Disability News

Wheelchair evacuation chair video

Video demonstration of the latest ChairMate evacuation chair for wheelchair users.

New range of wheelchair ramps

New range of permanent wheelchair ramps

A totally new concept, the Permaramp range is designed to be easily adjusted and fixed down or left in place for all types of thresholds

(Click on image for larger picture)

Easy wash surface for long life and re-use Quick and easy to set up Unique gripdeck surface for sustained outside use Fixing options at top and bottom for secure location Excellent non slip surface

Warwickshire Business Directory

We are now listed in the Warwickshire Business Directory a free directory for Warwickshire based small businesses.

As well as listing us in our category section we also have our own individual listing here Wheelchair Ramps

The patter of little feet on the dance floor

If you have a child or grandchild who is obsessed with dancing and is insisting on wanting to take dance lessons, there is a way of letting them try dance lessons without having to join a school or fork out loads of money up front.

These Leisure Dancing Passports are specifically aimed at five to 16 year olds who haven’t had much dancing experience (if any at all) and are keen to try several styles. The passports can be used at dance schools all over the UK and each passport is valid for 10 lessons.

This means that your little cherub can try cool and funky dance styles like disco, freestyle, cheerleading or even more traditional moves such as salsa, rock and roll and ballroom (always a winner with the popularity of Strictly Come Dancing!).

We’ve just had a look on the website selling the dance lesson vouchers and it seems you can buy a dance passport for two children, which sounds like a great idea, so siblings or best friends can go to the lesson together if they choose.

Recommended gradient for wheelchair ramps

We quite often receive requests for wheelchair ramps from people who don’t really know how long the ramp should be to be safe on the step they are tying to make accessible.

As a general rule most ramp manufacturers recommend a gradient no steeper than 1:12 for independant use and 1:6 for assisted use.

A simple calculation for finding out ramp lenghs is to multiple the height by the ratio.

i.e. if working on a 1:6 ratio multiply the height of step by 6 to give you the minimum lengh of ramp

6″ step x 6 = 36″ (3ft ramp)

Wheelchair ramp systems

A lot of the wheelchair ramps we sell are to small shopkeepers who simple need a little portable wheelchair ramp which they can quickly set up to enable a wheelchair user to gain access to their premisis.

Most of the time a short straight out ramp is suffice, but if it is a particularly narrow pavement, the required lengh of ramp can sometimes end up too close to the edge of the pavement, making it unsafe for a wheelchair user to turn on to.

A way of overcominh this problem is to use a 1.2m square landing platform outside the door and then run a ramp at 90 degrees so that it runs with the pavement rather than running out from it.

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.