Naidex Preview – Tracking Down Style At The UK’s Biggest Disability Event

Naidex National, the UK’s largest disability, homecare and rehabilitation event, is now just days away. Kicking off on the 29th of April and concluding on 1 May at the NEC, Birmingham, this year is the event’s fortieth anniversary and it looks set to be the biggest and (we hope) best yet. With over 300 different exhibitors showcasing hundreds of the latest assistive products, 200 different experts on disability issues speaking and around 10,000 people attending, Naidex is the place to be next week.

This year one of the highlights looks certain to be the guest appearances from less able celebrities. TV comedians Alex Brooker and Francesca Martinez will be opening and closing the event respectively. Brooker is best known for his work on The Last Leg, alongside Adam Hills and Josh Widdicombe and will be sharing the story of his success, since his work on the 2012 Paralympic coverage, on Tuesday at 12.15pm. Martinez is one of the country’s most successful disabled stand ups as well as now being a prominent campaigner for disability rights and has been named one of Britain’s most influential women in the BBC Woman’s Hour power list 2014. She’ll be closing Naidex on Thursday the 1st of May.

There will be more than just comedy though, as other celeb guests will show the many ways that less able people can excel. Claire Lomas, who walked the London Marathon in an exoskeleton is going to be speaking at Naidex, Gary Clarke, Britain’s strongest disabled will perform incredible feats of strength while sitting (fully clothed) on a fold up shower seat and Britain’s Got Talent wheelchair dancing stars, Strictly Wheels (aka Paula Moulton and Gary Lyness) will be performing on 29 April.

The celebrity guests will of course be popular but we’re more interested in using our visit to Naidex as a chance to sniff out stylish products for the disabled market. Obviously, every exhibitor at Naidex is presenting something to help with accessibility, so we can pretty much just concentrate on looking for style. Ahead of our visit, we’ve been researching the likeliest looking exhibitors on this front. Which stands looks like they’re going to be the style leaders?

First of all, there’s the Tomorrow’s World showcase where leading universities and SMEs, we will be showcasing the latest innovation from the industry. Judging on past events and the information available now, designs on show may include robotic arms, actual humanoid robots and all sorts of different ways that people are using modern technology, like iPads, to solve problems that less able people have. It’s an exciting way to find out about the future of assistive tech and sustainable inclusive design. On a similar note, Naidex is running its Innovation Trail this year – a competition to find the latest, most innovative product in independent living.

We’ll want to take a look at the wheelchairs being exhibited as Naidex should be a chance to see the latest models and perhaps even take them for a spin. There are a whole load of wheelchair providers attending Naidex so we’ve pinpointed a couple that stood out to us. There will be another chance to see the most talked about wheelchair (at least on our site)  which is the ultra stylish Carbon Black. Regularly readers will know (and perhaps be bored of hearing) that we’re big admirers of this chair, which we have been following since seeing a prototype years ago and  we’re keen to check in with the supercar of wheelchairs.

As well as the CB, we’ll be heading for the stands of  RGK Wheelchairs, SMART Wheelchairs and Cyclone Mobility where we’re hoping to meet the guys behind stylish, bespoke wheelchair designs. RGK have just released a new model, called the Tiga FX, which can fold up into what they call a ‘brief case’ size – so checking out just how small that is is on the to do list. SMART Wheelchairs appears to be the home of Quickie chairs at Naidex this year, which are some of the best manual chairs around. Cyclone Mobility is slightly more of an enigma to us, but we’ve seen some really attractive chairs on their website and want to find out more about what they’re doing. On top of that, Ottobock, one of the world’s biggest mobility companies, will be not only exhibiting but also holding talks on how to pick the right wheelchair for you (who’s betting that the right chair for you is one that they produce?).

Looking for accessible bathroom adaptations, AKW Ltd and HEWI leap off the page of exhibitors. We’re more familiar with HEWI but both seem to have stylish and modern ways of incorporating hand rails, shower seats and the like into trendy bathroom designs. They look very sleek and their ethos seems to be all about making accessible features a holistic part of the design process rather than either adding them on afterwards or making the whole thing entirely access driven and therefore unattractive. We’re interested in writing something on accessible bathrooms soon so we’ll be sure to take a look and see what their people have to say on this area. On a similar note we’re intrigued to look at the latest stairlift and kitchen designs. Nothing’s standing out in those departments yet but we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

With just a few days to go until Naidex, we’re quietly optimistic about finding stylish accessibility at the event – hopefully we will not be let down. A BBS delegation will heading up to Naidex on the 30th, so if you’re around on that day maybe we’ll bump into you. If you’re not able to make it to Naidex this year, don’t worry – we’ll be reporting back on what we find out about mobility products, inclusive companies and more!