Released: 17 April 2006
Major companies, including Sainsbury’s, Intercontinental Hotels and Burger King are helping parents by using Direct Enquiries.
Major companies are endorsing and using the new facility for parents offered by Direct Enquiries, the Nationwide Access Register, just three months after the new services launched.
The addition of information for parents, including pushchair access and baby changing facilities, has proved to be of great benefit to parents, who can now plan their time away from home safe in the knowledge that the premises they plan to visit have the access and facilities they need. Sainsbury’s project manager, Tara Kaur: “Shopping can be a daunting task for parents with small children and babies. By providing them with details of our pushchair access and baby changing facilities through directenquiries.com we give parents visiting our stores the chance to plan ahead, making their lives less stressful.”
Burger King’s head of construction, Andrew Fearn: “directenquiries.com gives us the chance to communicate with parents before they leave home, letting them plan their day around a visit to Burger King, secure in the knowledge that the restaurant they plan to visit has both baby changing facilities and sufficient access for their pushchair.” Intercontinental Hotels Group’s director of operations, Christopher Rawstron: “We are committed to providing our customers with all the facilities they need to spend time away from home in comfort. For parents with small children that can be a daunting challenge. By providing details of our service through directenquiries.com we offer potential customers the opportunity to review our facilities before making a booking. This makes their lives easier and gives them the freedom to choose the hotel that best suits their individual needs.”
The Nationwide Access Register was created to provide information on access for disabled people in 2002. However, following substantial user feedback, the Register has been developed further to include information for parents, launched in January 06. Any company, large or small that improves its access is not only opening up to the £80 billion spending power of disabled people but are also opening its doors to the parents of over 716,000 babies born in the UK every year. The Register currently receives over a million hits every month from people searching for businesses they can use.
When the new service was originally launched in early January it gained immediate support from Mother and Baby Magazine, who said: “Accessing shops and services is sadly a nightmare for parents, particularly when they are trying to negotiate their way through aisles with a pushchair. Any organisation like directenquiries.com that can help them plan in advance and make their lives easier is highly commendable and will have the support of Mother & Baby readers nationwide.”
(ends) Notes to Editors
Directenquiries.com, was set up as the Nationwide Disabled Access Register in 2002 in partnership with RADAR (Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation) and The Employers' Forum on Disability. During the past 12 months the information available has grown to include access for parents with pushchairs as well as the general public. This allowed directenquiries.com to rebrand as The Nationwide Access Register in January 2006.
Directenquiries.com is the only UK directory specifically designed for companies to showcase their disabled access and other facilities. On average, directenquiries.com receives over 1.3 million hits each month from people looking for businesses, organisations and services with the disabled access they require. Registration is only £35 per year, per location, for which companies receive the following:
- Nationwide registration on directenquiries.com detailing company name, address and other contact details, including links to their website, should they have one
- Access to the Action Plan
- A “More Information” section, equivalent to five pages of A4, updateable on a daily basis. This allows businesses to include information on forthcoming additions or changes to their disabled access as well as useful information about their business in general
- Feedback facility to provide customer comments and opinions
For users, directenquires.com provides a full directory service for UK companies detailing the access and facilities available at those registered with directenquiries.com. The register currently includes disabled access information on leading high street names such as Boots, LloydsTSB, Argos, Gap, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Costa Coffee, Pizza Express, PC World and Waterstone’s as well as thousands of small and independent businesses. The disabled access information encompasses everything from parking, entrances, lifts, toilets, counter heights, wheelchair and pushchair access to staff assistance and auxilliary aids such as Braille, large print and induction loops.
For further information, images and interviews please contact us on 01344 360101 or e-mail press@directenquiries.com
www.directenquiries.com