Travel without limits: Designing for accessibility & inclusion | British Tourism & Travel Show 2025

cherl ever Everett at this end is the founder of a wheel and Away the website says that a wheel and away is the product of a love of travel and a belief that disability doesn't have to be a barrier to that Hester Granger is an ADHD coach and the co-founder of perfectly autistic a neurodiversity consultancy run by Hester and her husband Kelly James Dixon box is operations director of the marsham Court hotel in Bournemouth an award-winning Hotel well known for its welcome for groups and for its commitment to accessible stays and the fourth member of the panel is Ray ve chief executive of Tourism for all an independent National charity working to improve accessibility in the tourism and Leisure Industries now each member of the panel will give a short presentation based on the work they do and if we have time followed by a Q&A session but before that and to set the scene please welcome rayil excuse [Applause] me hi thank you very much indeed Stuart for that lovely introduction and I have to say I'm absolutely thrilled today to be here taking part in this panel I am really looking forward to the presentations that my three fellow fellow panel members are going to give no pressure now when we talk with businesses about accessibility one of the things that we're always thinking about is what's the best way to put the message of accessibility across is it about the fact that it's a it's a big Market that you can address it's worth a lot it's the right thing to do or is it a combination of those things um just to set the seen some of the figures we were talking in the introduction about the fact that one in five people in the country are accessible sorry are um are disabled actually the latest s surveys show that 16.1 million people in the UK identify themselves as disabled that's actually one in four of the population the the figures are going up it it is a it is a growing a growing sector of the population in England um 14.1 billion pound per year is spent on domestic trips taken by those who have an impairment or who are part of a group where a member has an impairment and the important thing about that is 14.1 billion pounds that's actually one pound in every 5 pound that's spent on domestic trips in England so it is a it's a significant part of the population it is a significant Market but the although the figures do make the case for accessibility quite well to me and and to to the other people on the panel statistics only really tell part of the story accessibility is about people it's not just about numbers so I'm going to ask Cheryl to step up and tell you a bit more about what her organization does and what accessibility means to her okay good up [Applause] thank you Ray so my name is Cheryl Everett I am the founder of a wheel and way I focus on accessible tourism so I work with Travelers with a range of disabilities to help them plan Amazing Adventures as well as with tourism businesses such as yourselves to advise them on how to become more inclusive in their practices um I would like to say thank you to everyone at the British tourism travel show for invied me to come along today and be part of this panel I'm delighted to be here with you all um but why am I here how did I come to be standing in front of you so I am the proud mom of two quite fabulous young people uh my daughter Molly is 22 and my son Stan is 18 they are both very bright they're very funny they're also very determined um they both have a genetic neurom muscular condition called spinal muscular atrophy this causes extreme muscle weakness and severe fatigue it does affect them both differently Molly is a full-time power chair user and has been since the age of 13 while Stan is a manual chair user more reliant on his chair when he gets tired but they do show one thing in common and that's it they don't let it stop him from doing anything at all um as a family we've always really enjoyed traveling and we've been fortunate to have some really quite amazing experiences we've been backpacking around India we've gone kayaking on Jungle rivers in Nicaragua we've traveled the length of Vietnam and we've also gone road tripping around the Deep South America also visited Morocco multiple times it's a bit of a family favorite some of these destinations aren't necessarily what you would call conventionally accessible especially not when you're doing it with a ruck sack on your back and kind of winging it a little bit as you go and we have had a few mishaps involving hospitals and damaged wheelchairs but that's a story for another day um however what we have found is that with the right information to hand and support of the people around us that most places can be achievable they just sometimes maybe take a little bit of lateral thinking to make it work which brings me nicely oh those are some of the photos just shared a few photos of holiday snaps um but this brings me nicely on to the social model of disability so the social model of disability states that people are disabled by the barriers around them that Society imposes on them rather than by the condition itself what does this mean in practice so scenario one you're a wheelchair user you turn up at a venue and there's steps to get in automatically you are limited you are restricted from accessing the building in the same way that somebody else would scenario two you turn up and there's ramps to get in you can access a building your experience is the same as everybody else and there is no difference between you these barriers can take a number of forms they can be down to the physical environment so as we said for example ramps it can be um you know whether things are available if you have hearing apparments all those kind of things they could be organizational or institutional so is the correct legislation in place to ensure that people have the support that they need they could be down to the attitude of the people around them so if you assume that somebody is disabled you're automatically limiting or sorry assuming that they can't do things you're automatically limiting the opportunities available to them or it could be simply down to lack of information all of it says it's that's the limits rather than the condition itself and what the social model does it says it's society that causes the problems if you take those away people are able to access things in the same way and it looks at what somebody needs rather than their condition what I'd like to do today is to look at how you can utilize this social model of disability to better inform you with your own business and how you can make your practices more applicable to everyone with all kinds of disabilities so one of the first re one of the first um one of the biggest things that we experienced when traveling was the lack of information available to us um I have lost count of the number of times we've turned up a venue supposedly accessible to be faced with a flight of stairs and trust me when you're told that our other clients with wheelchair just get out and walk up the steps it's not helpful certainly not in the way that being given the correct information to start with would be that would enable us to make clear informed decisions about what's right for us because you know it's it's different for everybody I have clients who've told me that um as a wheelchair user for example it can take them a whole weekend to book a seemingly simple trip that an able-bodied person could do in a couple of hours you know book a flight book a hotel you're off as a wheelchair user or indeed anybody with any kind of disability it's not that simple think about it how many hotels have accessibility information on their website if they do have it is it clear is it easy to find does it accurately reflect the offer that is on there and also what about the process if the information is there is it easy to book or as a person with disabilities do you have to do something completely different all of that adds to the sense of exclusion and clients don't like that believe me they will go elsewhere pictures absolutely vital pictures are important every single time because what is right for one person may not be right for another accessibility means completely different things to different people and again going back to that about people being able to make informed decisions those pictures help them to do that so whenever you can this is really helpful attitude it's a biggie so don't assume that people can't do things often people are capable of far more than you realize so ask them what they need trust me I am a a trustee for a youth disability charity these young people They smash expectations every single day and it is fantastic to watch so please always be asking people ask the questions if you don't know I am um the other one sorry is physical adaptation so sorry before that staff talking about your staff think about whether your staff are have the correct support to help people do they know about the physical adaptations that have been put in place do they know about services that are available to help people with disabilities do they need more training around awareness perhaps thinking about how this actually affects people are you part of an organization that's truly inclusive in everything you do not just for your clients but also for your staff all of these things important but obviously I'm not downplaying the importance of those phys physical as adaptations as well really really important but be aware that a lot of disabled people are already very good at finding solutions to problems what they need from you is your support to enable them to do that okay and it doesn't have to be a huge thing sometimes those tiny details can make a massive difference and feeling heard really goes long way when you're talking about that so I'd just like to finish with saying that removing those barriers it creates equality by taking away the issues that society's put on people you are giving people that choice doing that you're giving them more Independence you're giving them options and the opportunity to take part in the way that everybody else can do thank you [Applause] I'd now like to pass on to Hester who is um she works she runs um perfectly autistic and is going to talk to you a little more thank you that was amazing thank you right always difficult to follow something like that so my name is Hester I'm from perfectly autistic here's a little bit about me um I was diagnosed with ADHD at 43 I'm now 47 and I had no idea I had ADHD okay I've had 30 different full-time jobs I've booked countless holidays last minute because I got very excited and very Giddy and had no idea why by the way I didn't get fired from any of those jobs by the way um and the reason I was diagnosed was because my children were diagnosed autistic when they were seven and nine and off the back of that process my husband realized he was neurod Divergent that he was autistic as well he would be away with work a lot he'd be traveling and I used to send him information that the psychologist had shared with us and he would reply is that about me or Hudson and if anyone of parents here of neurod dierent children the chances are one of you are neurod Divergent too um so Kelly and my husband was diagnosed as autistic when he was 44 and when he told his company he was autistic they laughed and said you don't look autistic he was like right I wasn't expecting that that at all and they just said I just thought you had to stick up your ass like oh okay and if you're artistic you quite often run conversations through your head you work out what someone's going to say you come up with their responses and and unsurprisingly neither of those were on there so he had a phone call from HR the next day they apologized and he decided that was not the company for him so he reached out and spoke to a lot of other neurod Divergent people as well and he quite quickly realized that there was a real in the market for really good neurodiversity training for large corporate organizations quite often and smaller too but from actually neurode Divergent people so we launched perfectly autistic five years ago it was literally our fifth birthday the other day and uh in true ADHD style we forgot so we posted a few days later but we've posted so we're we've been going for five five years now but before that I actually started my career as a TV presenter many many moons ago on a show called The Right Stuff don't know if anyone remembers that channel 5 I used to be the girl in the booth putting through the phone calls and I had no idea that that was the perfect job for me because when it said on air and the sign would light up I was like yeah let's go and if you've got ADHD you're quite often lacking dopamine that kind of excitement that chemical that you need and inadvertently I'd found this career that really suited me I ended up working on the radio and working in PR marketing for many years and now full-time for 5 years we've been working on perfectly autistic I have two amazing children I've got India who's 15 that girl loves to Google holidays this is what she does for fun right and what she does is she manifests and then she just goes oh I've been looking at La and then casually the Alexa will start to play songs related to this like the girls an actual genius and I've got Hudson who's 13 who hates travel he absolutely hates traveling he doesn't really like leaving the house so that's actually quite challenging you've got me that loves it loves to book a holiday Indie and I Wang got a little trip together next next month cuz the boys don't want to come and we're very excited um and then you've got my husband Kelly who now um heading to 50 this year is realizing that he does love to travel but actually it takes quite a lot of effort and energy and planning and obviously there's a lot of unknowns so very briefly I'm going to mention I'm going on tour and the only reason this is relevant is because I said yes to this without thinking about it and now it's in May and now I'm like oh my gosh I'm going away for seven weeks as you can see there's lots of dates it's the only reason I'm telling you that is because I'm here at the and tourism show and I'm going to be doing my own little tour of the UK and I'm so excited about that so I want to talk about what neurodiversity is because I think quite often it's a term it's used but not a lot of people always know what it means so neurodiversity describes the way the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them and they experience it in many different ways we've actually been working with Tui on a year-long project around neuro inclusive holidays and helping them we've trained 2,000 members of their retail staff it's just my husband and I that run perfectly autistic we've trained 2,000 of their staff to understand that people experience and interact the world around them in different ways so when it comes to travel whether that's in the country out of the country there needs to be that understanding that actually it's going to be different people's brains are different and they're going to respond differently to the same things I think that's really really crucial so if you take me and my family all four of us experience the same trip really really differently and like I said this is especially the case when you're going traveling uh even if you're going out for the day or just going somewhere new like Cheryl says photos are so important just understanding what it looks like I talk more about that in a minute but actually just understand what it looks like where are we going you know we've not been before what does that mean so neurodiversity encompasses a number of different neurod Divergent conditions so I had um I did a talk at the disability X but I'm moving out the way so people can take a photo of that slide because I had someone take a photo of it and then they posted it on LinkedIn sharing all their different neurodivergent conditions and said neurodiversity Bingo because what you'll find is you're not just autistic you're probably autistic and ADHD if you're if you're autistic you're about 70% chance to also have ADHD as well I have ADHD I'm not diagnosed with discula which is like the math version of Dyslexia but I have failed my math gcsc not once not twice but three times I got three d's which together I think should make a c but apparently it doesn't work like that then we've got dyslexia that comes under the sort of neurodiversity umbrella um Tourette Syndrome OCD dyspraxia dis graphia and together those are neurod Divergent conditions some of you may have seen just thinking about sort of travel and tourism some of you may have seen the umbrella project um up and down the country and we sponsored the Milton ke's umbrella project in their um shopping center and it was absolutely amazing and that's almost where it comes from the umbrella like of neurod Divergent conditions then they come underneath it so the stats why should you care why do you care about neurodiversity so one in five of the population is neurod Divergent that's a fairly um forgotten the word sort of small number like we think it's a lot more is what I'm trying to say so that's about 20% of your visitors your customers the people coming to stay so there was a survey done um just when we started working with Tui last May so it was from a marketing company talking about neurodiversity so 80% of parents with autistic children don't take trips but they would if they were neurod Divergent friendly if they were autism friendly 93% would take those trips and actually parenting neurod Divergent children we I feel we need trips more than ever we need that break someone shaking their head we need that we need that break and actually my husband just said it's the same stuff just hotter like everything just is you got the same challenges when you go on holiday but actually you really need that break 68% leading on with what Sheryl was saying find online photos of specific rooms extremely important when choosing hotels from us for the neurod Divergent angle it's being able to see the floor plan my daughter loves the floor plan being able to see what it looks like my two I mean you can tell I'm not that tall my 13year old's 5 at 10 we can't be dealing with pull out beds anymore so it says a family of four a room of a family of four but my two children who are 13 and 15 and a girl and a boy are expected to sleep on a sofa bed together that's never happening so photos are so incredibly important plans as well floor plans the more information the better and the stat said from the survey 90% of neurod Divergent families are motivated to travel okay with the work with Tui that we did they were like oh but they don't you know if you're autistic you don't want to take a child on a cruise they might jump in the water this isn't what Tui said this is what someone said to them talking about it and we were like well no that's not the case at all this is real stereotyping so I think at the end of the day it's about working out what your needs are for your customers your visitors and what works for them you obviously know your customers best and I just want to end by saying get it right and you've got customers for life we tend to fly with the same airline when we go away because they're really neurod Divergent friendly we tend to go to similar places I never never thought we'd be the family that go back year after year to the same place but that's what we do because it works for us we know what we're doing and um I wasn't going to say this but jles brandreth randomly was talking about trips and he was saying a holiday is somewhere where you can go and relax you've been before you know what to get you know what you're expecting you know where you can go for dinner you know the nice little places and a trip is like an exciting adventure and I just want you to sort of take away that because I think that's really key but get it right and you've got customers for life thank you [Applause] hello everybody um there we go my name is James I'm the operations director at the marsham court hotel we are a family-owned and run hotel in Bournemouth on the south coast um as I said we're a family Hotel we've been there my family's been there since 1987 so a very long time and it's now run by me and my sister day today my brother also owns the business with us um we are passionate about people that is why we run our business um we love people both our customers our team um everyone involved in the hotel that is what drives us dayto day this is a picture of my family uh my sister and my brother and myself and our mom um our mom in um 2012 was diagnosed with a very um rare form of cancer that attacked her spine um and very quickly she started to lose mobility and for the last few years of her life she was a wheelchair user um this threw up so many different things um that we had never experienced before um I also have a cousin whose daughter has terrible py and she's actually been in a wheelchair her whole life um and so this threw up this this idea of accessibility as suddenly something that seemed really important to us and and and and it's a shame actually that I think a lot of people who go down this route do so because of personal experience what I want to try and do is take my personal experience and not just apply it to my own business but get other people to apply it to their businesses as well because it's so important to me and it shouldn't just be about making a difference in our business it should be about making a difference everywhere so that's what we've gone about doing but within our business what we have done is we have um installed a sensory room um for people who are neurode Divergent um and that sounds like a big thing to do um not many places do it it is becoming more import more um uh common in hotels but this was before this was a store cupboard it was and it didn't have much in it to be honest um it was unused space and this since we've started our accessibility project has become one of the most used spaces in the whole project it is used all the time by both residential guests and non-residential guests people come in for lunch to use this facility so it's become a huge part of what we do um this is a change changing places bathroom um changing places is sort of an all singing all dancing bathroom it has an a changing table it has a height adjustable sink it has a big H hoist uh in the ceiling um and this actually is something that you would find normally in shopping centers and places like that we uh when we built this in 2021 we were the first hotel in the whole of the UK to have our own changing place of facility we are still the only hotel in the UK to have their own changing places facility um despite us shouting about it all over up and down the country and saying how useful it is um and how much it gets used people still are not getting on board and I will beat this drum until the day I die um that we need to get more on board with these things and there are people who use it who need it and it will improve businesses um we have five um fully accessible bget and when we say fully accessible they have a ceiling track hoist they have a profiling bed they have fully accessible bathrooms we have additional equipment that can be put in or taken out depending on what people need but the key with this um is that we have a team at the hotel who understand what the equipment is what it does what's available what we can take it out what we can put in all of that and that is key and one of the things I really want to sh out about here is there are big you talk about big um hotel chains and they quite often have a central res Department who is in a building in a city that is nowhere near the hotel and I've had really difficult times trying to book a hotel room for my cousin um and saying oh does the bed have a gap underneath it so we can get her hoist underneath does it have you know what does it have in the accessible bathroom and they cannot tell me one of the things that actually gives you an advantage as a smaller business is you know what you have you know what you can achieve you understand the layouts of your building you understand the layouts of your bedrooms this is really important and it gives you a massive advantage over those big companies so I really want smaller businesses as well to know that you actually have really great advantages in this area don't think oh I'm only a small business I can't do it it's too much actually those small things can really put you ahead of the competition um this is our swimming pool hoist as well we have a pool and we put a swimming pool hoist in so people can actually use our pool as well um we have always said our whole aim with this is to create a community within the hotel that reflects the community outside the hotel okay we want to make sure that all of the mixture of people from all different backgrounds different abilities different everything come to together in our community that is reflected within the people within the hotel that means not only our customers and our guests but also our staff um and our team here um we have 95 team members in the hotel um our youngest is 14 he works only on a Saturday but he has a permit and he can do it and our oldest person at the moment is 76 um so we have a very very wide ranging team and that's how we like it um 14 % of our employees have a disclosed disability a disclosed one um I'd like to say that we know about all of them um because we're very open and we have that kind of culture we have that come to us talk to us we'll help you kind of culture so people tend to tell us when they have um needs um but compared to the national average that is huge the national average is currently sitting around about the four five% Mark so that is massive um hospitality industry actually is a larger um uh disabled employer um the national average for Hospitality sits around about 8 or 9% so that it is higher but still we are hitting that number and a lot of that is just about understanding being open-minded making sure that we are um if someone is struggling that we're saying what can we do to help not telling them off for poor performance it's about how can we help you succeed and that is how we live every day um our longest serving team member has been with us for 29 years um you know and and actually one of the key things for us is if you can really um create give people that opportunity for success for disabled people within your business they the loyalty is massive and you're they will be with you for forever um we did not do this on our own um and I would never ever suggest for anyone to go diving straight into the accessible Market alone blindly without the years and years of experience that organizations in your area can give you um these are just some of the organizations that we work with most of these people are local to us um in Bournemouth and I would suggest trying to reach out to local organizations who who have people on the ground who can come into your business and can help you most of these organizations can organize training for you you um because that is key as well do not put in all singing and dancing facilities do not do anything until your staff are trained on how to facilitate because you will fall at the first hurdle and actually the thing that people need most of all when they're coming into your business is someone to say how can I help you how can I make it easier how can I make sure that you are confident before you even arrive in the hotel that is the most important thing so yeah that's me thank you very much I'll pass back to Ray thank you very much indeed thank you that was excellent thank you everybody um so coming on to my part and really I'm just summarizing what everyone else has been saying so we think if um accessibility in terms of its impact on what we call the three Rs of the business its Revenue its resilience its reputation revenue is a critical one it is a valuable market and it is growing and in the preparation for this uh for this session today we actually distributed a small survey to people who were who were exhibiting at the uh at the show and people who were coming to it um and some of the responses that we got were very very informative what what was really interesting was that um people who had invested in accessibility did say that it had delivered the benefit of more customers um we we haven't followed up with people yet to quantify that but but definitely there there is that positive effect um the resilience of businesses when you are offering a a service and you engage with accessibility what you're engaging with is a market that's loyal it stays longer it spends more and will come back uh and that that's been mentioned uh before so so so basically as I say customers who stay longer and who extend your trading season it's it's get easier to get people to stay out of season because they they like the service that they get and then there's your reputation a focus on customer service rather than your legal requirements will act rather than just on legal requirements will mean that people will actually um you know want to work with you want to use your services another of the findings from the the survey that we put out in in uh around this around this session was that another of the benefits that people noticed was an increase an improvement in their standing within the communities in which they're based um so something that's really quite intangible and I know you've mentioned something similar James so resources to help uh and I think I want to pay tribute here to visit England they've done an awful lot of work well we we've helped them with some of it along with other members of the inclusive tourism Action Group for England but visit England is very active in the area of accessibility and it has spearheaded several initiatives which will help businesses to improve their accessibility first off there's the accessible and inclusive tourism toolkit for businesses available on visit England's website and we do actually have a representative of visit England here Ross cardine I I if you want to grab him while you're here um but that's that's well worth looking at it provides lots and lots of practical resources practical guides practical help then there is the accessibility Guide Service the the real medium for getting accessibility information that's accurate and that's comprehensive out there is through an accessibility guide and that there is a you you you can develop your own with a with a a supported process or accessable with visit England are actually able are there to to to prepare an accessibility guide for you finally there's the key accessibility features which are being developed or have been developed by visit England um as a as a set of filters for businesses to put onto their websites and for booking channels and uh and destinations to put onto their websites to enable people who have specific access needs to get close to what they want more quickly to spend less time searching so those those resources all worth checking out so finally key takeaways what are the things that we should be um be thinking about as we go so first thing to remember all impairments and access needs are individual and they're different um even if uh whether it's a whether it's a physical impairment whether it's a cognitive impairment it will be different for different people uh for me I'm really really interested in hearing Hester talk about her husband and her children because I I actually discovered I was that I'm neurod Divergent when I was in my 60s and that was that was a really really strange feeling suddenly realizing so that's why life has always been so difficult um and and actually um you know I'm it has changed the way I think but my experience has been different to the experiences that Hester reported and everybody's experience is different the other thing to bear in mind and to be to be confident with is that no business can cater for every type and every level of impairment or access need nobody can actually cater for everybody but the fact that you can't do everything doesn't mean that you shouldn't do something and whatever you can do embrace accessibility doing what you can will make a huge difference and it will get your journey underway another thing to bear in mind accessibility is not as difficult or as frightening as you might think um certainly a lot of businesses that we speak to are very concerned about the um the the cost of what might be involved in becoming accessible but more importantly about the the potential impact of getting it wrong what if I do the wrong thing what if I say the wrong thing uh and and really it's just you don't be frightened by it um it's it's a it's it's it's okay to to to do what you can your business is probably already more accessible than you realize it is this is something that that we find a lot of the time people will tell us that they they aren't accessible they can't be accessible actually they are an awful lot more accessible already doing a lot of things already that are that are making a difference and finally and most importantly to the vast majority of customers with access needs the welcome and the service that they receive are every bit as important as the facilities that are provided that the facilities can be fabulous but if the welcome is wrong then it can ruin a um a uh a break I I I I was talking with Hester the other day and mentioned that um I had a very a a very innocuous and but very challenging experience at a hotel in B many years ago which which still stays with me and means I've never visited B again to this day because it was completely innocent and yet it it really really was a difficult thing so that's the end for me of my part we are going to take questions now but what I would like to do is just grab the um grab grab the floor for a moment to ask ask the team what each of them think are the three simple things simple cheap effective things that businesses could do tomorrow to improve their accessibility and we'll start with Gerald with me sorry Cheryl oh Cheryl sorry no I didn't hear sorry um I would gosh so the first one has got to be information um I talked about it in my speech anyway but that's an easy fix for most people give people the right information because as Ray said not everywhere can be all things to all people but if you give them the the right information they can make a choice about whether it's right for them or not I think um focusing on what you guys are both saying as well is about making sure that your your staff have the correct training that they can support people because again even if the offer isn't perfect if people show the right support they you know they they want to help that counts for so much we had a recent visit to a hotel in abedin and it really sticks in my mind the young guy there was he was so enthusiastic and so knowledgeable about what the what the hotel had to offer it really stuck in my mind and it took away any sort of EX sense any sense of exclusion it was amazing um third one I would say reach out to the people around you don't assume that you know everything but actually ask the people around whether that be your clients whether that be maybe your staff espe especially if you've got most staff will have some lived experience of disability whether it's himself or family member so you know utilize the knowledge that you've got as Ray mentioned it doesn't all have to be huge big things that are going to cost you lots of money there's so much knowledge out there already so build on that that would be mine I love those right I think mine would be don't judge I think you never know what people are going through you never know what experiences they're having you don't know what that taken to get them there for example so maybe if someone turns up and they're not making eye contact or maybe they've got their Hood up or maybe they seem a bit brisk or are coming across a little bit blunt I think it's that not judging I think we need to do that in life anyway you know I think there's a there's a lot to be said about that um secondly I think you can just ask one really simple question we did this as part of our training as Tui and we've trained um Royal Caribbean as well is just what one thing could I do to make your trip more enjoyable or your visit more enjoyable what what one thing could it be because you know we choose trips around so my son's got a it's like an eating disorder linked to autism called arid so he only eats Nutella sandwiches and dairy Lee Sandwiches like great choice in food but we can only go to places that sell sliced bread which is very Niche and very specific so I think if you could ask someone what one change can you make last last year we went on holiday I plucked up the courage to say look my it was an all inclusive which kind of always feels a little bit ghouling when only three of us eat um and I explained the situation and every evening at 6 o00 that was the time that we said worked for us someone would come up with a plate of bread and a massive tub of Nutella it was absolutely dreamy and it was such a small thing it didn't cost them anything and it was amazing um so yeah ask one thing what can I do to sort of change or help your your trip or your visit better and it kind of leads them to they not judging but just be kind I just think be kind like Ray said that welcome I also really we talked about this the other day also had a really random experience in bath as well I don't know what's going on and I also have not been back to bath so if there's a bath stand here they need do a little bit of PR I know that's why I'm saying you need to do some PR but but this is it it's the it's the get like I said get get it right and you will have customers for life and I think I've gone on to the fourth one cuz Hey here we go but I think it's don't expect especially when it comes to neurodiversity don't expect or accessibility to have all the answers it's a journey quite literally um don't expect to know everything like that's okay as well so there we go I'll stop talking um for me I think um my first one is being open-minded um going into this make sure that you're not shutting certain things down going oh that's that's that's too difficult we can't go there think about lateral thinking how can you work around problems be open-minded and make sure that you're not shutting things down straight away um I'm going to link into one of yours Cheryl actually is is pre-trip information is so important because actually if people can't learn more about your um place of business before they arrive they won't book they're just because the it's too big a risk um and even when we had done our um all of our improvements our facilities and things like that it was on our website and everything like that people still were coming for going to come for one night or two nights just to check it out before now we have people staying for weekl long vacations with their family and stuff like that and it's great because they they know and we've actually constantly looked at ways to improve that we now have video tours of not only our downstairs areas but for each of our accessible bedrooms has its own individual video tour um my cousin in her wheelchair is our chief tester and she we have a video not only of the room but of her arriving at the hotel going into the lift going down the corridor to the room so that they can see her in her electric wheelchair getting to the room and how simple it is um and that just gives people confidence it gives people trust um so that's my second and my third I'm going to link back again but training make sure your team know what they're doing and how how to manage the situation give them confidence your team will be terrified of this when you first talking to them about it promise me they will be going what if we say the wrong thing what if we do the wrong thing blah blah just train them the more you give them training the more you give them information they will relax and they will realize that actually all they have to do is ask how can I help you um and that's all they need to do and be ready to go oh yeah I can do that that's not a problem think around the problems think around that that what can I how can I make that easier excellent thank you very much indeed for me um obviously I'd pick up on the training one but but I think there are are some practical things that that can be done number one take a review of your signage the clearer that things are the easier it is for people to find their way around the more confident they're going to be certainly when I go into um into a new place not being able to work out where I am or trying to work out where I am because obviously I won't ask anybody that would be that that would just be ridiculous um so H having signage that's clear um and and it doesn't have to be expensive it can be handwritten as long as it makes things clear um second thing I would say is get an accessibility guide um you know it's it's it's inexpensive and it is practical it will actually give people the information in a format that's consistent and it will give them the information that they need and the third thing I would do give given the nature of the show is a particular one for coach operators and Coach tourism compan companies um from time to time in busy periods you'll find or companies do take on um thirdparty contractors with third party drivers and third party vehicles to augment their Fleet and I would just say just take a look at and review the the terms and conditions and the contractual terms on which you take on these um these um uh third parties again case my mom used to really enjoy coach holidays uh but there was one occasion when uh she booked on a a coach tour with a very reputable um coach tour operator and um was on an Excursion and found herself ejected from the coach and left by the side of a busy country road while the the coach drove away she had to cross a a busy road clamber up a bank and walk half a mile back along the road to a service station so she could actually order a um a taxi to take her back to the hotel she was staying at because as I say she she she'd been ejected from the coach from the coach for the sin of asking to use the toilet in the coach um and and I'm it was a third party it was it was a subcontractor and I'm I'm glad to say that the the company was as horrified as I was uh by what had happened and were extremely apologetic but um it shouldn't really have happened and one of the things that allowed it to happen was that the procedures by which a third party business was taken on and and representing the co the coach company was um was not necessarily as thorough as it could have been so so that would be my other thing just check uh check how how comprehensive and watertight your your engagement is with third parties now um questions from the audience no one ah few thank goodness sorry I'm uh hello thank you for a really interesting talk um I suppose could any of you talk on the idea that the more accessible you make it for those that need those accessibility requirements the more accessible it then becomes for everyone especially maybe the hotel there um yeah um I suppose for me the more um we've put obviously our accessibility guides up um of the hotel our accessibility videos as I was talking about specifically designed for people who need the accessibility things that doesn't mean that other people don't watch them and actually see more of the hotel and understand its layout and things like that so yes absolutely the more information you can have out there is going to be better for everyone I think for me one of the things that has um it has forced us into um I say forced it hasn't forced us to it but one thing we've really done a lot of is collaborating with other um businesses within the area in terms of attractions and um uh transport and things like that um and it's made us more knowledgeable about those things not only in terms of their accessibility so that when we have disabled people staying with us we can say oh yeah that attraction is completely accessible it has level access and things like that but also actually just genuinely our team knowing about those attractions so when people come to the desk and say where should we go today they can talk about things so it actually does help the the team in a wider sense anyway um I think our business generally has improved um across the board in terms of Revenue and bookings and things like this um because of what we've done within the accessibility Market the reputational um Improvement it's given us is massive and we actually have a lot of Charities now who book their events with us not necessarily because they need our facilities but because they like our ethos and a lot of consumers out there now are buying based on the ethos of the company that they're that they're looking at both on sustainability accessibility all those things and if you can show yourself to be an ethical business people will choose you can I can I just answer that as well I was going to say one in five people and you're Divergent and 50% of those people don't know it so Ry very openly shared that he realized in his 60s my husband and I were in our 40s there's a real wave of people that have not been diagnosed or identifying as neurod divergent later in life so actually if you put these things into place it benefits everybody because there'll be a lot of people that don't realize they're neurod Divergent and we as a family don't need accessible rooms but I'm already thinking this just sounds amazing because then I'd be able to show my children look this is literally what it looks like here's the videos but my children are fairly low needs but actually who doesn't love a good image and a photo would you ever book a holiday without seeing the photo you just wouldn't would you nobody would ever do that I'd just like to pick up on it as well answering it from a sort of parents perspective so as a parent of two young people with a disability I'm used to having to to fight the corner for things that they need and my kids will tell you that I'm I'm you know not afraid to do that however you can't fight for things unless you know they're available so by improving that access you learn more about stuff as well you know my my experiences with physical disability and I'm constantly learning about the requirements of people with other kinds of conditions but that learning then helps me to better provide for people as well and I think that translates into all businesses the more you know the more you can help people and you know you know you know what to be looking for if you haven't got it already I think knowledge is power and for me I I would just say that um certainly from our experience um improving the service that you give to customers with access needs what you're doing is really just improving the service you're giving to all customers is there anything that you've done at your at your hotel James that actually isn't applicable to every other customer who doesn't have access not really I mean there's obviously some specifics in terms of equipment and things like that but generally customer service training is customer service training yeah thanks thank you um a general question for the panel um with 85 to 90% of the UK and Island being rural what could we do more what could do better to be more inclusive in terms of ensuring and obviously there's economic benefits that come from that um what can we do better to ensure that our landscape is more accessible and inclusive and getting people to experience you know 85 90% of our landscape that's that's such a great question I've just moved to Norfolk because it's quiet and Rural and lovely so as a neurod Divergent family we were living in barkshire and that felt a lot we've been there for years and actually I just think it's when it comes to I mean obviously this is you know physical accessibility to the rural England and you know UK is is very different but I just think almost explaining the benefits think how great it is you know fresh air for your mental health benefits everybody that's just what I'm going to say but I'm not an expert in this area no that's fine um well I actually live in Devon so I'm sort of in similar position have two kids who see the countryside very differently one one of them would be out in it in all weathers the other one I remember her writing as a a kid that dartmore is a horrible smelly place um covered in gor bushes and whatever else so for her it's not such a thing but my son last year took part in a walk um it was 100 miles in 3 days along the cil's way and a lot of that was looking at how we could improve accessibility in the countryside he was in a wheelchair supported by a team of people and I think that's one of the key things it's getting those people to support you but it's also looking at finding the right equipment that can help you do it there's some amazing companies out there with the you know if you talk about physical disability that you know have these incredible wheelchairs that can get up they get up Snowden forgivness sakes you know so there's a lot of knowledge again going back to that knowledge there's a lot of people out there but it's just tapping into the right people and getting that support in place to to help it happen um I think for me again it's it's about collaboration um uh we are our hotel is in Bournemouth it's in the center of town but a lot of people come to our hotel to experience the Jurassic Coast to experience the New Forest and things like that so we do have to reach out to other businesses and S of make sure our team know how they can get there what are the accessible routes what are the accessible transport options in the area one of the biggest difficulties we have in Bournemouth accessible taxis yeah um we have them you can't book them we're like what you can't book them ahead you can only get them if you call at at the time to the point where we kicked off with our local taxi company so much that we have and we've worked with them for years that they have changed their policy because we kicked off so much so you know make noise say you know see what's going on and and and and and and make that change but know make sure you've got that knowledge reach out to other organizations what is going on in that area how can you make that work um and there are actually in rural areas there are a lot of if you've got an attraction in a rural area there are a lot of small things that you can do to make that attraction more accessible in terms of there are fairly cheap options to create walkways across a field um to to actually make sure that wheelchairs can can get across that field I work in the events field and we have to look at that when we're looking at the accessibility of our event I have an event in a Big Field how am I going to make sure that if the rain falls down and it gets muddy that I am not going to have people stuck in a wheelchair in the middle of that field walkways and it's it's it's a very simple operation we roll them down we we roll them up there are things there that that can help that are really simple well ladies and gentlemen oh we got one one more question thank you well just yeah last but not least um one of my I'm a parent to a permanent wheelchair user she was several posy from birth um and I've got a question really aimed at the Ellers in in in the UK um not yourself yeah this is really about um there's a very well-known uh very large uh Leisure company in the UK who have uh Caravan parks and hotels and other places you may know who I'm thinking their hotel uh website does not actually offer any accessible rooms you would never ever know they've got and for years uh our family used to meet up and I left my daughter out of the equation because we I said to my wife we we there aren't any accessible rooms she said well throw them up and being a bloke I said H waste of time you know but I did and they had accessible rooms and I asked them the question why oh why do you not advertise that you have accessible rooms at your properties oh well we'd have people booking them that don't need them um and and you've got to you have to phone them this company you can't you can't book it online now in the states Marriott will find tens of thousands of dollars under the Ada the American with Disabilities Act for not having that little box on some of their hotels where you can just tick accessible rooms holine you can book an accessible room um there's lots of Hotel groups where you can now why are UK holidays or UK Hotel groups still in the dark ages over this okay um I'm going to answer this one very directly and say you cannot book our accessible rooms online the same way you do our other rooms for that very reason oh sorry yeah you do actually um State you got them oh we of course we do we massively adverti I know you do so that's you do find I know it sounds crazy but people will book an accessible room because they think if they book an accessible room they're going to have a bigger room and it sounds and it's really annoying but what that has meant is we actually don't put our accessible rooms on for automatic um online sale obviously we massively advertise what we do and we Mass advertise the um equipment that we've got we have a full spec sheet we have everything um what it also means is that our team can have a personal conversation when someone is booking that room to say what is it that you need because there is so much of our equipment that can be put in or taken out of our rooms someone might need the profile bed but they don't need the Hoist they want a big hoist hanging there our hoists are actually removable so that we can take that away from the room to give them more space and things like that so there are it's better for us that we actually get offer people the the opportunity to have a conversation with us um but yes I do not understand why companies would hide the fact that they have accessible rooms that to me seems absolutely crazy um what apart from else why spend money investing in accessible rooms if you're not going to advertise them so I I think for me it may be um um down to the fact that there is still that underlying concern about the fact that someone will book The Room arrive discover it's not what they were expecting and then the the hotel will be in for some indeterminate penalty in terms of in terms of not supplying what what was actually what was actually asked for so I I think for me that's where what visit England are doing with accessibility guides comes in very important importantly because very much the the idea is being pressed that if you give people the information that they need to make their own decisions then you you you've done what you can but but just withholding the information because you're afraid the information might be wrong uh or you you're afraid that it still might not match what they need then then it it does seem to be self-defeating I you know what I'm going to coin the phrase purple hushing um and and that we say talk about in in um sustainability Hol about green washing and green hushing when people are doing loads of great work with sustainability but they're not really shouting about it because they don't want to say the wrong thing they want you know talking about Green hushing we should be saying don't purple hush your business make sure if you're doing things that you're shouting about them that you're saying we can do this have a conversation with us come and talk to us and we can make it work for you and we can give you confidence to come away thank you so much for on behalf of bgs for for for just putting together what you put together today I think we've learned so much um and it reminds us about the importance as I said rather glibly right at the beginning of this session you know an hour ago it's it's just flown by um thank you so much can you put your hands together please and thank Ray Cheryl Hester and James

2025-04-21 18:41

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