Accessible Hospitality Alliance (aha) continues to grow in collective expertise evidenced by AccessibleUK becoming the latest Service Partner Member to join the aha community. Led by Director Gillian Scotford, AccessibleUK specialises in accessible tourism and hospitality. Working alongside hospitality and tourism businesses to improve inclusive access to them for all guests.
AccessibleUK’s work spans accessibility training, access audits, design appraisal, accessibility guides, sensory stories, digital accessibility and customer service.
Clients include VisitEngland, The Royal Parks, Leeds Castle, Chatsworth House, National Trust and English Heritage, alongside hotels and visitor destinations across the UK.
Gillian Scotford, Director at AccessibleUK, said: “Having had 3 children, 2 with severe disabilities, it was so difficult to access everyday life with ease. I thought on many occasions that they put men on the moon, and yet we could not find luxury accessibility and great days out for my lovely family.
“I decided to do something about it and the rest is history. My son Thomas passed away aged 21 in 2017, and I trained as a professional Access Consultant. Every day I work hard to help people understand accessibility, but my top tip is one word…Thoughtfulness.”
AccessibleUK is already working with aha Operator Members including Clermont Hotel Group and Cottage in the Dales, providing an immediate connection between its specialist experience and hospitality businesses within the expanding alliance community.
But what AccessibleUK brings to the aha community extends beyond consultancy.
Gillian was a founder member of the England Inclusive Tourism Action Group alongside VisitEngland, has been involved in developing inclusive tourism guidance and founded Accessible Derbyshire, helping businesses and destinations understand accessibility from both a visitor and commercial perspective.
AccessibleUK additionally operates Havendale, a luxury accessible holiday property in Derbyshire created to demonstrate that accessibility and high-quality hospitality should be entirely complementary.
That combination of specialist knowledge and first-hand hospitality operation gives AccessibleUK a distinctive perspective to bring into aha.
Robin Sheppard, Chair and Co-Founder of Accessible Hospitality Alliance, said: “Growth is most valuable when it adds substance as well as scale. AccessibleUK does precisely that.
“Gillian and her team bring professional expertise, operational understanding and deeply informed lived experience into the same conversation. That combination is rare, and it complements the knowledge already being shared across our community extremely well.
“The strength of aha increasingly lies in the diversity of experience gathered ‘in the room’. No single perspective can illuminate every barrier, but when those perspectives meet, our collective understanding becomes considerably greater than the sum of its parts.”
AccessibleUK becomes the latest Service Partner Member to join aha as the alliance continues to expand ahead of its next forum in London, November 2026.
