Level Playing Field for SMEs
SMEs in Britain are being encouraged to open their businesses to more people by communicating what access and facilities they provide. To assist with this they are being given the opportunity to complete an access assessment of their business FREE of charge.
SMEs often offer a better service to their customers than their large brand competitors, and that includes their services for disabled people. The main obstacle for most SMEs in providing better access or in communicating what access they have, is the belief that it is just too costly to make changes, or even too expensive to have an access audit completed.
However, under the Disability Discrimination Act part III, as of October 2004 businesses should at the very least:
- Be aware of what facilities they currently can or cannot provide
Have a plan of improvements they intend to implementHave budgets set aside or planned to cover the cost of the improvements they requireHave a roll-out plan indicating when the improvements will be completed
To assist businesses to overcome these issues, Direct Enquiries - the Nationwide Access Register, www.directenquiries.com is providing a tool to allow all businesses to complete a FREE self assessment of their business. This will allow them to better understand what access and facilities they currently provide, along with helpful tips regarding areas they may wish to improve further. NB: The information entered is not stored by Direct Enquiries unless businesses request it to be.
Direct Enquiries is offering the FREE access assessment to help businesses understand that opening their premises to more customers with disabilities is not as daunting or as expensive as they may have believed.
Providing better access to premises and communicating to disabled people is not only a legal obligation but is good business. There are more than 10 million disabled adults in the UK with a spending power of £80 billion pounds per year. This does not include people with short term disabilities such as broken legs or slipped discs, all of whom are potential customers who may require better access or facilities.
The service provided by Directenquiries.com allows the general public to find businesses that can offer them the access and facilities that they require. The service has recently been extended to provide parents with more information, such as, which locations offer access for pushchairs and / or baby changing facilities. With an average of 600,000 babies born every year in England and Wales, there is also a huge demand for this information.
Directenquiries.com currently receives over 133,000 hits per week from people looking for businesses they can visit.
The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has announced its support for Direct Enquiries.
Bert Massie, Chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, said:
“The DRC is delighted that a service such as Direct Enquiries.com exists as it helps to give disabled people more choice and at the same time assists businesses both large and small to meet part of their legal obligations. As importantly, it helps service providers to attract more business from the 10 million disabled adults that spend £80billion per year in the UK”. www.fsb.org.uk