Make your business accessible

Accessibility is all about removing barriers—whether they're physical, digital, informational, or attitudinal. It benefits everyone, including customers and colleagues with diverse identities. 

For accessible tourism to truly shine, it must deliver products, services, and environments that empower people with impairments and accessibility needs, to enjoy independence and autonomy in their experiences

VisitEngland's Accessible and Inclusive Tourism Toolkit for Businesses

 For essential guidance to help you improve your welcome for customers with accessibility requirements, check out VisitEngland’s Accessible and Inclusive Tourism Toolkit for Businesses, which includes practical tips and action checklists specific to your business type and technical built environment guidance for when new-build, refurbishment, conversion, and adaptation projects are possible.

AccessAble Accessibility Guides 

Accessibility is not just about wheelchair ramps. It includes a vast range of needs: neurodivergence, visual or hearing impairments, chronic conditions, and more. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work, which is why trusted, accurate, and tailored information is key. 

• 16 million disabled people and 4.9 million carers live in the UK. They actively seek out venues that can meet their needs. 

• 98% of disabled people look for access information before visiting a venue for the first time. 

• 3 in 4 will choose not to visit if they can’t find the information they need. 

• The Purple Pound—the collective spending power of disabled people and their families—stands at £274 billion per year. 

VisitEngland has partnered with AccessAble to help businesses provide detailed, accurate accessibility guides. 

AccessAble currently supports over 6 million users annually, helping them make confident decisions about where to visit, stay, and spend. For Dorset, this is an opportunity to close the information gap and ensure that no one is excluded due to a lack of information.

Get Involved 

AccessAble hold monthly Accessibility Guide Webinars for businesses to discover why they need a Detailed Access Guide and how to commission their own through the easy-to-use self-serve portal. 

Signing up with AccessAble not only positions your venue as inclusive and welcoming, it also opens doors to new audiences and untapped revenue.

Learn more and get started today: Visit Dorset AccessAble Portal

Why it’s important? 

• Improving customer service and the visitor experience; 

• Meeting the needs of underserved markets i.e. disabled people; 

• Responding to changing markets i.e. an ageing population; 

• Tapping into the growth of ‘3G’ family holidays and breaks (where three generations of a family travel together); 

• Ensuring that valuable business is not lost: one person with accessibility requirements can influence a whole group’s travel plans; 

• Contributing to sustainable and responsible tourism product development; 

• Growing visitor numbers, both domestically and inbound; 

• Creating more job opportunities for disabled people; 

• Boosting the image of your business 

• Return visit and advocates for your business 

Updating your listing/s 

If you are a Visit Dorset member and have a listing for your business on the visit-dorset.com website, it’s really important that you keep this listing up to date with your accessibility information. Log in to the Extranet where you can update your business accessibility information within the Classifications – Facilities tab. Contact the Visit Dorset team if you need assistance in updating your content. 

Images 

Do you have any great images showing visitors enjoying your place to stay, attraction, shop, restaurant or experience? We are always on the lookout for inclusive imagery to showcase the region, these will be used on the visit-dorset.com website and social media channels as well as for press and media enquiries, and more, so please share with us what you have. 

Case Studies 

Find out more about how businesses in Dorset are making their premises accessible to all and why they feel this is so valuable.    

Accessibility at Marsham Court Hotel 

At Marsham Court Hotel, we believe everyone should be able to plan and enjoy a welcoming, comfortable and stress-free stay. Improving accessibility is an important part of our commitment to inclusive tourism. 

We worked with AccessAble to create a detailed access guide, giving guests clear and accurate information about our bedrooms, entrances, public areas, facilities and routes through the hotel. The assessment helped us view the guest experience from different perspectives, recognise what we do well and identify opportunities for further improvement. 

We also provide videos on our website showing our bedrooms, enabling guests to see the layout and facilities before booking. Our website’s Assist Me button offers additional support for visitors with different accessibility needs, helping them navigate and personalise their online experience. 

We work with WelcoMe, which allows guests to notify us of their accessibility requirements before they arrive. This enables our team to prepare, provide appropriate assistance and offer a more personal welcome. 

Providing detailed accessibility information is just as important as providing accessible facilities. It reduces uncertainty, supports independence and gives guests greater confidence when deciding whether the hotel meets their needs. For our business, these initiatives have improved staff awareness, strengthened our customer service and helped us welcome a wider and more diverse audience. 

Rosie Radwell, Managing Director of Marsham Court Hotel 

Accessibility at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery 

Everyone is welcome at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery. Access and Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do, shaping our spaces, our programme of activities and the organisation’s internal culture. We ensure that everyone – regardless of their physical, sensory, cognitive or socio-economic barriers can engage meaningfully with our collections and stories.   

Working with AccessAble, we can be confident that our accessible facilities and resources are communicated by and for the audiences that need them.  The guide has provided a detailed and trusted tool for those with access needs, to plan and enjoy their visit.  As well as enabling us to better showcase our access provision, AccessAble also helps us to reach a more diverse audience.  As an organisation that is known and trusted by those with access needs, it is a great way for us to reach new visitors that would not be possible, just through our own marketing channels. 

Since creating the AccessAble guide, we have received a large amount of positive feedback and many of our reviews refer to our fantastic access resources that enable visitors to feel safe and supported, therefore getting the most out of their visit. 

Claire Dixon, Executive Director 

Links to further resources to support your business

Marketing your accessible business

Accessible information for visitors on the Visit Dorset website

AccessAble information for visitors

VisitEngland toolkits and best practice guides
 

Dorset’s Ambition to be an Accessible Blue Space Champion 

The Beach Access Project is a UK based initiative working to make beaches easier for everyone to use, especially people with disabilities or health conditions. It was started by Will Behenna, a fulltime wheelchair user who has experienced difficulties of not being able to get onto beaches or into the sea. The project aims to make Dorset the UK’s leading inclusive blue space capital by making beaches somewhere that everyone can enjoy, not just look at from a distance. Right now, many people can reach the coast but can’t get onto the sand or into the water. The project is calling for better paths, equipment and support, so all beaches are welcoming, accessible and fair for everyone. You can find more details about accessible places in Dorset to share with visitors and we’ll be adding more accessible beach information as the project develops.