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Accessible Kent

We want to create a more accessible and inclusive destination for our visitors by supporting our businesses to understand how they can improve accessibility for their customers, as well as developing our own marketing activities to ensure that the information we provide is more inclusive and actively promotes our accessible destination.

With the help of the Interreg EXPERIENCE project, we have partnered with AccessAble – the UK’s largest provider of access information – to create a landmark programme of inclusive visitor support. This programme will be the first of its kind delivered across the UK and will provide practical support to our businesses as well as direct engagement with disabled visitors.

This programme will deliver against three key facts of accessibility:

  • Information – What you can find out about a location before you use it.
  • Welcome – How a disabled person is supported on arrival.
  • Space – How the space can be adapted to welcome the most amount of people.

The aim of this type of approach is to ensure that disabled people and carers can participate and contribute as a part of society rather than feel apart from society.

Below are some details on how you and your organisation can get involved, free training materials and resources.

The Accessibility Market

In the UK, there are over 14 million disabled people and 4.5 million carers according to the UK Government’s 2019/20 Family Resource Survey. The Department of Work and Pensions estimates the influential spending power of disabled people to be more than £274 billion per year.

In 2019, Visit Britain released some statistics demonstrating the commercial value in improving accessibility: 

  • There is a 25% increase in spending from visitors with an impairment or travelling with someone with an impairment compared to 2010 (2010 total £314m 2018 £393m) 
  • There has been an increase of 123% of visitors who use a wheelchair
  • The average number of nights away enjoyed by a visitor with or travelling with someone with an impairment is 11, the national average is 7 nights away 

How can you get involved?

  • Create an Access Guide

The Access Guides are based on a surveyor’s assessment and are a factual, objective resource that simply states what can be expected on arrival, and allow visitors to make their own assessment on whether or not your venue will be accessible for their needs. AccessAble’s Access Guides have been used by over 3 million people in the last 12 months, tourism and hospitality businesses across Kent who have their own venue have the opportunity to work with AccessAble to create a unique Access Guide for their venue. 

| CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION |

 

  • Free Training for your Team

‘Disability Essentials’ is a course for everyone and is designed to ensure people are confident and comfortable in their engagement with disabled people. It uniquely combines legal expertise and the lived experience of disabled people. It has been written by AccessAble’s founder, who is both a practicing employment & discrimination barrister and a disabled person.

With impactful content and embedded videos, the course will make a memorable impression on your team. The course will take around 40 minutes to complete, and drop in our out at any time, also making it a time and cost-efficient way of providing your staff with the knowledge and confidence they need.

This course is free for you to share with your staff and volunteers

| CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE COURSE

 

  • Top Tips to Improve Accessibility Workshop
To enhance the value of working with AccessAble, we hosted a Top Tips workshop, where we were joined by Karen Ross from AccessAble, to take us through the key steps to becoming an accessible venue.

During the workshop we covered:
  • The requirements needed to become an accessible venue
  • How you can make quick, low-cost, no-cost improvements
  • Priority areas of your venue to consider
  • Examples of what an accessible venue looks like
  • Where to go for further advice

| CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RECORDING | 

| CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PRESENTATION SLIDES| 

 

Additional Resources

Visit Kent Business
For all general enquiries, please contact the team via email

Postal Address:
10 Best Lane,
Canterbury,
Kent
CT1 2JB
Visit Kent is dedicated to supporting tourism businesses across Kent