Accessible Wales | Access Consultancy

Access Consultancy

Accessible Wales offers consultancy regarding access for people with disabilities. This service may be as small as writing a brief access review for a small local shop or carrying out full access management of a newly create public building. With a team of three highlight experienced auditors and a wealth of knowledge on disability and access issues you can rest assured that we will carry out your access consultancy to the highest possible standard.

Accessible Wales’ Access Consultancy Services aim to provide a user-friendly, detailed assessment with recommendations, supported by photographs and diagrams where appropriate. Please click here to visit our Testimonials.

Accessible Wales’ Access Consultancy Services provide an Action Plan to assist our clients to demonstrate their commitment to eliminate discrimination. Successful completion of the Action Plan will raise the company services & buildings towards a more inclusive environment which is easier for everyone to use. Below are the access related services we provide:

Access Auditing:

The development of legislation to improve the rights of disabled people is an ongoing process. From 1 October 2004, Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 has required businesses and other organisations to take reasonable steps to tackle physical features that act as a barrier to disabled people who want to access their services.

This may mean to remove, alter or provide a reasonable means of avoiding physical features of a building which make access impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people. Examples include:

Installing a ramp to coincide with steps
Providing larger, well defined signs for people with a visual impairment
Lowering counters for wheelchair users or people who are short in stature.

This service comes in two formats, an informal walkthrough review and a detailed audit, both these reports are written from a consumer viewpoint. Please see below for a more detailed explanation of these services:

Walkthrough Review:

This will consist of a one day informal walkthrough audit with a member of your staff addressing access issues, paying particular attention to those issues that are remediable quickly and those which are major areas for concern.

Clients would then be provided with a table of recommendations and solutions to overcome these issues. This table will also outline priorities.

Complete Audit:

This will consist of a full access audit on the premises of the company in question. This will involve an auditing team (usually of two people) spending time analysing everything in the building including printed material, steps, lights etc. Photographs and measurements will be taken for the purpose of writing the report up, a video may also be recorded on larger premises in order for accuracy when compiling the report.

After our audit has been carried out you will receive a report based on the access of your building and services. The report addresses the accessibility for people with a range of disabilities including people with visual impairments, hearing impairments, learning difficulties and wheelchair users.

The report will address such issues as the width of doors, turning room for wheelchair users, the size and type of font on signs and literature etc. It will also address issues of staff training, building location and surrounding area. All findings and recommendations are supported with photographic evidence and are based on current legislation and guidelines.

Access Statement:

As a result of changes to the Building Regulations, Part M came into effect in May 2004. Amongst other things it is now required that an Access Statement should be provided for non-domestic buildings in cases when a designer or developer wishes to depart from the guidance contained within the approved document.

Access Statements are also used for planning applications to show the reasoning and approach used to provide inclusive design and the key issues of the particular project. They are widely believed to be a valuable tool in all buildings, especially when constraints of the building structure prevent full access being possible.

Accessible Wales can write an Access Statement that would include:

the reasons for departing from the guidance
the underlying principle for the design approach adopted
constraints imposed by the existing structure
convincing arguments that an alternative solution will achieve a better, or a more convenient outcome
evidence to support the design approach

Accessible Wales is also able to prepare Access Statements to be used for planning applications to support the inclusive design approach. These types of statements are regarded as “live” documents that are reviewed as a design is developed ready for submission. On-going advice can be provided to assist in negotiations with Local Authorities.

Access Project Management:

Due to the experience and expertise in the Accessible Wales team we are able to completely Project Manage the access development of a new building. Accessible Wales uses all its contacts and knowledge to ensure that good access is put in place from the beginning. This saves on expensive changes at a later date… everybody wins!

Mystery Shopping Audits:

Mystery shopping exercises provide a clear picture of the current accessibility of your goods, services and facilities as experienced by disabled people. The results of these exercises can then be used to produce the following benefits:

Monitoring and evaluation of customer service provision
Identification and prioritisation of improvements in customer service provision
Identification of training needs
A non-technical audit of the accessibility of physical environments

Our mystery shopping exercises are tailored and developed with you clients to ensure their organisational aims are met. You will receive a report which contains details of the experiences of our mystery shoppers, unbiased opinions of how your services are perceived by service users. Our agents come from a range of impairment groups.