, and they have a well organised network contacting services annually to update their information.

However there is still lots of room in the market so it’s onwards and upwards for AccessibilityReviews!

National papers part 2

~ Alison ~ Leave a comment

Just sent this to the Independent:

Given that around 10% of people have mobility issues, it would be great if you could include in all articles about places to stay or visit, whether they are accessible or not or perhaps mention if there are details about this on their website.  Next time you do a travel special, would it be possible to feature things to do, places to stay that are accessible to all? After all, there must be millions of families who either sometimes or always have someone with them who needs places to be accessible but who otherwise have the same interests as anyone else. How about making it a matter of course that you mention accessibility?

Let’s see if this one gets a response! Anyone know if any papers are any good at mentioning accessibility?

National papers

~ Alison ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just sent this to The Guardian:

Given that around 10% of people have mobility issues, it would be great if you could include in all articles about places to stay or visit, whether they are accessible or not or perhaps mention if there are details about this on their website.  You often have travel section special editions or sections about adventure holidays, family-friendly, romantic or gastronomic ones. Would it not be possible to have a special mention of things to do, places to stay that are accessible to all? After all, there must be millions of families who either sometimes or always have someone with them who needs places to be accessible but who otherwise have the same interests as anyone else. How about making it a matter of course that you mention accessibility?

Let’s see if I get a response!

Another new reviewer!

~ gillivor ~ Leave a comment

Hello –  I’m Gillian. I live in Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire  and I’ll be reviewing places visited by my son Hal, who is 21.

Hal uses a manual, moulded wheelchair  (he doesn’t walk at all) and he’s never happier than  when on the move. So we travel *a lot* and we’re pretty intrepid,  boldly going where no wheelchair has gone before. Look out for our adventures on here!

Hal dog sled 3

Introducing a new reviewer…

~ Alison ~ Leave a comment

Introducing a new reviewer,  Marilyn, (mrsmeh) who lives in Bridport, Dorset with her husband Tim and they often visit places with Tim’s father, also Tim, who uses a wheelchair.

Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 5

~ Alison ~ Leave a comment

We stayed one night here before our holiday and left the car while we were away. We had stayed here a year before and been given a room with a bath, despite requesting an accessible one then found out later that they do have rooms with wet-room style bathrooms so we requested one of those. On reaching the room we realised it was one with a bath so we headed back to reception where they were most perplexed as their system said the room did not have a bath. We assured them it did so were allocated another room which did indeed have a wet-room, with seat, grab bars etc although the room still had a very low swivel armchair which looked difficult for anyone to use, never mind someone with restricted mobility!

We had eaten here before and were again joined by my brother who lives nearby, so sampled quite a few menu dishes between us but chose from the higher end of the menu as some of the more pubby items had disappointed last time. The food was great if pricey but the service was desperately slow even though the place was not that busy. Breakfast was fine with plenty of choice. Rubbish croissants but good sausages and bacon but apparently tinned mushrooms.

We ended up staying the night at the end of our holiday – the plan had been to retrieve the car then head off to a country pub which I had carefully checked out for accessibility and was looking forward to, but the car was making horrendous noises so it was a case of booking in at the Hilton again (we specified the room-number. Bet they don’t get that very often!) and calling the AA. This time we ate at Mr Todiwalah’s Kitchen and oh, boy, was that a good decision! Gorgeous food, excellent staff, good atmosphere and prompt service – the AA fortunately only rang back after we’d finished eating! Car was sorted before check-out time the next day. Their computer system was having problems which had meant not being able to open the min-bar the previous day and meant they couldn’t give us a receipt, but this was made up for by them e-mailing it to us at least three times!

The whole hotel is very accessible, as long as you get the right room and I like the way the staff took it in their stride that I was using a scooter. An airport must get all sorts of people all the time, and it should be the norm  anyway that people don’t make a difference, but it is still novel enough to be pleasant when it happens!

http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/hilton-london-heathrow-airport-terminal-5-LHRATHI/index.html