Sam Bowen Visits Unlimited Associate

I first contacted Visits Unlimited two years ago when I saw a post about their distributing Max Cards to families with disabled children. I spoke to Katie initially to apply for a card and ended up telling her about my former career in Museums.

From the moment I spoke to Katie and heard her passion for increasing access to Museums and heritage sites, I knew I wanted to be involved. I became an associate member of Visits Unlimited and helped out on a training session being held nearby.

Fast forward a year or so and I was back in contact with the Museum Development Service who I had worked with prior to having my daughter (who was born with special needs). We discussed the need to raise access awareness with museum staff and support them in becoming more welcoming to people with disabilities.

I put Katie in contact with Joanna Low, Museum Development Officer, and we together developed a training day. The day came and I wasn’t nervous, but excited that I was finally delivering training with Katie to a group of Museums I had worked with before on a subject that I am passionate about. The day was a huge success and I am now working with four of those museums to progress their accessibility plans.

I left the Museum world nearly 8 years ago with the sudden life changing moment of having a severely disabled child. I’m now returning to that field with a much better understanding of disability and a whole new perspective on life. It’s empowering and fulfilling to match my professional museum experience with that of being a special needs parent, it’s as if a jigsaw is now complete.

If you’d like more information on how to improve accessibility in your museum or visitor attraction, then please contact Katie Clarke for more information.

Planning ahead can make all the difference.

Here are some of our top tips for planning ahead:

• Plan your day around your resources: time, energy, equipment, finances and so on. When you are looking at a day out make a list as you start planning so that you start identifying what you will need for your day out.

• When you’re planning, don’t plan on taking enough, plan on taking a little more than you need.

• Anticipate your needs as much as you can whilst travelling.

• When looking at a particular destination, do as much research as you can on the accessibility information around your needs. If the website isn’t that clear then give their customer service a ring with any questions that you have.

• I personally prefer to call when booking hotels, flights, or booking tickets and so on so that I can speak to an agent from the beginning. There’s usually so much information we then can get that we wouldn’t necessarily get from websites.

• Look up any reviews on well known platforms, the best information comes from people who have been there before you and tried and tested those services and the attractions.

The Max Card for families who have children with additional needs

The Max Card, I meet so many people who still haven’t heard of the Max Card and would be entitled to having one. Read this and get applying!

The Max Card is designed to make days out more financially accessible for foster families and families of children with additional needs, we’ve had ours for about 3 years now and it has meant that my son has been able to access many attractions free or at a huge discount. Ever attraction / venue offers something different; some allow the card holder and parent / carer in for free so offer big discounts on the price. Either way the list of places where you can use your max card is lengthy and all over the UK and the list of venues is growing so it’s really worth checking out, if not for you then pass this information and link onto someone you know who could use it.

With the help of supporting local authorities and venues, we aim to bring families closer together through fun and enjoyable days out. From Eureka to Go Ape, Museums to cinemas. Crazy golf to Zoos, boat trips, aquariums to paintball!

From Aberdeen to Cornwall, Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland there’s no getting bored in the holidays. I can’t recommend this enough, my son loves being in charge of his and gives him a great sense of independence being able to use it.

Application is easy, email them (i’ve put the link at the bottom of this post) and one will get sent out to you through the post. Enjoy your days out and pass your stories to us so we can share in your happy days out!

Visit their website Max card today and get yours sent out now!

No Silence Please

We have google, we have wikipedia, we have YouTube and so many other sources to discover information but for our family there’s still a huge amount of magic going down to the Library. Not only are we supporting a local community service, but with every book you rent, the author of that book gets a little commission so that feels good as well. The smell of all those books, the choices of stories and peoples imaginations, illustrations and of course time always seems to stand still as you browse the ‘blurb’ on the reverse of the books to see which grabs your interest at that point.

However the library experience isn’t always that easy, magical or relaxing and for some parents and children for many years it hasn’t really been quite stressful. The library has traditionally held the golden rule of etiquette which has been; Shhhhh, talk quietly, in whispers and respect other people’s study, focus and concentration needs.

But what about our children who are autistic? Requesting their silence doesn’t work, they connect with that rule we have easily and suppressing their need to express themselves when they need to is a restraint that won’t happen.

No Silence Please

Campaigners have launched a network of autism friendly libraries in England allowing parents to take their children who love with autism to enjoy this wonderful space free from judgement, being stared at and criticised.

There is a need to support library staff with awareness training and accessibility improvements to the design of the library’s themselves such as calm spaces, low calm music, awareness material and posters around. Dimensions and the Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL) are working to evolve England’s 3,000 or so public libraries into more welcoming venues for people who have autism. What a fantastic cause to be aware of and support.

This movement began in 2016 so we’ll definitely be watching this unfold and we look forward to keeping you updated.

Gain the confidence to communicate with partially sighted individuals

More than 2 million people within the UK live with sight loss which equates to around 1 in 30 people (RNIB). As the health of our nation changes and the rise of people who live with a disability increases, then the culture of our communication must change too. However the adaptions we must make are not alien to us, we have all the tools and resources already at our disposal we just need to tap into the awareness of what those resources are and gain the confidence to use them. Put these two things together and you can make a huge difference to someone’s experience.

How to communicate with confidence with a partially sighted individual

• My first point is an important point; don’t assume that because someone is partially sighted or blind, that they have other medical conditions and medical conditions. Treat ever individual as that; an individual because a physical obstacle or challenge does not indicate mental ill health, learning disability or other conditions that require other people to answer the question you are asking, consent or make decisions for them.
• When you are approaching a person who is blind, make your approach known in a friendly manner. Don’t shout and startle them, don’t approach in a super ninja stealth like manner either. Just identify yourself as you approach in a warm and friendly, confident tone of voice. If you smile as you’re doing it, so does the tone of your voice – sounds strange but your body language speaks your mind and when you approach feeling tense, uncertain, frustrated and so on, your voice will reflect this.
• If the person has a white cane or two white canes, don’t offer to take them from them unless they ask you too. These canes are an extension of themselves and they rely on them to provide the feedback of the immediate environment. They feel safe with their canes and unless instructed by them, you may cause upset or anxiety by taking these away from them.
• Like wise if they have a guide dog, please remember that this is a service dog and the dog is working for their owner. Theses are highly trained dogs. Please don’t distract the dog, feed the dog or confuse the dogs training by giving alternative commands. Let the dog do his / her job at keeping their owner safe.
• People usually ask me about how to communicate effectively because “how can you use body language?” Firstly don’t assume that someone who you see is ‘blind’ is actually 100% blind, many people are partially sighted and this has varying degrees. Secondly your actually body language makes up around 55% of your communication, tonality is roughly around 38% and the words you use are around 7% so between you tones and voice pitches and the words you use; that’s around 45% so don’t worry – you will get your message across loud and clear without extra effort.
• The what to say bit! Be aware of your terminology and how you refer to the individual, nobody wants to disempower anyone else nor offend them. Take a moment to think before you speak but also relax a little, don’t worry if you say; “have a great day and i’ll see you later on in the tour.” You are not being offensive so don’t go into awkward apologetic mode, just stay away from: “can you not see what you’re doing?” or “Gosh is it hard being handicapped?” Which I heard recently – yes cringe!

If you would like extra support or training regarding communicating with people who have sensory based disabilities then please contact Katie Clarke.

Communicating with visitors who have hearing loss

There are approximately 11 million people registered with hearing loss within the UK, this is around 1 in 6 of us according to the RNID, these statistics reflect only those who have been registered as having hearing loss, the number in reality will be much higher.

If these figures show that 1 in 6 of us experiences a hearing loss then the probability will be high that as a tourist attraction or venue, you will be welcoming people into your environment who will require an adaption to the auditory presentation of both staff and venue settings.

People who experience hearing loss communicate visually and using physical gestures, people who live with partial deafness may also combine visual, physical gestures and the tonality of sounds to build a picture of their environment around them.

There are varying degrees of hearing loss, there can be mild to moderate, one side or both (bilateral), some people are unable to detect the deepness of male voices but can pick up the higher pitch of female voices for example.  You can’t always tell right away because not everyone choses to wear a hearing aid or some more advanced hearing aids slip inside the ear and have no external presence so it isn’t always easy to know.

How to support a visitor with hearing loss

Many people with hearing loss have learnt to lip read, this isn’t always a perfect science for them but they can pick up on the general lip formation of words by mixing what they read from the facial expressions, body language, hand gestures and if sound is there then the tonality and certain sounds around the lip formation allows the picture of the word to be formed.

So you can see from this that it is important that you face the person you are talking too, this is generally good etiquette anyway but in these situations it is critical. It is hard enough to decode what someone is saying if they are looking down which means it’s hard to read the lips, read the face and the tone is usually lower when we look downwards.  This and having to ask someone to repeat themselves as the queue forms behind can be uncomfortable for the visitor and not a great start for them.

• If someone indicates to you in some way they they have hearing loss, make eye contact and smile. A smile puts someone at ease and then ask if they would like to use your loop system, your physical gestures such as when referring to the loop system will help someone easily understand what you are saying. Make a judgement on the background noise of the environment because if it is a crowded area then you may need to step a little closer or use more physical gestures. If the visitor is struggling to understand in the environment due to the noise then consider asking them if they’d like to talk somewhere quieter.
• As you are continuing to talk to remain where they can see you.
• If you sense someone has hearing loss and you want to ask them something, then get their attention first and let them settle their attention on you before you ask the question so that they can process the information. This can be done with eye contact and a smile, a small wave nothing fast, aggressive or intimidating.
• When it comes to tonality, stay as you normally would. Unless you are asked to slow down, speak higher and so on, don’t. We get by learning the tonality of communication on a daily basis getting used to the normal tones of calm, relaxed, angry, agitated and anxious etc just like you do. It’s usually much easier if you speak within your normal tone and pitch range – unless otherwise specified.
• When you are speaking to your visitor try to keep the conversation flowing so that find it easier to follow and don’t be afraid to lead the emotion to help them follow what you are saying this can be done through facial expressions.
• Why not introduce some visual sign language and meaning cues to your areas? Or have this aids behind reception desk with common words on them so that they can be used for communicating.
• The obvious one is always – if the individual has a carer with them, friend or relative; speak to the individual if it is them you are referring too. Living with hearing loss does not mean they can not make their own decisions.
• Do not make assumptions, don’t assume the person is following every word or is processing the information you are saying at your speed. Sometimes it takes a few seconds longer for them to filter what you are saying, process it and then find the right response before giving you the response. Be patient, patience is essential here.

If you would like more support and information about how to train your staff in the highly effective techniques of body language communication, please contact Katie Clark.

Why first impressions are so important

I’m going to take you straight to the point on this blog which is your bottom line.

If you want your business model to be successful you have to develop great communication and customer service management skills.

What if right now I could give you the strategy to creating the ability to deliver just that – great customer service, would you read on? Sure you would because you want your business model to be successful, accessible and dynamic however there’s a process that happens before your visitor or customer even begins to engage with your service, there’s a vital part that you must fulfil before they even start inviting you into their psychology of building a rapport and giving you the chance to provide them with a great quality of service.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression!

When you meet someone for the first time, a part of your brain called the limbic brain starts to register what you are seeing and begins the process of deciding two thing: firstly, do you feel safe with this person or situation and secondly, can I trust this person or situation. Does that seem a little far fetched to you?

When i’m coaching my business clients to get this point across I ask them these questions;

• Would you go into business with someone you didn’t trust or feel safe with?
• Would you hire someone to work within your team, represent your business or company who you didn’t trust or feel safe with?

The wise answer would be no.

Let’s take this back to you and the service you provide.

A customer or service user walks in, within 0.4 seconds they have started processing to work these two answers out, now as a customer / visitor those two vital questions are usually represented by do I feel respected (safe) as well as can I trust this service, this person, this environment. Within 30 seconds the brain thinks it knows everything it needs to know about the situation to make a judgement which then becomes a fixed rule. Once you have created a first impression and the fixed rule comes into play then it is extremely difficult to change that impression about you, you may not get a second chance let alone a whole load more to change their opinion about you. In business this can have a damaging effect on your profile and therefor your profits.

So how can you maximise on those first 30 seconds? Here are 7 quick but highly effective tips to use right now and transform your immediate relationship building skills.

• Eye contact is what we call pro-connecting behaviour. This doesn’t mean that you have to stare the person out, combined with the other non verbal cues I will share with you, soft muscles around the eyes and good eye contact is a great way to immediately start that connection process before even one word passes between you.
• A smile. Research shows that we remember people more if they smile. A smile is warm, welcoming and puts us at ease because it tells us that we are welcome and that we can relax a little.
• Relaxed shoulders. A tense shift, a long day, frustration, anxiety and nerves; all these emotions can sit on our shoulder (it’s where we carry and try and hold up our world). Our shoulders can become tense and start looking like they are extensions of our ears rather than our necks, the only thing is you will look tense and when you look tense and greet someone tensely they will mirror that unconsciously because we resonate with our environment if we start to feel unsure and can become guarded.
• We all know about open body language but the reason i’m slipping this one in is because when I walked up to a receptionist the other day at a hotel to book in, the receptionist herself greater me with her arms folded and a stern look on her face. I didn’t feel welcomed at all, intact I felt awkward – is that how you want your customers to feel. So open shoulders and arms unfolded is an inviting behaviour.
• Tone of voice. This all depends on the situation and the environment, but generally friendly and direct. You don’t have to over soften word or go high pitched, the lower pitches tend to instil more confidence that a higher pitched tone but keep it warm and inviting.
• Consider the words that you say within those first few seconds, to my business clients I warn them against an immediate jump in. Set the baseline for trust, let business flow after that has started. Don’t bamboozle your customer or visitor, a simple “How can I help you?” The ‘How’ invites an open conversation where you get to show case your customer care skills which is what you want to happen because by this point you can embed in your great rapport skills.
• The first impression that you want to give will change depending on where you are and what you want to achieve. So before you go out there to start making that impression firstly think about what image you would like to give the other person. What you think and feel, your intentions and emotions will come through in your body language because it is the most fluent form of communication that we have so if you can focus on a particular image of yourself that you want to get across, you are more likely to actually behave in that way.

The non verbal world is the most powerful way we can communicate, it’s the most fluent and wonderfully accurate way we can get a message across and when we get it right we can produce amazingly powerful, highly effective and influential results that everyone can benefit from.

Want to know more about body language? check out my website at Kaizen Insight 

The Receptionist

I was sitting in a waiting room not so long ago reading a 2014 Hello magazine and getting lost in wondering what these people were doing now when a young man approached the reception desk to book in for his appointment.

The young man had checked in himself with his mum present to support communication if necessary, the receptionist recognised that the young man wore hearing aids in both ears and had a speech impediment which presented itself as a stutter.  I could see that the receptionist felt unsure of how to communicate and feeling unsure of how to handle the situation had spoken directly to his mum.

I introduced myself and spoke about Visits Unlimited and how we support the process of developing confidence to communicate with individuals who have a disability and also highlighted that many people live with a ‘hidden’ disability and that more than likely they will be coming across more than one person a day that they would never know lived with some form of disability.

We briefly identified why she felt nervous and unconfident in communicating with this young man, then we created some strategies that she could easily tap into to support her to deal with those and instead recognise this young man’s capability, his need to be independent, his wanting to learn to manage his own appointments because these are big accomplishes to his confidence developing.

We did some fast work around body language and how to use it to show confidence, to show connection and to show that he is important at that moment and that there’s a really good reason mum’s in the background. We worked around her main obstacle which was not knowing how to communicate with an individual that she recognises requires hearing support. 

Your receptionist is so important to your business.

One of the most important roles within any business is the receptionist, the first impression of your company or business comes from here. Your clients, visitors and customers will either feel cared for and respected or herded to their seat where they blend into lack of importance. Reception is the gateway to how you want others to see the service or experience you provide and it’s important that your front line team receive the dynamic training that allows them the skills, awareness and time to apply great quality service. 

A few minutes was all it took to alleviate the receptionists lack of confidence and support her to feel more open, less self conscious about adapting communication approaches and recognising the importance of her role in providing a safe and respected experience for any individual. That few minutes will create a foundation for her to continue gaining more confidence. 

How we can help you.

If you or your team would like to be supported to develop a powerful experience for individuals who are disabled, then we can provide packages of assessments of your area and how to make cost effective and reasonable adjustments to make your space welcoming, friendly and accessible. We can provide you with an awareness of your clients and share with you some highly effective communication techniques that can easily be adaptable when communicating with anyone who requires extra support, please contact Katie Clarke at Visits Unlimited.  

The skills, strategies and techniques that we teach and provide are transferable and helps you to create a sustainable model of communication management that developed confidence and helps to manage all situations. 

Our carers are so important to us.

Carers can make daily activities a little less challenging for us and they can really support our family days out and family experiences to be more enjoyable.

I have a teenager; he’s 15 years old with learning disabilities. He’s a great student at school, he’s apparently joyful, helpful and hardworking. I say apparently because at home he’s moody, he answers back, he’s rude and can be frustratingly disrespectful but we get it.

Recently my son was having a melt down at home whilst a good friend of mine was over having a coffee. My wonderful friend offers me a chocolate biscuit to dip into my almost cold coffee by this point as my son stomps upstairs, shouting his version of horrible and disrespectful words to me as well as telling me he no longer wants me as his mum.

 “Teenagers.” My friend says. “Mines the same, it’s their hormones.”

But her teenage son isn’t the same as mine. Her teenager at 15 has his own phone, freedom, is able to take the train with his friends to Manchester, he checks in by phone when he should and comes home safety, on time and raves freely about their adventures in the big city. He’s growing up into a fine young man, planning college and what he’d like to study. He goes to the cinema, hangs out with his pals, goes to a football game and fills his diary with great social activities.

My son at the same age completely understands that there’s a world out there that he can’t access like some of his friends. My son can’t navigate transport on his own, make safe decisions or appropriate choices, work out what to do if he’s lost, deal with strangers, cross roads, locate the right food for lunch and a drink, hold a clear conversation and be understood and he can experiences great levels of anxiety without a capable adult there to translate this complex world for him.

Now remember back to when you were 15, did you want your parents around you 24/7? Wasn’t it PGL time (parents get lost). You wanted your time, your freedom. You wanted to fly the nest in a safe way, on that elastic band where you could go out, be all that and strut your independent stuff but come home at the end of the day for dinner and your warm bed with your clean clothes folded on the chair waiting for you to put them away.

My son like many of our children, friends or parents with disabilities, they want that too.

A carer can be such an anchor for us.

When we met the guy who became James’s carer and we watched how they gelled and James suddenly had someone in his life for a few hours a week that wasn’t his parents or his grandparents but his buddy, his friend who would let him have that independence. Where they could high five the goal James scored at the local football club his carer got him into. Where James could run around with a whole bunch of 20 something young men who have all become his big ‘bro’s’ and look out for him. Where he can be more like the other kids around him because for James, they would see him out with his pal just like they were doing.

His pal who takes him to the Man City stadium because James really wanted to go, who hangs out with him, chats about guy stuff and takes him for rides around in his car. The guy who’s cool and let’s him have a bit more freedom when they’re out doing activities, having experiences and enjoying attractions.

That person who on paper is a carer but in our lives is the person – or team – who can transform our children’s life experiences, open there worlds that little bit more and feel much more free without the constant parental guidance.

Days out with carers are so important, there’s a dynamic that is essential for our children’s growth and allows us the learning of stepping back even if it’s just for a few hours.

When you see a carer supporting their client on a day out, or if you welcome them into your visitor attraction, know that carers can mean so much to our children or family members and because of that they mean so much to us. They are an important person within our family unit and we can cherish them, carers who help us navigate a day out experience are worth their weight in gold and for all those visitor attractions who recognise their importance, thank you.

For more information on carers see Carers Trust

Hebden Bridge Rocks and clearly Chris is enjoying his work!

There are many things to love about Hebden Bridge, just ask the people that live here or the people that visit. But the more Visits Unlimited work within it’s infrastructure, work alongside the town’s residents the more we absorb it’s true asset and that is it’s intrinsic drive of resilience.

Chris recently assessed Hope Street Baptist Church and soon found out that the residents aren’t the only resilient ones, the buildings seem to share that there determination to stay up and stay strong.

“My latest visit was to Hope Street Baptist Church. Big landmark with a presence, town centre, main road.  You’d think after being completely flooded out twice in four years with a church full of original wooden pews, walls crumbling with the damp, roof splitting and leaking you might be tempted to write the whole thing off.  Not so fast!”

“With typical northern grit the whole structure has been stabilised, pews rescued and plaster renewed with a midsummer date set for full opening! Quite a statement when we’re all sat there in hard hats with planks of wood above us to stop the big chunks of falling plaster and netting to catch the rest!”

But it’s not just church services that Chris has been invited too…

“I’ve also been invited to the first rock concert so I can see if my recommendations for accessible seating, and for inclusive hearing systems have been followed, and more importantly – do they work!”

So whilst Chris puts the hard slog of grafting in within the town, the preparations are being set for the training sessions which is content and premium rich so keep an eye out because we shall be advertising them on here soon as well as our social media page and via the Town Hall.

If you see Chris on his travels around do stop and say hi and we look forward to seeing you very soon.

Manchester City Helped Me Score The Best Goal!

Not being a football fan myself the over enthusiasm my son shares with his PA goes way over my head but I think as parents we did good this year and scored the ultimate christmas present for my manchester city mad 15 year old!

Manchester City Surprise.

Actually it was Groupon that gave us the idea; book a Manchester City Tour now! So I did but even with all of my background and usual obsession with forward thinking and planning I forgot to ask the ultimate question a parent needs to ask if they have a child who has extra needs: Is this accessible?

With fingers crossed I dived for the phone and began preparing my list of questions and hoped for some easy and clear answers, after all having just come back from Harry Potter World where we were spoilt with accessibility greatness I felt I was holding my breath.

What can I say? The whole conversation was amazing, I was put straight through to the tour organising team and their care and attention to detail wonderful. They always used his name as we spoke, his PA went free, they told me every little detail of where to park the colour of the car park who would meet us and everything in between. Manchester City were scoring high on my happy list.  The last thing the customer service guy said to me before the end of the phone call was; “We really look forward to meeting James and we’ll make sure he has the best time!”

Man City sang music to my ears!

What parent doesn’t want to hear that! I was so excited about his day out I was almost exploding when I told him (I had to keep it quiet for 3 weeks!). The ending of this story is that Man City pulled through on everything they said they would. James and his PA had an amazing day – even though his PA is a Chelsea supporter (think he kept that bit quiet as they’d recently beat Man City).

A leap of faith paid off so thank you Manchester City Stadium Tour team for giving my wee laddie a great experience and making us apparently the best parents in the world!

Manchester City Football Stadium Tours

Happy new year from all of us!

2016 had it’s downs but for Visits Unlimited we had our ups as well. We have a lot to celebrate following some great training, meeting tonnes of great people and creating some really strong connections. We are passionate about supporting venues to help create memorable days out for families and for people who live with disabilities and we feel we really did that last year so this year we are aiming to do it bigger and better!

2017 is only a few days old and we have a great journey ahead of us to help design a more accessible tourist industry so that we can all enjoy the many amazing attractions that the UK can boast about.

This is our goal and commitment this year and we all wish you the best success for 2017 and the fulfilment of your own personal and professional determinations.

From the whole team at Visits Unlimited we wish you a great 2017!

Training packages with a difference.

We like a challenge and Dunham Massey gave us one, our 7 hour training programme condensed into 2 hours.  Katie being Katie can make anything happen so taking the great gems from the course she created this pocket sized training programme that packs a punch.

Feedback? Well one of the managers at Dunham Massey said the same thing as what staff said at The Deep for example, stating that our training, whilst focusing on great accessibility for visitors and for staff who have a disability; is as much focused on great customer care and service for all visitors.  That’s the feedback we wanted because then we know that we got it right.

If there’s one thing that being parents of children with disabilities has taught us it’s adaptability. We want to get the message across, we want our great visitors attractions in the UK to have the best and most accurate information and the best confidence building training.

That’s our focus and we keep our values at the core of any planning of programmes we make. So even though we delivered a 2 hour session taken from our prime programme, we got the messages across we wanted too and we delivered content that was immediately applicable to situations, thought provoking for future development for their centre and confidence building for their staff.

Now we are rolling out this programme so send us an email now and find out how and when we can deliver a great training package to your attraction or centre and let’s get you on the accessibility map.

Dunham Massey National Trust

Dunham Massey invited Visits Unlimited to spend 2 hours training 90 members of their staff with our customer service and accessibility training package.

We arrived early to be treated to a rather wonderful and informative walk through a part of their park to be met at the end with some home made butternut squash and spice soup, fresh sausage rolls and sandwiches. It’s not difficult to love our job!

Dunham Massey is mainly run by volunteers and there’s nothing short of enthusiasm in everyone of them making it such a pleasure to deliver our training package.

Katie Clarke and Karen Hickton from team Visits Unlimited packed those two hours with practical, directive information that didn’t just deliver the academic requirements but allowed the space for the 90 strong crowd to really get a glimpse of what the visitors journey really looks like.

The audience representing this great National Trust visitors attraction gave us their full attention, the group exercises turned out to be so productive we took away lots of ideas as much as they did to apply to the Dunham Massey experience.

What we thought of Dunham Massey

It was nothing short of an excellent afternoon, we got a warm welcome from everyone and the only downside for us was that when we finished it was dark and we couldn’t go for more of a wonder around the grounds. Still, we definately were left with the feeling that we’d be going back with our families to see the deer again and get that warm welcome we know we’ll get.

We know how hard it can be to find a day out that ticks a lot if not all of the boxes if you yourself have a disability or care for someone who has. We definately recommend Dunham Massey because this team will work really hard to make sure you have a great day out and they focus on everyone having a great day out.

Dunham Massey information.

RAF Cosford 5 stars. Cost effective, educational, fun and accessible day out and we loved it.

When there’s a group of 12 of you, you want to spend a few hours in a place that’s easy and enjoyable for all the family and we found it. Easy to find off the motorway and perfect on a Sunday morning with the more quiet energy of road. We rocked up and found the parking without any issues (parking was £3.00). Disabled parking bays thoughtfully marked and positioned, they were all full when we arrived however we had no issues parking and logistics were no more difficult for us.

RAF Cosford was a welcoming and warm building. Spacious as soon as you went in, coffee shop right there (nice prices), spacious seating and toilets all there when you first enter as well. This museum is free entry but donations are welcome. History and time lines up on the walls and the learning journey begins.  The pathway route that leads you round the museum and displays are wide, smooth and pleasurable to be on, there were a many wheel chair users there when we were and from what I saw (please note that I am not a wheel chair user myself), the manoeuvrability for individuals wasn’t compromised.

Straight outside for the first bit with some beautiful little and not so little planes proudly retired and displayed.  Engineering through the years is a pretty magnificent thing to see and they literally have so many different planes from all eras of the 1900’s.

The kids loved it and my eldest son who has learning disabilities found it relaxing, he was able to deal wonderfully with the level of stimulation and especially joined in on the science behind aviation design. It was a pleasurable and unrushed experience we would definitely go to again.

 Check it out…

Rebecca Ferguson review, Bridgewater Hall Manchester 24/10/2016

Rebecca Ferguson was little known to me and I was kindly given these tickets by my friend Nadia Clarke due to her being away of the date of the gig. The only prior knowledge I had of Rebecca Ferguson came from hearing her song ‘Nothing’s Real But Love’ and a vague notion that she had participated in The X Factor at some point in her life (Wikipedia tells me she was on it in 2010, and came second.) So my PA and I drove to Manchester to the sound of her Spotify playlist, determined to learn the lyrics to or at least familiarise ourselves with a couple of her songs.

As it turned out, we had more than ample time to study in the car as the sat nav made us circle much of Manchester before we parked and because of this we had to park in a NCP car park which cost an eye-watering £17! There is disabled parking available but it had to be pre-booked and we did not have enough time to do this making this option inaccessible for us.

We also didn’t see anything of the ample menus the Bridgewater Hall website boasts and our only dinner options from I believe the Stalls Bar were a couple of pieces of overpriced pizza and Twixes – there’s a minimum spend to pay when using a card too. Maybe it’s a case of fail to plan is to plan to fail, I’m going back in December for The Sound of Musicals so I will endeavour – and implore you – not to make the same mistakes.

There were strobes and haze that could potentially affect fans with epilepsy but this was well-advertised around the venue.

Rebecca Ferguson herself did not come on till close to 9:30pm (not the advertised start time of 7:30pm) but when she did it was with a bang. Her songs included Mistress from her latest album, Superwoman and the toe-tapping I Hope (from the older album, Freedom). The repetitive chorus of this song made if both catchy and easy to learn, and she also catered for newer fans with a rendition of the c Chaka Khan’s classic: I’m Every Woman.

Overall it was a lovely night even if hectic at first, and while I’m not sure I’m a loyal Ferguson fan, Bridgewater Hall do host many musical theatre stars whom I admire so in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger: hasta la vista baby, I’ll be back!

Want to check more out on Bridgewater Hall? Click me…

Supporting partially sighted visitors have a great day out.

You want to provide a great day out for your visitors and you want to make sure that your business or attraction is accessible for people who experience life with a disability.  By providing a safe and welcoming environment that offers clear directional support you will create an enjoyable experience for partially sighted people to thoroughly immerse themselves into and enjoy.

Some of your visitors may find it difficult to speak up, speak out for what they want and what they need.  They may not be able to protect themselves in certain environments and unless an environment is designed with safety in mind, there is a safe guarding issue.

There are so many things we can do to support visitors who a partially sighted here are a few easy to access changes:

• Paint a white strip on every step so that each step is easy to distinguish and each step can be taken more safely.
• The size of your sign, it’s print, the colours used and the type of font you have.
• Information, directions and instructions in offered in brail or talking points.
• Clear signs that show support for access of guide dogs and making them welcome with water points for their comfort.
• Training for staff so that they can immediately tap into positive, direct verbal communication when talking to visitors because we so often rely on non verbal communication we can easily misrepresent ourselves and leave the visitor feeling unheard and frustrated.
• Keep pathways clear, remove obstacles.

Already you will be thinking about your attraction or business and the environment, your policies and what you can do to make things easier. Why not check out the RNIB for more information about how you can make your area more welcoming, safer and accessible for people who are partially sighted.