Accessibility
Improve accessibility within your organisation to open the door to new customers, employees and partners.
Access for everyone
Whether you are a business, local authority or charity, we will help you to find ways to ensure your premises and services are accessible to Disabled people with a variety of different impairments.
Our support ensures you meet the requirements of the Equality Act and DDA as a minimum, whilst developing your understanding of what access means for those with lived experience.
We provide access audits for:
- Physical spaces – built environment (buildings, plans etc) and public realm (whole streets/areas)
- Digital profiles – website, recruitment processes
- Event or conference support
Our services and whole organisation is user led - this is a key benefit for ensuring that the practices you put in place are the right ones
Meet WECIL's Access and Inclusion Team
WECIL’s Access & Inclusion Team (WAIT), formerly known as Bristol Physical Access Chain (BPAC), is a group of disabled people who volunteer their time to improve the quality of life, inclusion and access for all people in Bristol. WAIT work with building owners, organisations, developers and service providers within the private and public sector to improve and promote access and inclusion for all within the built environment.
BPAC was originally an access group within Bristol City Council, providing accessibility support for council owned buildings and venues. In 2019 BPAC joined WECIL, bringing a wealth of expertise in the field of access to WECIL’s Access Audit service and ensuring the continued success of BPAC, which continued to thrive under its new management.
Having recently gone through a rebrand of the group, BPAC updated its name to WAIT, WECIL Access and Inclusion Team. This reflects not only the group’s move to WECIL, but its expansion of its interest to improve accessibility across the whole of the country. WAIT has already been commissioned to do work in Wiveliscombe, Weston-Super-Mare, Edinburgh and London.
Dominic Ellison, Chief Executive Officer at WECIL, said “This combined team have recognised for some time the need to raise awareness that we are one merged organisation – so the new name, which was decided by our volunteers, delivers this message perfectly. ‘WECIL Access & Inclusion Team’ shows that this panel of experts by experience are truly embedded within WECIL’s wider support to external organisations, while the acronym ‘WAIT’ reminds developers of the costs incurred when building projects plough ahead without meaningful engagement with a wide range of potential users – those costs being expensive retrofitting, compromised design aesthetic, or worse – the discriminatory exclusion of a fifth of our society from places and services.”
It is hoped the move will enable the group to recruit new members, especially amongst younger Disabled people, and develop an industry-leading service building on the user-led expertise of WECIL
“The group continues to work closely with Bristol City Council, a link that goes back to the very beginnings of its work. This partnership is very important, both to the group and the people of Bristol and will, hopefully, remain strong. As WAIT builds other links throughout the region it hopes to improve the lives of Disabled people and make inclusion key in planning decisions across the West Country.”
Phil Gingell, Chair of WAIT
Whatever your industry, we can provide expertise and support whether it is for a specific project, team or organisation wide.
How we do it
Your audit will be conducted by an experienced member of the team alongside WAIT members. A member of your organisation will join us on the audit so you can fully understand, first hand, the lived experience of accessibility that Disabled people face. Accessibility isn’t just about steps and ramps – it includes colour contrasting, furniture, signage, table heights and much more.
After the audit you will see the space in a different way, and this learning will be collated into a detailed report containing an access audit checklist, list of priorities, and measurement guidance and recommendations – so that you can begin implementing changes in both the long and short term.
Access audits of the built environment can take up to 3hrs depending on size of the building, number of floors, rooms etc. and audits in the public realm can take between 3hrs and 7hrs (split over 2 or 3 days) depending on the size of the area.
But what are the benefits?
We are glad you asked…
- Improve employment, staff retention and satisfaction
- Protect you from claims of disability discrimination
- Reduce risks
- Increased income – Disabled people have a combined disposable income of £80 billion per year and Disabled people want to use your services
- Minimise complaints
- Increased confidence and understanding for you and your team
- Improve customer footfall – make your services accessible to not only Disabled people but their friends, families, carers, as well as customers with pushchairs, children, or the elderly
- Improve customer loyalty – research proves that there is a huge amount of customer loyalty amongst the Disabled community
- Lead by example by being an inclusive organisation
Meet the Accessibility team
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed erat ligula, luctus vel felis eget, volutpat consectetur risus. Fusce mattis aliquam arcu a pharetra. Curabitur vel leo vel ex consectetur porta at aliquam dui. Phasellus vitae faucibus nisl. Fusce lacus libero, ornare in pretium ac, iaculis sed est.
Testimonials
Hear what other organisations have to say about the impact of our access audits.
Latest insights
Real stories from WAIT members
WAIT (WECIL’s Access and Inclusion Team) are central to the work carried out by Disability.Inc…
Why should you create an inclusive workplace?
It’s all very well saying you should create an inclusive workplace, but what does that really mean and how can …
How do I make my business more inclusive and accessible?
Around 1.3 billion people experience significant Disability (World Health Organisation). That’s a huge proportion of the population, fuelling an estimated …