Broadcaster - So, access to local shops, public loos and indeed public buildings for the disabled has often been in the news of late, and for many people it’s a big problem and that’s what we are going to be talking about in the next part of the show. We are joined on the line now by Grant Kennedy who is the Chief Executive of Direct Enquiries. Very good morning to you Grant, thank you for joining us.
Grant Kennedy - Morning
Broadcaster - Can we start by asking a bit about your organisation, what does Direct Enquiries actually do?
Grant Kennedy - It started off about 2½ years ago now, my father is a wheelchair user and the frustrations that he experienced is very similar to the majority of disabled people - not really knowing in advance where they can go and shop, bank, eat, stay in hotels, and so on. The idea is that businesses can detail their services on Direct Enquiries but more importantly what access and facilities they offer. Now that could be everything from staff assistance through to wheelchair access, baby changing facilities, pushchair access, induction loops - the whole range. Basically anything that includes access, so it’s not even just for disabled people now, it really has expanded because obviously disabled people can be mothers as well.
Broadcaster - Sure
Grant Kennedy - So we are trying to make it so that businesses can detail absolutely everything that they can do at each location so that it makes it easier for disabled people and people that require access to plan where they want to go and shop and have a better experience.
Broadcaster - So, basically then as a potential customer you would just log onto the website and you look there to find out the sorts of shops or facilities that are available in your area for what you want to do?
Grant Kennedy - Absolutely, you can search in several different ways. You can search by company name, so you could go on and search for Lloyds Pharmacy in your local town and find out what facilities they have as obviously Lloyds are on the register.
Broadcaster - Okay
Grant Kennedy - You can search by town, so you can say that I live in Reading and I require this type of access, and all the companies listed in Reading will come back and tell you. So you can search in all those different ways for the sort of business that you are looking for.
Broadcaster - What a great idea. Now the other thing that is on there is the national key scheme. This is more to do with disabled toilets isn’t it? Because most of the time a lot of those are actually locked and getting into them for disabled people can be a problem. Tell us a bit about what the national key scheme is about?
Grant Kennedy - Well the national key scheme is actually a RADAR scheme which is one of our partners, The Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation. The scheme was started nearly 10 years ago now and the theory behind it was to alleviate some of the pressures and concerns for disabled people when they are out and need to use a toilet. Unfortunately some people do tend to still use disabled toilets when they don’t need too, which means that if there is only one disabled toilet in a location and it is being used, someone has to wait, which causes inconvenience. The key scheme means that disabled people can acquire a key through RADAR. And across the whole of the country now I think that there are 7,200 toilets, which can be accessed with the key, and they are guaranteed to be certainly clean, definitely accessible and hopefully available for them to use.
Broadcaster - Okay, so again all that will be listed on the website.
Grant Kennedy - Absolutely.
Broadcaster - You can find out where they are?
Grant Kennedy – Absolutely
Broadcaster - The other thing that there is often controversy about is disabled parking spaces. Now a lot of supermarkets, a lot of the town centres have these and often they are used by people who aren’t disabled, which not only annoys disabled people, but I think annoys a lot of able bodied people as well, is that still a big problem would you say?
Grant Kennedy - Yeah, I think it is unfortunately. I think in any society you do get some selfish people and no matter what businesses try to do, or councils try to do to stop this happening, people still insist on doing it. I know organisations such as Asda who are registered with Direct Enquiries have tried a limited number of schemes to try to alleviate this and stop people doing it, but unfortunately it is something that will continue to happen.
Broadcaster - Right. Now if you are a business, you mentioned that Lloyds Pharmacy is obviously registered with Direct Enquiries, but any business can also register with you and put their details on as well.
Grant Kennedy - Yeah absolutely. We have done much to help businesses because they do have an obligation under the DDA to try to do more for disabled people in terms of making their premises and services more accessible. However, certainly for smaller businesses, this can be a little daunting and they may not exactly understand what that means for them. So, on the register they can actually use an assessment form that was developed by RADAR to help them understand just a little bit more about what facilities they currently provide.
Broadcaster - Right
Grant Kennedy - And they can then go and complete an action plan to get simple help and tips as well. Once they have done all that they can then, in reality, advertise their business to more people.
Broadcaster - And lets not forget that there is an awful lot of money out there from disabled people in terms of spending power, isn’t there?
Grant Kennedy - Absolutely, I think that the latest statistics that came out from the department of work and pensions is that there are in excess of 10 million disabled adults in the country who spend over £80billion per year.
Broadcaster - And I guess really that some disabled people when they are out in the high street or in the shopping centre, and they can’t get into a store because the store hasn’t put in the proper access, they must find that not only frustrating and annoying, but they must actually think ‘well doesn’t this company want my business, don’t they want my money?’
Grant Kennedy - I think that is the whole key to it. I think most disabled people, and certainly speaking from my fathers perspective, find it strange that there needs to be any kind of obligation on people to make their business accessible because he has got a load of money to spend. I think that also people forget that disabled people very rarely go out on their own, if they are going for a meal then they go with family and friends. My father as one example has 5 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren, so he wants to go and buy pushbikes, etc, and people often say that ‘we won’t have disabled people buying a bike’, but they will for their friends and family.
Broadcaster - Now that’s a very good point isn’t it? Now going back to the law here because as we were mentioning earlier there are legal obligations upon companies now to provide access. It is fair to say though, isn’t it, that there are still a lot of companies that aren’t doing that. Is this still a big problem would you say?
Grant Kennedy - Certainly, I think that major organisations, some of the major high street names that you see, and certainly Lloyds Pharmacy, are going that extra mile to make sure that they are offering a better service. And I think that is because you can see the wider picture. At the end of the day you are a business as well and making your services are available is fantastic. I think that from a small business perspective there is a little bit more of a fear factor of not knowing what they can do, and in a lot of instances it can be simple changes that don’t actually cost any money. One example of this could be that rather than stacking your shelves horizontally, stack them vertically so that people at any height can reach the products or services or literature that you have stacked. So it really is the little things that businesses can do. However there is still a problem, and what we’re trying to do, working with our partners and also organisations such as the DRC, is to get the message out there that it is the simple things that you can do to improve facilities.
Broadcaster - I suppose one of the problems always with this is that people that aren’t disabled, and assume that it will never happen to them, don’t always truly appreciate how difficult it can be for some disabled people, and I suppose ultimately it could happen to any of us at any time couldn’t it really?
Grant Kennedy - Well at the end of the day we are all getting older, that’s something that we can’t stop, but also with 10 millions disabled adults in the UK, with a total of approximately 60 million people in the country, I would imagine that most people are either related to or have a friend who is disabled. That can be anything from someone who is a diabetic, and if you take someone who is a diabetic, who on the face of it doesn’t appear to be disabled because there are not impaired, but if they don’t have their insulin injections at the right time or they are stopped from doing this. There was incident recently where a gentleman was stopped from entering a concert because he had his insulin pen with him and it was deemed as a lethal weapon, and the problem with this is that without his insulin he could die – so we need to make people aware that it isn’t just wheelchair users that everyone associates with disability, it is a whole realm of disabilities that may not always be visible. We have just got to make sure that we treat everybody better, and by improving our customer services generally we are making the services and access better for everybody.
Broadcaster - Which is good news, now the website - if people want to log onto that, and i’ve just had a go at it myself actually and it is really good. Its www.directenquiries.com, simple as that and all the information is on there. Many thanks for joining us on the programme today.
Grant Kennedy - Thank you very much for your time.
Broadcaster - Thanks for being with us.