Putting access to Britain in your pocket

If you’re looking for somewhere to chill out or take the children this summer, a new pocket guide has a host of accessible suggestions. Ian Macrae has looked through it and visited one of its recommendations

Remember all those old gags with bad-taste punchlines about the thinnest books in the world? Well now there’s a genuine contender. The Rough Guide to Accessible Britain may be thin because so many visitor attractions aren’t accessible. But to be fair, it’s only in its first year of publication.

From city parks to theme parks and scenic journeys to coastal attractions, the guide boasts “over a hundred inspirational places to visit and things to do”. That’s not a lot.

The Rough Guide brand is well established and this addition to its list has been published in association with Motability Operations, the company that operates the car schemes for disabled people.

Divided into sections, it features short entries on, for instance, historic cities and towns like Durham, Pitlochry and Portmeirion, along with descriptions of attractions as diverse as Fountains Abbey and Thorpe Park. Each entry is headed with a row of symbols indicating which elements in a variety of access provisions are available.

These include accessible toilets, parking, facilities for visually-impaired people and hearing loops.

Armed with the Guide and my two youngest children, Scott (7) and AmyBeth (11), we headed for one of the places listed as good for families: Legoland Windsor.

Although the Guide gave a good overview, for more detailed information I’d advise looking at the park’s own leaflet for disabled visitors. From this, but not from the guide, for example, you learn that most of the rides are only accessible to wheelchair-users who can leave their chairs.

The Guide rightly says that “Legoland has a positive attitude to disability that’s reflected…in the staff’s can-do attitude”. My two, who aren’t disabled, were desperate to try the newest water ride, the Vikings’ River Splash, and there was absolutely no fuss about my getting assistance on to the ride, just a matter-of-fact attitude by the person who was supervising entry.

If you’re put off by the possibility of spending most of your day waiting in a queue, don’t be. As the Guide and the Legoland leaflet both explain, there are a number of dodges for disabled people for avoiding queues.

They’ve also instituted “Quene-bots”, a new way of using a little hand-held device to prebook your next ride for a specific time slot. Indeed, this information was so new it hadn’t made it into the Guide.

INFORMATION

Costing £6.99 (including post and packing) or £1.99 if you’re a blue badge holder, the guide is available by phone on 0800 953 7070 or from www.accessibleguide.co.uk. It is also available in PDF on request