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Cyclone Mobility
Unit 20 Heron Industrial Estate
Widnes, WA8 0SW

Main Office Number

Available 10am – 4pm

Monday – Friday

0800 180 4850

Special Offers

Providing disabled access will improve visitor numbers

Disabled do not feel confident about accessibility when visiting new places

The cost of providing disabled access can appear prohibitive, but the return on this investment will be worth it in the long term as it will attract more visitors. This was demonstrated by the recently released Annual Access Survey from disabled access review site, Euan’s Guide.

Completed by more than 700 people in late 2017, the survey results showed that 92% of disabled people do not feel very confident about accessibility when visiting new places. It was also revealed that 95% of people will try to find disabled access information about a location before they visit for the first time.

This demonstrates the importance of including disabled access information on your Web site as 85% check the venue’s Web site first, but if they cannot find this information, 47% assume it is inaccessible and chose to go elsewhere.

Best & worst venues

In terms of what a business should look to improve for disabled access, the top 5 factors were:

  1. Difficult to get around the location – narrow corridors, poor layout etc – 69%
  2. Unable to get into the location – no ramp or automatic doors – 61%
  3. No suitable accessible toilet – 53%
  4. Nowhere to park – 46%
  5. Facilities aren’t as expected – faulty equipment, broken lift etc – 40%

Museums and galleries were found to have generally good accessibility with 81% favourable responses. This was followed by healthcare locations (78%) and cinemas and theatres (69%).

At the other end of the scale, historic places had the poorest accessibility with 71% negative reviews, followed by pubs and bars (66%) and outdoor locations (59%).

Return visits demonstrate ROI of providing disabled access

On a UK regional basis, it was found that confidence about visiting new places was lowest in Wales when thinking about accessibility. While people in Scotland are more likely to share their experiences of disabled access with others.

The importance to a location of providing disabled access is demonstrated by the fact that 86% of disabled people will make a return visit to a location that has good accessibility, while 83% will tell others about it. This clearly demonstrates the ROI that can be achieved by improving disabled access at your location.