Campaign to help tourism firms attract disabled visitors
AHIGH sheriff has unveiled a major campaign helping tourist businesses across North Wales to cash in on spending by visitors with a disability or additional needs.
Mum-of-three Davina Carey-evans, whose 27-year-old son Benjamin has severe autism, said she had spent a lifetime visiting leisure attractions with her son only to realise on arrival they were unsuitable for his needs.
As Gwynedd’s new High Sheriff, Davina is determined to help businesses improve accessibility so other families – especially those with hidden disabilities – can enjoy the full range of North Wales’s excellent leisure facilities.
Davina, who hails from Criccieth and now Anglesey-based with event and marketing experience, set up PIWS (Welsh for purple) as a Community Interest Company to help businesses tap into the spending power of disabled people in the UK. In partnership with national charity Nimbus Disability, she has launched a campaign to boost awareness and registration of the Access Card in the hospitality and leisure industry in North Wales.
The card informs leisure providers quickly and discreetly about the support holders may need when accessing their attractions and services through a range of disability or impairment symbols. It acts as a ‘Disability Passport’ and highlights sensitively the barriers visitors might face and the reasonable adjustments business owners may need to make to welcome them.
The campaign was unveiled at M-sparc Science Park on Anglesey supported by families with additional needs who will benefit from improved access to North Wales’ leisure attractions.
Davina said: “I’ve had a lifetime of trying to visit locations where people have only catered for wheelchair users. This is one of the reasons why I set up PIWS which represents the so-called ‘purple pound’ – the spending power of people living with disabilities in the UK.
“Accessible tourism is worth an estimated £15 billion per year in the UK alone and yet only 10% of businesses in Wales – if that – are targeting that audience. There’s a fear among businesses of saying they cater for a disability because they don’t want to get it wrong but instead find it easier to do nothing.
“Leisure businesses need to offer more than just a policy or mission statement on their website with no real understanding of what it means. This is not about giving anyone a hard time. Attitudes need to change.
“What we are trying to create with PIWS is an opportunity for businesses to start their journey in a realistic way they can manage without huge expense and to use the tools we are putting together. As they gain that confidence, both PIWS and people with disabilities will constructively support them.”
She added: “I’m a family of five and you wouldn’t think there were two members of my family who have additional needs. You couldn’t pick them out of a photograph. My son has autism. He doesn’t speak and has two-to-one care. It has been very challenging for him growing up but you wouldn’t know to look at him.
“I have another son, Oscar, who has ADHD and really struggled with school. He ended up with Ulcerative Colitis where the colon becomes inflamed. He subsequently got Type 1 diabetes and had to have all his colon removed. Interestingly, when he asks for a sugar free drink, he rarely gets it, this has serious life-threatening consequences for a diabetic.
“As a carer, I would only ever visit certain places because of the accessibility factor whether helpful staff,
toilets or something else. I’d continually go back to the same places because it’s actually too scary to go to new places.
“What I’m saying is if businesses get it right, you can build up this audience and they will keep on coming back. It’s as simple as that.”
The Access Card helps educate hospitality and leisure providers on impairments and accessibility issues their customers may face, enabling them to make small adjustments to improve the visitor experience and meet their obligations under the Equality Act.