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AWARD WINNER ATTACKS DISABLED SCHEME

October 2008

The winner of the Access for All award at this year’s ’Oscars’ of South-East England’s tourism industry has attacked the inspection scheme for disabled facilities in hotels and other guest accommodation.

Successful for the second year running in the Tourism ExSEllence Awards, Tony Barnfield, Chef/Proprietor of The Nurse’s Cottage at Sway in the New Forest had already received accolades for the accessibility provision at his restaurant with rooms, including the Judges’ Award for Excellence in Commitment to the Interests of Disabled People from the Southampton Centre for Independent Living. “But,” says Tony, “we looked for ways of publicising this more widely and imagined that the National Accessible Scheme run by VisitBritain and Tourism for All was the way to achieve this. We have made further improvements since the Southampton award and it was comparatively easy to meet the minimum requirements of the NAS mobility, visual and hearing standards. But I was absolutely amazed to discover that we were the only serviced accommodation business in the South-East to have achieved all three standards.”

The official VisitBritain website ‘Enjoy England’ tells potential visitors about the NAS: “If you have certain concerns regarding accessible accommodation, we have a comprehensive resource of information to help you make the decision that is right for you, when finding somewhere to stay.”
Tony claims that it is far from comprehensive: “It’s a farce! And what’s worse is that there are only seven others with all three standards in the rest of England. If I was Managing Director of National Accessible Scheme Limited, I’d be out of a job pronto!”

Bob Collier, Managing Director of Tourism South East, acknowledges that the present situation is far from perfect: “We are aware of the low take-up of the Scheme across the region – only forty premises with any rating at all. In an ideal world, we would like to see more businesses joining in. It’s also worth noting that although participation in the NAS is the highest level of engagement, many tourism businesses (attractions as well as accommodation) do offer substantial facilities for disabled visitors. We know this in part from the Access Statement which accommodation businesses have to provide to pass their standard Quality Assessment.”

“But how does a visitor with a disability find out about these facilities?” asks Tony Barnfield: “More emphasis should be placed on accessibility when the AA or VisitBritain make their annual inspections of hotels, B&B’s, inns or whatever. For years, we were given ‘points’ for providing trouser presses, tea and coffee facilities, quality toiletries, ensuite facilities – these often made a difference between a business gaining or losing a star or whatever. Surely it would be possible to give similar ‘points’ to businesses which have thought hard about making their accommodation as accessible as possible, then these could be shown as some kind of symbol alongside the stars awarded? These could then be published on the Internet and in the general accommodation guides, making the NAS redundant. That would also save accommodation businesses the additional fee for the Scheme – probably the main reason so few businesses take part.”

[Photograph courtesy of Tourism South East shows Head Chef Nick Elliott and Chef/Proprietor Tony Barnfield receiving their Access for All award from presenter Simon Calder.]

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