Accessible and Inclusive Futures

Aim

> Amplify the voice of disabled people > Educate businesses to become more accessible > Provide job opportunities for young disabled people

As you can see we have put a lot of time and effort into our crowdfunding campaign. There is quite a bit to read and digest but for those who haven’t got the time here is a quick summary as to why you should support us.

The Access Rating app is innovative. It allows users to rate disabled access within 30 seconds. We originally only included bars, hotels, and restaurants but have now added shops, gyms, airports, sports venues, etc. We understand that access needs differ, as such, we have added the option to filter by accessibility needs (powerchair, manual chair, etc). 

By the end of 2021, we aim to have a list of the Top 10 most accessible bars, hotels, etc by town or city which will be a huge undertaking and something we hope to celebrate with your support.

Although we have identified a problem with access we also propose solutions. We will proactively work with businesses to improve accessibility. We find that most reasonable adjustments are easy to implement.

We are a social enterprise. Any money we make goes back into our job coaching and work placement scheme in SEND schools. In 2022 we aim to roll out an entrepreneurship program as well.

We have what it takes to succeed, between us we have 36 years experience of scaling tech businesses and now growing a social enterprise with the support of a leading business coach.

YOU CAN READ OUR FULL STORY BELOW OR IF YOUR SHORT ON TIME HOP ON OVER TO OUR REWARDS PAGE & SHOW US YOUR SUPPORT TODAY!

Imagine a world where you couldn't go to places like restaurants, shops, and bars… 

Imagine that no matter how great the food was, or the atmosphere, or how friendly the staff are, you aren't able to go and find yourself missing out on everyday things as well as new experiences.  

Welcome to our world… 

13 million disabled people call the UK home and at least 1.2 million of us are permanent or temporary wheelchair users. 

We’ve got some Wheelie big news… 

In the next few paragraphs, we’re going to let you know how you can help us make our world a bit more like everyone else’s.  

Access Rating is a social enterprise and the big idea of three disabled entrepreneurs, beer monkeys, and sporting fanatics from Leicestershire.  

The concept came about from a shared interest in wheelchair sport, where we got chatting about our experiences of access. Some funny, some tragic, and all of which were avoidable. Over a pint or two (OK, ten), we realised that we could do something about it and came up with the idea of Access Rating CIC (to be fair it was probably nearer pint three… I think by pint ten we were considering rocket-powered wheelchair jousting and ski-jumping). 

The concept of Access Rating is an incredibly simple one. We use the universally understood idea of Hygiene Ratings, but swap out clean surfaces, good practice, and fresh produce for door access, level access, disabled toilets, and lifts.  

The three of us discovered that whilst combining our local knowledge of access issues was helpful to each other, we soon realised the biggest asset the disabled community has is it's shared knowledge of access issues all over the UK. What would be potentially game-changing would be an app to enable everyone to share that combined knowledge and benefit from it.

In a nutshell?

Access Rating CIC is a social enterprise founded on four core values and aims.     

SOCIAL INTEGRATION: We will reduce access anxiety and expand the use of our user-led app to drive positive change for disabled people in the UK. 

ABUNDANCE OF KNOWLEDGE: Our platform will be the sum of our users' life experience of disability coupled with that of our directors. 

SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: We want a brighter future for the disabled community meaning employment, training, studying, and leisure opportunities for disabled people today and in the future. 

AMPLIFY VOICES: We will educate our communities and provide a platform for anyone with a need to speak out for positive change to access.

Where Are We Going with This?  

Well, anywhere we can, that’s the point, but Access Rating CIC, would begin with the hospitality sector and who knows where it could end? 

This isn’t a sob story, but you should know it’s tough enough to be disabled and access anxiety is something we can all do without.  

More Than Amping Ramping 

We wanted to support the community by completing access audits of business premises. We created a user-led app enabling a community voice to give businesses real-time feedback on improving accessibility, but that’s just the start. Our global aim is to empower the disabled community by creating and nurturing employment and educational opportunities and to work hand in hand with Special Educational Needs and Disability Schools (SEND)  to brighten the future of young disabled people all over the UK.

We Know the Stories… 

Most wheelchair users and folks with some degree of mobility issue have many stories that end in frustration. Whether they were unable to reach their destination or forced literally to go round the houses to get there, we want to change how these stories end.

A survey by The Purple Pound estimates the spending power of disabled people and their households in £249 billion. They also suggest businesses miss out on around £2 billion a month by ignoring the needs of disabled people. Over three out of four of us (75%) and our families have left a UK business because of poor accessibility or customer service.  

The hospitality sector, which now more than ever needs all the help it can get, is losing out on £160+ million every month by not prioritising access for their customers.  

Hold those figures in your mind for a moment and you’ll see how easy it is for disabled people to suffer from access anxiety and why, as a result, they become even more socially isolated.  

The Answer to Access is Access Rating CIC

Without naming names, we all know just how successful commercial recommendation sites and apps have been. Venues with great ratings see their business soar and places with terrible ratings fall off the cliff. Best of all though, places where there is room for improvement have a choice, they can up their game and go big or go home. The result is a win for everyone. Popular venues need to maintain standards or risk falling back down the ladder, and those with no business being in business eventually fail. All the while, the consumer gets the best advice and a great night out. 

We will help venues improve disabled access via the Access Rating App. The goal is to collect and collate access reviews from over 300,000 venues in the UK.  By curating this data, we can educate businesses on the merits of inclusion and improving the accessibility of their venues.  

To further assist, users can submit custom and bespoke disabled access reviews/ratings highlighting not only the issues with access in general but demonstrating to the venues exactly what their problems were. This is powerful information upon which smart businesses can act. Users can also use geolocation to search for venues close by and read up on the experiences of others with similar mobility needs.

Beyond the Social

One of our key goals is to enable and empower young disabled folks that why we have reached out to ambassadors like GB Tennis star James Shaw and GB Wheelchair Rugby captain Gavin Walker and we have already trialed a program with SEND Schools and provided their students with work experience opportunities/placements and confidence-building classes.

The first SEND School we have partnered with is Ashfield Academy in Leicestershire and we hope to enable Access Rating and other employers to make full use of the project. Through the program, we aim to put the health of students front and center while they learn the skills and make the connections to take their first steps into employment.  

Go Us… 

To date, we’ve already made significant inroads and achieved many of the goals we had at the start.  

While we have a long way to go, here are some high fives we had to share… 

Since our launch, a couple of months ago In February, and despite a global pandemic closing pretty much every venue in the country, we still managed to sign up around 500 users. These pioneers have already made over 2000 ratings. During the same period, we also began market research on the accessibility of over 400 venues per week.

•  The app featured on BBC East Midlands Today and was mentioned in the broadcast by the charity Scope, who said it had ground-breaking potential. 

• Our post-launch combined Facebook group and page following is now over 1200 and over 3000 people engage with us every month. 

•  We officially partnered with Ashfield Academy (SEND School) and have already provided classes to the students as part of our work experience initiative. 

• Since launch, we have featured in various articles of online magazines such as Disability Horizons. 

Access Rating Road Map... 

2020

Lift Off…..

Launch the Access Rating app and Website

Build our social media presence

Set up Job coaching scheme in a SEND School

Complete Access Audits of local Venues

The setback….

The covid19 pandemic hit and like everybody else we had to adapt to our circumstances so through lockdown we worked hard to add further updates to the app such as full geolocation and developed a virtual access audit concept to still be effective whilst limiting the face to face interaction.

2021

The Scale-Up……

Aim for 20,000 users with over 300,000 reviews

Huge PR & Marketing Push

Update the app to list the top 10 accessible venues by City/Town

Deliver over 50 disabled access audits to become financially self-sustainable

2022

Community Engagement….

Focus on engaging with commercial enterprises to deliver training in how businesses can engage better with SEND Schools to offer work experience, apprenticeships, and an entrepreneurship program.

Roll out the Access Rating Approved Scheme and develop a widget to integrate the ratings into a venue’s website.

Quadruple the number of users and ratings.

What’s in it for Me? 

We obviously need capital to make a change and whatever you can give we will use to the fullest of our ability.

Whoever said you can’t buy superhero status, didn’t shop with us…

In return, we have already secured some fantastic rewards to share which we will raffle and gift to our epic supporters. From Luxury Hampers to Sporting event tickets and even a real live Unicorn*.

Business owners who donate can also be rewarded with custom Access Audits, shout outs, and sponsorship opportunities…  

In short, help us support you by supporting us.

So, on behalf of the millions of people who will benefit from your backing we just want to give you a top gun high five followed by a fist bump, finger guns, and a triumphant arm punch… because if you don’t hear it from anyone else today you ROCK!!! 

Ok, let's talk about some numbers.......

We want to raise £40,000 and if we reach for the stars maybe more!!

The key thing to remember about the success of Access Rating CIC is profits will be reinvested back into our community projects with young disabled people.....

So everybody wins!

Ok back to business......

If you are reading this, you are AWESOME! 

Thanks for listening and if money is tight, we’d love a share, a shout, or even a like.

Thank you for playing your part in our journey by giving our communities

THE POWER to improve disabled access…… 

ONE ACCESS RATING AT A TIME!! 

FIND OUT MORE AT - https://www.accessrating.com

This project successfully funded on 12th October 2020