‘Businesses that fail on access are losing revenue and damaging their brand’
‘START WITH THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY’: Ian Streets
Chewing the Fat, out to lunch with Phil Ascough
This week’s guest: Ian Streets from About Access
Chewing the fat with Ian Streets is hardly a chore. We have most of our meetings in local bars and restaurants and always, of course, putting duty first.
Instinctively we’ll find ourselves assessing the ins and outs of the venue. That is literally whether people can actually get in and out of it! As an access consultant, Ian is also an expert on the wider facilities and amenities, and whether they help or hinder people who want to use them.
The strapline for his business, About Access, is “for an inclusive world…” You sense that awareness of the issues is increasing, but at the same time it’s clear that some people, even those designing and developing the built environment, don’t know where to start.
“There’s one place we go which has a ramp between the restaurant and the kitchen,” Ian said.
“Now it’s not a massive issue because it’s not in a public area, but the ramp is way too steep. It’s intended purely for service trolleys, but it’s a regular reminder that there are regulations about the gradient for ramps which are designed for wheelchair users.
“At another place I checked the accessible loo. It was fine. Now if only they’d moved the beer barrels that were stacked against the door… The manager of another venue was gushing with pride about the quality of their accessible loo. Again, it was fine, but a high table right outside meant wheelchair users and people with other mobility aids would find it very difficult to open the door.”
HORROR SHOW: This carpet in a hotel corridor can cause problems for some
The most staggering level of ignorance I encountered came years ago, long before I started working with Ian. I used to play five-a-side football once a week on an outdoor pitch at a village sports centre. The car park had one accessible space which would be claimed every week by one of our group. He was non-disabled and just took the space because it was the closest to the gate leading to the pitch.
When questioned about this he would always reply: “I know it’s for disabled people but they won’t be using a sports centre anyway.”
The terminology is noteworthy. The language has moved on. Wheelchair user rather than wheelchair-bound. Non-disabled rather than able-bodied. Accessible loo – or parking place – rather than disabled. The facilities aren’t “disabled” but they are disabling if they are not properly accessible.
And then there’s the question of why it matters. The point is that making places, products and services accessible is the right thing to do. By installing ramps alongside steps you’re literally levelling up. Most disabled people will tell you they’re not asking the world to give them a head start – they just want a few adjustments here and there to give them the same opportunities as anybody else.
In case people struggle to grasp that, the rights of disabled people are backed up by law. But here, again, there’s an issue around awareness with many people – including property industry professionals – describing premises as “DDA-compliant”.
The only DDA in effect now is the Dangerous Dogs Act. The Disability Discrimination Act was replaced by the Equality Act of 2010, in which disability is one of nine protected characteristics. Breaches can be costly both financially and in terms of reputation.
GETTING IT RIGHT: A ramp and steps at Wilberforce Health Centre
But in addition to warning clients about the big stick to punish offenders, Ian applies a sharp focus on the carrot, the benefits of building a customer base, talent pool and positive profile – all essentials for a serious, progressive organisation.
Lurking in the background is the notion that an organisation doesn’t need to consider how accessible its premises are because it doesn’t have any staff or customers who are disabled.
You’re entitled to ask them how they can be sure of that, and to tell them about hidden disabilities. Ask them also how they can predict the accessibility needs of people who haven’t yet visited, and what they would do in the event of someone in their team acquiring an impairment, which can happen gradually or in seconds.
Ian illustrates the point by telling how he embarked on his career in the first place. He’d been studying quantity surveying at Leeds Polytechnic but left during his second year to join the family business of four fish and chip shops.
Over the years his father’s health faded, he’d had a triple heart bypass and then passed away. Ian’s mother remarried and Ian faced a new scenario.
Ian revealed: “Suddenly I had a step sister who had very complex needs. Until then I thought I knew about disability but I realised very quickly I knew nothing. The business came from there.”
PUBLIC INCONVENIENCE: Some visitors would find it hard to use these facilities
It’ll be 25 years next year since Ian started to specialise in accessibility and 20 years in 2026 since he set up About Access. He’s based in Anlaby but almost all of his work is much further afield – The O2 in London, Network Rail, overseas with global brands operating in retail, property, pharmaceuticals and leisure, production companies who are working to make their reality TV shows ever more inclusive and who won’t say any more than that until at least after the broadcast.
The reward for businesses who get their accessibility right is a share of the £274bn which the charity Scope reported in 2023 as the annual value of the Purple Pound – the spending power of disabled people and their companions in the UK.
Scope revealed that 40 per cent of disabled people said they can’t visit local shops because they are inaccessible, and 70 per cent said they would not return to a business after experiencing bad customer service.
Any business owner who thinks they can clean up by targeting those dissatisfied customers online can think again. Scope reported that 73 per cent of disabled online shoppers have experienced barriers with more than a quarter of the websites they’ve visited. The charity also found that 47 per cent of disabled people had faced issues navigating websites.
Essentially, if half a dozen people turn up for dinner at a swanky restaurant only to find one of them can’t get up the steps in their wheelchair, all six will go elsewhere and they won’t come back, but they might post a few things on social media. That’s not good for business.
Barely a week goes past without the media reporting on someone who has been stuck on a train or a plane because there was no assistance for wheelchair users. Ian says such stories are raising awareness, but there’s no substitute for a proactive approach.
Ian said: “During my first year I don’t think we got any work. I did some freebies just to get experience because hardly anybody was interested in accessibility.
“It very slowly progressed from there to where I am today, working all over the UK and internationally. I think the difference is that general awareness has improved among larger organisations.
“Many smaller organisations still don’t understand it, but where they may win compared with the larger organisations is that they care about the business and they recognise that getting people through the door puts money in the tills. There are still some businesses though that haven’t got a clue and still take the view that it doesn’t matter because it only affects a small minority of people.”
It’s a constant source of frustration for Ian that so many designers and developers are unable to anticipate the accessibility needs of disabled people, and fail to seek the early advice which can save huge amounts of time and money.
Logically it should be possible to tell just by studying a drawing whether doors are wide enough for wheelchairs, ramps are not too steep but also not too long, accessible loos have the washing and drying facilities within easy reach of the WC, as well as enough room for mobility aids.
In addition to structural and fit-out issues there can be problems with furnishings and décor – I sent Ian a photograph of a hotel corridor carpet with its horror show of lines of varying thickness with black, white and assorted shades of grey bundled together.
He said: “The best starting point is with the customer journey, and that’s because anticipating a person’s route through a building is the best way to identify any obstacles that might prevent them from getting where they want to be.
“The process is far from straightforward because non-disabled people will not necessarily recognise and anticipate the features which can make the built environment inaccessible to others.
PROVISION: Accessible parking bays
“In addition, someone who has a particular type of impairment, such as mobility, will not necessarily understand the accessibility needs of someone who has a different condition, for example visual or hearing impairment.
“In following the customer journey around and inside a building you should therefore apply a pan-disability perspective, starting with the approach to the property. If you don’t get it right you risk ending up with something else which we discuss a lot – an island of accessibility in a sea of inaccessibility.
“Why should a disabled person always have to take a companion whenever they go out and about just because commercial premises haven’t been designed to be accessible? Steps are a trip hazard for people who are visually impaired and they present challenges to a lot of people – we are an ageing population.
“We have always included hidden disabilities in our work and there is much more awareness now, particularly with growing awareness of people who are neurodivergent – it’s more personalised than a lot of the other impairment groups. One person might have difficulties with the bands of light from a venetian blind and with another it might be the material pattern on a chair or a carpet. These should be easy to rectify.”
Activities in Hull have included conducting consultations with disability representative groups about the accessibility of the city’s cultural buildings and a close involvement with Hull Access Improvement Group (HAIG).
“We review planning applications and projects,” Ian said.
“We looked at aspects of the Castle Street improvement scheme, notably pedestrian accessibility around Murdoch’s Connection. With businesses and their commercial premises the scenarios vary – one of the issues down Whitefriargate is that new shop fronts are being provided and in some cases that’s removing the step-free access.
“But compared with other places Hull doesn’t have any particular issues with accessibility. The city council is trying its best to improve accessibility but is always fighting with one hand tied behind its back because of the lack of funds. It does help that it’s flat!”
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