Guernsey Disability Alliance Press Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Where Am I Wednesday?

The Guernsey Disability Alliance (GDA) have started a social media campaign to raise awareness of the Access Guides which are available online to locals and tourists to assist them in planning visits to local venues. Venues are extremely diverse including: restaurants, cafes, hotels, tourist attractions, States offices, leisure venues, beaches, the airport and ports and more. During the summer months ‘Where Am I Wednesday’ is focusing on eateries and places of interest with outdoor space.

Every week three clues and a selection of photographs are published via the GDA social media platforms inviting the general public to guess the venue. A link to AccessAble, an online Accessibility Guide that provides information like directions, parking, facilities, level changes and lighting, is included with the correct location.

Access is much wider than ramps and lifts, it includes parking, signage, level changes, accessible toilets all the things that assist with planning a night out, lunch with family or a tourist visit. In Guernsey we have more than 1,200 wheelchair users but also large % of the 13,500 people with disabilities have unseen Hidden Disabilities and more than 4,000 carers locally.  Planning trips to reduce the anxiety of the carer or individual with Dementia, a stroke, autism, hearing or visual impairment is crucial to the enjoyment of the visit and further trips.

‘If you haven’t been somewhere before, there is actually quite a bit of planning involved if you are disabled, and sometimes this can make people anxious or stressed. The States of Guernsey partnered with AccessAble to produce the Accessibility Guide 11 years ago to provide much needed access information for disabled people, their family, friends and carers. The information included in the guides is very broad and includes photographs, it’s not just about ramps for wheelchair users’, said Gill Evans, Disability Officer for The States of Guernsey.

‘The Access Guides provide information. Currently we have over 400 Guernsey venues listed, and we make sure our trained surveyors review the information annually to keep abreast of any updates’, said David Livermore, Director of Business Development at  AccessAble.

The GDA hope that business owners locally will see the value in making their venues more accessible to people with disabilities and their carers (4,000+), a market which is estimated at circa 13,500 people in Guernsey. Earlier this year they ran their 5^th Accredited Access course with partners ‘Centre for Accessible Environments’ (CAE). There are now more than 55 people trained and it is so popular that an extra 2 day course on accessibility best practice scheduled for the 9th and 10th of November 2022.

‘When you consider the spending potential of disabled people in Guernsey, and then add in their family, friends and carers you realise that even small changes to venue accessibility could make a big difference to the bottom line for local businesses. In fact the spending power of people with disabilities  (the Purple Pound), is estimated at £274million in Guernsey alone, and that’s before you take into account disabled tourists,’ said David Rowlinson, Vice Chair and Director of the Guernsey Disability Alliance.

Funding for the ‘Where Am I Wednesday’ campaign has been provided by the Social Investment Fund as part of a small grant towards training and information on access requirements.

‘We are very pleased to be supporting this project as it’s a fun and engaging way to celebrate venues that have thought about accessibility and also highlights the need for us all to consider the needs of the wider community’, said Sadie Siviter de Paucer, Lead Officer for the Social Investment Fund Guernsey.

Further announcements Facebook @GuernseyDisabilityAlliance, Twitter @GDA_Disability, Instagram @gdadisabilityalliance

States Disability Officer Gill Evans- disabilityofficer@gov.gg

Media contact: Karen Blanchford  e:Karen@disabilityalliance.org.gg   m: 07781 467316

Notes:

The Guernsey Disability Alliance is an umbrella charity with 40 disability charities and 80+ individual

members. Its mission is Equality of Opportunity for everyone affected by disability. Its focus is on

Rights, Inclusion and Accessibility. It receives no funding from the Government and in September

2022 it will have been running for 15 years (too long!).

Accessibility is key to inclusion in island life

https://disabilityalliance.org.gg

AccessAble

AccessAble is here to take the chance out of going out. To give you the detailed information you need to work out if a place is going to be accessible to you.

Our Detailed Access Guides tell you all about a venue’s access. They are 100% facts, figures and photographs.

We know everyone’s accessibility needs are different, which is why having detailed, accurate information is so important. It’s why we send our trained surveyors to check out every single place in person and why the information we collect has all been decided by our user community.

Check out the facts, and explore the details, before you leave home or on the move using our App and Website.

https://www.accessable.co.uk/states-of-guernsey