Blue Badge Style, the first app and website guide to a stylish lifestyle for the less-able, has been appointed a member of the British Hospitality Association in a bid to bring accessibility to the forefront of the industry’s attention. With her mobile app and Pictorial Access Description system the BBS Founder, Fiona Jarvis, hopes to help make British hospitality more accessible for everyone.
£2 billion market
“The blue pound – the market for people with disabilities– is estimated to be worth £2billion a year. It’s absolutely crucial that the British Hospitality Association, with its pivotal role as industry leader, sets the standard for people who are less-able. Creating and generating online information about facilities and accessibility for disabled customers should be a priority across hospitality and tourist destinations,” Jarvis says.
Online information required
Jarvis believes that there are simple ways to make the hospitality industry more accessible. In 2013 AccessChamp research featuring 276 members of Disabled Motoring UK found that 92.1% of less able visitors seek information online but only 16.8% feel that they can always get enough information about the facilities. 75.2% respondents believed hotels should create a specific brochure on accessibility information. Since the facilities are often already there, the key thing is getting the information out to potential customers. If venues could make such information available it would be a low cost way to improve the service they provide for visitors with disabilities. Little things make big differences.
Pictorial Access Descriptions (PADs)
Blue Badge Style’s research corroborated these findings and the organisation has developed a detailed yet easily navigable solution. Pictorial Access Descriptions (PADs), assess a venue from the point of view of a customer with multiple disabilities, giving them a high-quality, pictorial journey through a venue, which highlights the disabled facilities in public areas and rooms, as well as any potential obstacles.
Already used at the Hoxton Hotel, the PAD arrives as a social media-ready tool, matching the style of the venue and can be posted to a website, Facebook, Pinterest etc.
The PADs will enable venues to reveal their facilities and access in style, showing that they can offer guests cool comfort, not just access statement compliance. “It’s about letting people know what to expect. People with disabilities can cope with a lot; we just need to know what’s coming.” Jarvis says. “They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. That’s why we think that the best way to present a venue’s accessibility is through our Pictorial Access Descriptions: we want to let the PADs speak for themselves!”
The blue pound is set to get bigger
Martin Couchman, Deputy CEO of the British Hospitality Association, said: “With an ever expanding and ageing population the blue pound – the market for people with disabilities – is only set to get bigger. Embracing technology like PADs is one way for hospitality and tourism businesses to help overcome the challenges less-able people currently face when they’re looking to stay in a hotel in the UK or eat out. Our industry takes great pride in understanding customer needs and creating positive experiences, and we’re delighted to have Blue Badge Style on board as a BHA member.”
About the Stylish Less-Able Market
The Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2010/11 states that 19% of the UK population suffer from some form of long-term disability (11.5m). There are also an estimated 6 million carers. This does not include temporarily disabled people, their families, friends or unregistered carers. It also excludes foreign visitors (54 million Americans with disabilities have a disposable spending power of $220 billion). One in three people know someone with a disability.
The annual spending power of disabled adults in Britain covered by the DDA is estimated at £80 billion per year – (DRC – Disability in Scotland 2004: Key Facts and Figures – 2005).
33% of people aged 50-64 in Britain have a disability – (Labour Market Trends report, April 2005). 80% of UK wealth is in the hands of people aged over 45 – (Age Profiling: Monitoring the make-up of your workforce”, DWP, 2006).
The Blue Badge Style network is estimated to have a potential on line community of 1.5m stylish, cash rich and loyal visitors, spending £1.7Bn per year on restaurants and hotels alone (FRS 2010/11). Some figures put the disability market value at £86Bn in 2012. The disability equipment market is valued at £1.46Bn (DLF/ Plimsoll figs 2008).
About Blue Badge Style
Blue Badge Style is the Michelin Guide/Vogue for the stylish less able. The App and website inform the less able on where to go, what to do and what to buy to maintain their style.
The unique Blue Badge Style Tick Rating System is designed to encourage venues to provide Equality of Access to Goods & Services for less-able people. The organization rates out of 5 for each category: 1. Access, 2. Facilities and 3. Style. The scores are then aggregated to a number of Blue Badge Style Ticks from 0.5 to a maximum of 3.
The aim is for ‘as recommended by Blue Badge Style’ to become an aspirational goal for any item, organisation or establishment.
BBS is affiliated with the National Register of Access Consultants (NRAC), ensuring the company is up-to-date with changes in legislation and equipment. It also has relationships with relevant Local Authorities and their particular access policies.
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Developed in conjunction with UCL Advances and Stuxbot, the Blue Badge Style app is available on: