Welcome to Blue Badge Style we want to ensure that ‘wherever you go or whatever you do it is a positive, cool, fashionable and elegant experience, whatever your style, whatever your disability’. We’re re-defining disability with style – something that should be a freedom shared.

Fiona Jarvis first realised she might have MS when she kept falling off her high-heels! ‘People thought I was drunk – and that was the confusing thing, as I could well have been.’  That was over 20 years ago and today she uses a wheelchair to glide through life.

I have always refused to give up being stylish, whether that’s eating in smart restaurants, wearing elegant clothes or going on glamorous holidays. Mobility, or the lack of it, doesn’t and shouldn’t mean you can’t have style! Blue Badge Style can help you to have a positive, cool, elegant experience. As Coco Chanel said, “fashion fades, only style remains the same”.

Becoming progressively disabled, but determined to maintain her social life, has alerted Fiona to the lack of information for stylish, discerning people with mobility issues; a shop or restaurant may have a ramp, but how far away are the Ladies and down how many flights of steps?  NHS crutches may work, but where do you find a walking stick to accessorise a glamorous outfit? The Blue Badge Style site has this information and has already established a small community; like a 17^th century Salon, it is an assembly of guests consisting of, if not leaders, then a stylish and informed group.

This video also shows you some of our team members……..and explains what we’re trying to achieve……..

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. Blue Badge Style is the ‘Vogue/Michelin-like’ guide for less able people, their friends and their families. We and more importantly our readers, make recommendations on style, accessibility and disabled facilities and ‘As Recommended By  Blue Badge Style’  is an  aspirational goal for any item, organisation or establishment. So keep sending your reviews.

BBS Campaigns

We try to highlight – in a positive way – where the ‘equal provisions of goods and services are unreasonably deficient’. The intention is to act as an agent for change, altering mind-sets toward accessibility. Recent figures on Accessible Tourism/Hospitality put the value of the european market at €142Bn, making accessibility an economic if not social imperative, rather than a legislative necessity – we’re ‘customers not compliance issues’. In particular due to the lack of disabled facilities in restaurants (especially Michelin Starred ones) – we’ve become known as the “Toilet Police”. Not something we ever wanted but we’re prepared to take the baton.!!???

We have also partnered with Bespoke Access and Leonard Cheshire to make our previous BBS Awards bigger and better. Together we’ve created the Blue Badge Access Awards (BBAAs), 

“Inspiring better design, Celebrating exceptional venues, Improving accessibility for all.”

Nominations are open for 2020 and the first awards ceremony took place on 2 Oct 2019. See the winners here.

We also want to improve the lack of style & fashionable design in the production of disability equipment. A market worth €30Bn according to EU statistics. We’re happy to say that Conran & Partners and Brunel University support us in our endeavours. In 2017 we won funding from The Design Council, SPARK innovation program and have produced the first of our inclusive accessories for ‘people who have their hands full’.

DRINK is the first product and is available to buy from our online store – ADDITION Collection ‘that showcases inclusive design’. It’s a universal glass holder that attaches to almost anything, with our Smart Fixing, – wheelchair , buggy, deck chair – and carries most size of glass plus coffee cartons, bottles, cans etc.

 

Blue Badge Style Rating System & Mobile App

As recommended by the Guardian and FT, Blue Badge Style App finds cool places to visit near your location. We’ve reviewed hundreds of places and awarded them BBS Ticks. Have a look at this short film  explaining how it works. We rate first on style then accessibility and facilities, up to a maximum of 3 BBS Ticks. We let you know if a place is worth visiting and then we tell you what to expect by the number of ticks & associated reviews. We want all venues to aspire to achieve the maximum accreditation (and improve their accessibility).  The App is interactive and allows users to drop a pin and send their own reviews. All you need to know, in one place, for an enjoyable night out!

BBS Rating System

Our system is based on 3 categories

• Ambience/Style – Friendliness, is it buzzy, stylish, good food/drinks, are the staff helpful, intrusive/ over fussy. Is it somewhere you would visit again? Is it cool, trendy, fashionable or smart?
• Accessibility – can you get into the venue easily, is there a ramp, lift etc. Is the ramp too steep to walk/wheel unaided. Can you get around easily within the venue, are there obstacles e.g. enough room between tables, and are those obstacles easy to overcome? Do the staff help? How easy is it to hear? How easy is it to see signs? etc, etc.
• Facilities – is there a disabled toilet, is it clean, are there enough bars (perpendicular and horizontal), can a wheelchair get in easily, is it easy to find and discreet. Can you access without help.

Nowhere gets rated unless it’s stylish and that doesn’t mean expensive. The local bar down the road can have style!

The categories are each scored out of 5 points and then aggregated into a final number of BBS Ticks, the maximum being three, just like a Michelin Star.

AWARDS

Not only did we win the Design Council SPARK Innovation award in 2017 (see above) in 2014 we won the EIB Institute Social Innovation Prize for the Urban Environment. The award was for our product that tells you what to expect from a venue – the BBS Gallery. They describe visually the journey through a building for all disabilities. See the winning pitch…..(when we mention PADs we mean an access Gallery, we changed the name to something we hope everyone understands??)

 

Join the BBS Movement

Blue Badge Style warmly welcomes everyone who is interested and willing to contribute. We want to build our very own Salon or ‘social network’ (with the emphasis on social!!). Here are various ways you can join us. You can also submit reviews here or via the mobile app.

Follow Blue Badge style on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and get in touch.