To receive information on AccessAble and Visit Windsor’s Accessibility guides from Julia White, Visitor Manager, and David Waterman of AccessAble.

Julia White, Visitor Manager, stated that the Visit Windsor partnership was a partnership of the leisure, tourism and hospitality businesses across the borough, primarily in membership for the marketing benefits that Visit Windsor could offer. There was a partnership board that was headed by Chris French until December 2022 and would be headed up by Nick Day of the Crown Estate as Chair from January 2023 onwards.

In January 2022, Visit Windsor received a presentation from the divisional director of Legoland to detail the work that had been ongoing to make their rides more accessible. Andrew Douglas from Parallel Lifestyle also attended the same meeting, with the organisation bringing Parallel Windsor to Windsor Great Park in 2023. There was a large amount of work ongoing that needed to be promoted as this was something that hadn’t happened in several years. Funding had been received as part of the welcome back funding through the covid response and recovery scheme, a proportion of which was being used on access information. RBWM had gone out to tender to find a company to deliver this project, which had been carried out by AccessAble.

More funding would been received through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, with the aim of developing access guides for Maidenhead and Ascot. In 2023, work to promote Windsor and Maidenhead as good destinations to visit would be underway.

Julia White stated that as her position sat within the economic growth team, one of her colleagues worked with employment schemes. This work was being joined up with looking at how the borough could work with different groups in order to enable residents with disabilities to join enjoyable or gainful employment. This included working alongside Parallel Lifestyle, with the Parallel events serving as an opportunity for businesses to showcase employment opportunities.

David Waterman, Senior Partnerships Manager at AccessAble, gave a presentation of the access guides to the Forum.

David Waterman described the background of AccessAble. Gregory Burke, the founder of the company, found himself a new wheelchair user after a stay in hospital. He noted that he didn’t feel disabled while in hospital or at home – it was when he went out into society that he found difficulties with accessibility in places such as restaurants. After consulting with disability groups, the first guide was launched in 2002.

One of the particular issues with accessibility was the ‘death of spontaneity’, which was an issue that AccessAble were trying to solve. This referred to being unable to just show up at a restaurant, hotel, theme park etc without first consulting that it would be accessible.

The access guides had over 1000 pieces of information per building, which was information that was completely objective about the accessibility of a building. This included data such as the width of doors or the distance from the front door to reception. Over 100 engagement visits were conducted every year, in person, to gain feedback on the access guides. The guide for Windsor was now live on the website, with the guide for Eton being currently quality checked.

The access guides had many accessibility features which enabled users with disabilities to navigate the pages more frequently. The guides themselves had a number of filters which users were able to select in order to find information about issues that were relevant to themselves, such as level access, blue badge parking or accessible toilets.

The Chair thanked David for the presentation and for making the effort to drive down from Lincolnshire to present to the forum. The Chair asked if it was possible to suggest to businesses which were not accessible that this needed to change.

David Waterman explained that there was a cost to setting up these access guides. One of the key issues he noted was that 80-90% of disabled people had left a venue that they were hoping to visit due to access information being wrong or facing some kind of access issue. AccessAble spoke to as many businesses as possible to explain these issues and ways to rectify these. Unfortunately, not all areas would see the benefits of access guides straight away.

Lisa Hughes, Vice-Chair, echoed the Chair’s thanks and stated that she had had the opportunity to view the access guide for Saville Garden which was great. Lisa Hughes stated that these facts were hugely important and gave people the confidence to go out and spend money at local businesses.

Lisa Hughes asked David Waterman if RBWM or the venue themselves were able to go in and amend information within the guides, or if this had to come through AccessAble.

David Waterman stated that this came through AccessAble, but was an easy exercise to conduct. Third parties were able to email AccessAble if something simple had changed, but if something physical had changed, this would need to be re-surveyed as it was important to be as objective as possible.

Dominic Manley stated that this was very pleasing as back in 2019, conversations between the Forum and AccessAble had been ongoing, but these were put on the backburner due to Covid. He was pleased to see that these guides had been created and applauded the amount of work that had gone into them.

Councillor Rayner thanked the forum for its help in producing these access guides. The forum had opened her eyes to the possibilities and the opportunities within the borough about what could be achieved through allowing accessibility in a better way.

Councillor Price stated that she as conscious that a number of residents were elderly but may not consider themselves to be disabled. She asked if this information could be widely disseminated to all residents as it would be helpful to all.

Julia White explained that an official launch was planned for February 2023, which involved a communication plan in order to ensure that connections were made between the AccessAble, RBWM and Windsor.Gov websites.

Councillor Price asked how people would be able to access this information if they didn’t use the internet.

Julia White stated that the event would be held in person at Windsor Castle, with information being shared through the borough’s communication channels, as well as AccessAble’s marketing team. The guides could be accessed from libraries for residents who didn’t use the phone or internet.

Councillor Bowden explained that many of Windsor’s accessibility issues related to the historic nature of the town.

Julia White stated that the information on the Windsor.Gov made it clear that Windsor had inherent problems with many buildings have some kind of issue with accessibility. A difference could be made by working with people who worked in local businesses to change their attitudes and build their confidence when it came to making a difference to somebody’s visit.

David Waterman added that the point of the access guides was not just to point out accessible buildings, but to let people know what the accessibility of a building was like before going, so they could make a decision for themselves.