Top venues share tips on improving disabled access

Representatives from some of the UK’s top venues have recently come together to share best practice about improving accessibility for disabled people at an event organised by Nimbus Disability.

More than 40 representatives of venues, along with ticket operators and event organisers, joined together to discuss how to provide an equitable experience for disabled people.

Nimbus is a social enterprise consultancy, which is run by disabled people for disabled people.

It operates the award-winning Access Card, which is held by more than 350,000 disabled people and is recognised by more than 1,600 venues and events across the world who offer accessible tickets.

The Access Card is the first accessible ticketing scheme of its type in the world – offering a universal and consistent way for disabled people to evidence and communicate their needs to providers quickly and discreetly.

Nimbus has set up a provider network to bring together many of the venues, ticket operators and event organisers that it works with.

The latest event was hosted by London’s Hippodrome Casino and was attended by a wide range of operators including the O2, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Harlequins Rugby, Festival Republic and Delfont Mackintosh; which owns some of the top West End theatres.

Mark Briggs, director of partnerships at Nimbus, said: “All of the attendees are long-term partners with Nimbus and have integrated our bespoke software into their own ticket booking systems.

“This is the only organic group of service delivery operatives in the UK and everyone at the event shared the common goal to improve accessibility to venues and events for disabled people.

“As the network grows, we aim to develop a fully cross-sector consortium as a platform for decision-makers to share how they work and find solutions for common issues.”

Martin Austin MBE, who founded Nimbus Disability and created the Access Card, said: “Our innovative services are improving the lives of thousands of disabled people across the UK and the globe – opening up the opportunity for them to visit and engage with events and destinations and enabling them to play a more participative role in society.

“The growing provider network is a great opportunity for operators across a wide range of sectors from theatre and arenas to festivals and sports venues to come together with the sole focus on how we improve accessibility for everyone.”