Disability News

Celebrating 10 years of ZapCat racing in 2010

If you’re a bit of a water sports fan, you’ll be pleased to hear 2010 is set to be a big year in the world of Zapcat racing, as the scene is celebrating its tenth year of racing championships.

 Spectacular to watch, these rigid inflatable boats go like the clappers around the open water race circuits and this year sees a whole host of races and events being laid on.

 The Zapcat racing season runs from April right through to October in the UK and there should be at least eight Championship Grand Prix events this season, with races in Edinburgh and Wales already confirmed and more expected on the south coast.

 If you’ve never seen Zapcat racing before we can highly recommend it – fast, furious and very competitive, it’s rapidly becoming the new favourite water sport in the UK. If you’d like to have a go, you can book your place on that website to have go at zapcat racing on this activity website I found and get a taste of these marvellous little powerboats on the open waters.

Breathtaking marketing encounter

Just occasionally, I have an encounter with somebody that takes my
breath away. Usually, it’s my colleagues here in the Independent Living
offices who get to share it, but this one was such an egregious
example, I thought I’d tell you too!

We have a subscriber (they had better remain nameless), a significant
multinational organisation that has been with us for eight years, and
whose sales director has told me on more than one occasion that we give
them more sales leads than any other medium.

With their annual contract approaching renewal, I spoke today with
their relatively new (five months or so) marketing manager. When I
asked her if she wanted to continue with their page, she eventually
admitted that she had never actually visited the site. I do wonder what
“marketing” incorporates, if being familiar with the media that provide
sales leads is not part of the remit?

I have now chalked up half a century in advertising and marketing, and
sadly have come to the conclusion that the title of marketing, whatever
the rank, is scattered about with considerably too much abandon!

Make my day – go on to the site, http://www.independentliving.co.uk and
tell me why you are not one of our subscribers. If it’s only down to
funds, more often than not, that’s easy to rectify: whilst accountants
may not be my favourite people, they are always interested in making
money!

Derek Leckie
http://www.independentliving.co.uk

UK Stairlift Suppliers

We decided over the weekend to completely revamp the stairlifts section of our website to give it a more neutral approach.

Our new website marketing expert Gerald Duck pointed out that the vast majority of people looking at the site would be silver surfers and that we should keep the site as clear and precise as possible.

Trust is a big issue with a product like stairlifts, people need to know the product is reliable, safe and will not let them down.

Gerald recommended we remove all the complicated information and simply replace it with a fast call back form so that we could speak to people direct, give them advice over the telephone and provide the reassurance they need.

Gerald Duck Website Marketing Expert

We are pleased to say that we have aquired the services of website marketing expert Gerald Duck to help with the promotion of our latest range of portable wheelchair ramps

Gerald Duck was recently listed as one of the UK’s top 10 website marketing experts by UKSBD and is said to be very selective as to who he works with.

Gerald will be taking control of all online marketing including Search Engine Optimisation and Viral Marketing.

Zero Rated VAT on Wheelchair Ramps

Not long ago I set up some pages on google to display some of our wheelchair ramps

After doing so, I received an email from google asking about VAT, so pointed out to them that if wheelchair ramps are bought by a disabled person for their own personal and domestic use they can be zero rated.

Wheelchair-ramps.co.uk website For Sale

This website is for sale

I am finding it impossible to maintain all my websites at the moment, so have decided to put my wheelchair ramps website up for sale.

I have no idea of a price yet, so will first tidy up a load of old pages and broken links and then take things from there.

It’s a shame, as it was one of my first websites which I used for making money, but I just haven’t got the time needed to keep it updated.

The Queen’s Christmas Speech 2009

Every year I post an AAA Accessible transcript of The Queen’s Christmas Message.

This years can be found here The Queen’s Christmas Message 2009

This years speech praises the Commonwealth armed forces and the importance of the Commomweath in general.

Access Consultants in Hull

We added a new listing to the Access Appraisals access consultants directory today for an Access Consultant in Hull.

About Access provide  Access Consultancy, Design Appraisals, Access Statements and Access Audits on all aspects of disabled accessibility.

They are based in Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire and operate throughout the North East

Further Information

Disabled Access Regulations DDA

Information on disabled wheelchair access ramps Including recommendations from BS 8300:2001 and Part M of current UK building regulations

Disclaimer: The information and advice given on this website is to the best of our knowledge, but we accept no responsibility if acted upon, and advise you contact your architect, building control, planning department, highways department and local fire authority if in any doubt.

Although not necessarily so with existing premises, it is advised that you try to adhere to these recommendations whenever possible.

Part M: access and facilities for disabled people

Current UK Building regulations are slightly different with regard Dwellings and other building, these recommendations are for “Buildings Other Than Dwellings”.

A wheelchair ramp will comply with Part M if it;

Has a non-slip surface.
Is 1.5m wide with a minimum unobstructed width of 1.5m.
Has a maximum individual flight of 10m and maximum
gradients of 1:20 if longer than 5m, 1:15 if longer than 2m
or 1:12 if shorter than 2m.
Has top and bottom landings no less than 1.2m and intermediate
Landings of 1.5m every 10m.
Has 100mm high raised kerbs to any open side of ramp or landings
Has a continuous suitable handrail on each open side when
the ramp excedes 2m

Part M: access and facilities for disabled people is available from The Stationary Office here for £13.00, or a free downloadable version in pdf format is available from The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister here

BS 8300:2001

A more recent document BS 8300:2001 Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people. Code of practice
has been produced by the British Standards Institution
BS 8300:2001, is a source of best practice for architects, builders, and facilities managers. It encourages innovative design solutions for different types of building, including homes, shops and theatres.
A number of sections provide guidelines and recommendations in relation to disabled access and ramps in particular and it tends to offers a more detailed version than the building regulations document Part M.
At a cost of nearly £:220.00 it is a little expensive and to date, does not appear to be available free of charge online without a subscription.
Fortunately, it is available for viewing free of charge at most Public Libraries (I suggest you check with you local library first and book a time to use their facilities)

For further information on BS8300

Portable Wheelchair Ramps

There are recommendations concerning portable ramps in BS8300:2001, but in a number of circumstances, primarily with existing premises they can be difficult to adhere to.
A key point to bear in mind is the DDA’s phrase:

“Where a physical feature (for example, one arising from the design or construction of a building or the approach or access to premises) makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled persons to make use of such a service, it is the duty of the provider of that service to take such steps as it is reasonable”

“Reasonable adjustments” is a phrase that if you have not heard yet, you more than likely will do other the coming months. It is the so called “grey area” of the Act which will surely be a key point for the courts to decide.
What constitutes a “reasonable adjustment”? – Their is no easy answer, but in my personal oppinion all cases will be dealt with individually.
For instance
A new, or an existing high value property would reasonably be expected to comply with all recommendations under BS8300 and Part M.
Where as, a small local village shop, salon etc. would reasonably be expected to make minor alterations and provide auxiliary aids, such as clipboards, audio aids, trained assistance, portable wheelchair access ramps etc.
If you would like to make any comments on the information displayed on, or this website in general I would be most grateful to receive them.
Please email any comments to,
Mr.Terry Simmonds
(Director)
Access Appraisals Ltd
www.wheelchair-ramps.co.uk

RBS Wheelchair Access

Finally a court case has upheld the requirements of the Disability Descrimination Act DDA which makes it a requirement for all service providers to provide accessible buildings and make reasonable adjustments to existing buildings.

The Act came in in October 2004 and it has taken 5 years before a judge has ruled on a high profile case such as this without the company involved settling out of court to keep things quiet.

18 year old student David Allen was awarded £6,500 damages after he took legal action after the Royal Bank of Scotland failed to to make its Church Street branch in Sheffield wheelchair accessible.

RBS have also been istructed to carry out the necessary work to make the propery accessible at an estimated cost of £200,000

There have been other cases over the years, but none of these have been decided by a court, now that this one has it could become a precedence and hopefully encourage other service providers to make the changes they are legally obliged to do.

The days of the DDA being totally ignored are hopefully numbered and this could lead to far greater equality for disabled people throughout the UK.