Press Release:
London, 8 December 2014, Blue Badge Style adds a little sparkle to the ‘depressing reading’ of DisabledGO’s report on accessibility. Its founder, Fiona Jarvis, has 5 top tips for shops, bars and restaurants to improve the experience for disabled people at Christmas. And it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Fiona says “the Equality Act of 2010 obliges organisations to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, we think these adjustments could be made quickly and easily. Then decide that 2015 will be the year you become properly accessible to a demographic with a potential £200bn to spend”.
1. Be welcoming. Disabled people want to be treated like customers, not an inconvenience. If you don’t know what to do; ask us!
2. Put images of the facilities you do have and any potential obstacles on your website. People with disabilities want to know what to expect and make an informed decision. A ramp may be helpful to a person in a wheelchair, but difficult for a person who uses a stick.
3. If you’ve got a large toilet, put some grab rails and an emergency pull cord in. If you don’t know where to put them, ask someone! It’s highly likely that one of your team knows someone with a disability.
4. Get a ramp and share it with other local shops. Put up some handrails. Let people know you have one and train staff in how to use it.
5. Be patient and willing. It costs nothing, but makes a lot of difference to people with a disability.
As the government report states, disabled people, their friends and carers have an estimated £200bn spending power. Fiona Jarvis says “addressing the needs of disabled people could be the difference between you or a competitor getting their business. We can all work together to make sure disabled people can also enjoy the festivities to the full and businesses can benefit. It’s freedom shared!”.
Notes to Editors
Style My Wheelchair Contest – Blue Badge Style & Brunel University design contest addressing key issues for practical yet chic, wheelchair use.
Voting is taking place on the Blue Badge Style website until 1st January 2015
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BLNLDTF
Images are available on request
About Blue Badge Style
www.bluebadgestyle.com @bluebadgestyle
Blue Badge Style has recently won the European Investment Bank Institute’s Social Innovation Tournament – Special Category Prize: Urban Environment for its Pictorial Access Descriptions. A PAD takes the customer visually through a venue’s access points before their visit. It includes overlay photos and narrative of facilities and is placed on an easy to find area of a website. Its PADs are at South Place Hotel and Hoxton Hotel. To view South Place Hotel PAD – http://pad.bluebadgestyle.com/south-place-hotel/
Fiona can also provide advice to venues on accessibility – fiona@bluebadgestyle.com
Blue Badge Style is a website and app aimed at the physically-less-able. Established by Fiona Jarvis in 2007, it aims to give its community a positive, cool, fashionable and elegant experience, wherever they go or whatever they do. Fiona Jarvis first realised she might have MS when she kept falling off her high-heels! That was over 20 years ago and today she uses a wheel chair to glide through life.
As the UK population ages, those with temporary or permanent mobility issues are on the increase, but a lack of mobility doesn’t mean they are also no longer stylish. Fiona intends to make Blue Badge Style a ‘Vogue/Michelin-like’ guide for less able people, their friends and their families.
Blue Badge Style press page – https://bluebadgestyle.com/latest-episode/press/
About the Stylish, Less-Physically-Able Market
The Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2010/11 states that 19% of the UK population suffer from some form of long-term disability (12m). There are also an estimated 6 million carers. This does not include temporarily disabled people, their families, friends or unregistered carers. In the UK, spend by disabled is now £212bn pa according to the government’s Department of Work & Pensions. http://www.govopps.co.uk/212bn-potential-business-in-purple-pound/
For more information about Blue Badge Style, please contact PR Savvy:
Jan Howells / jan.howells@prsavvy.co.uk / 0771 388 3773
Kate Warwick / kate.warwick@prsavvy.co.uk / 078 1069 7282