Christine and I have just come back from our annual holiday. Anyone who uses a wheelchair will be all too well aware of how fraught with difficulties and disappointments finding suitable accommodation can be.
For us, we do at least have the advantage of choosing from the range of high quality accessible holiday accommodation advertised on the APR website. This year we chose Fowl Green Farm in North Yorkshire as we like the North York Moors and wanted to spend a bit of time in Whitby as well.
The accommodation is converted from old farm buildings and has been very well done. We could park right beside The Cow Byer(!), and because the conversion had been done from scratch with access in mind the whole experience was just about as pleasant and easy as it could be. Things like really wide doorways, mainly open design, and a really large level access shower room with a decently powerful shower make all the difference.
The owners had also taken the trouble to check out that personal assistance could be booked via a local agency. This can make such a difference when you are working with someone who has no independent movement and Carol, the PA who came for two hours every morning was excellent. I think this idea of checking the availability of help from a local agency is something that a lot of owners could learn from. It costs nothing in terms of investment, but it can certainly help to encourage bookings from those who need or prefer a little help.
The one thing that units at Fowl Green don't have is profiling beds. This can be a costly investment (and probably between £500 and £2000 depending on the quality and functionality), but it does open up the option of holidays for a not insignificant group of disabled people who need this level of equipment. We take our own! Well, it's actually a reclining garden chair that it happens to have exactly the right profile to suit Christine's needs. However, it would be better if we didn't need to do this.
We also take our own mobile hoist. Reasonably straightforward if you have a largish vehicle, but again investment in a hoist that can be made available if needed by guests gives the right message and makes the choice of destination that much easier.
Final point while I'm thinking about it - where owners get it right, they do get bookings. We had to take our holiday two months later than planned because September was the first available slot.
If you haven't got the message by now, let me beat you over the head with it! Investment in access benefits everyone. With more than 10 million people in the UK identifying themselves as disabled and an ageing population demand is only going to increase.
Sunday, 13 September 2009
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