Our mission on accessibility

THIS month we’re celebrating Disabled Access Day – a chance to raise awareness of the need for ease of access at public venues all across the UK.

We understand that for many disabled people, accessibility goes far beyond the realms of simply being able to get in or out of a venue with ease; it’s about being independent, having freedom of choice, embarking on new experiences and living life to the absolute fullest.

Over the years, we’ve conducted plenty of research into accessibility at public venues, including the UK’s Top 100 Tourist Attractions, Premiership and Championship football stadia and major high street stores.

We found that even in today’s society, many public venues continue to fall short of the mark when it comes to being truly accessible.

And, it isn’t just about the obvious moral obligation to make society a more accessible place; there is of course a financial incentive too.

With the spending power of disabled visitors and the so-called ‘Purple Pound’ being a market worth an estimated £212billion, it makes absolutely no sense that public venues still aren’t buying into the idea of becoming fully accessible, at the risk of losing incredibly valuable revenue year on year.

I work for Revitalise – a wonderful charity that runs the Sandpipers respite holiday centre in Southport, providing respite holidays for disabled people and their carers from around the North West region and beyond. We are absolutely resolute in our belief that society should be accessible to everyone.

Stephanie Stone, Revitalise

Pollution is a real killer

FOR some reason, your recent correspondent tries too hard to minimise the significance of the 40,000 deaths that the Royal College of Physicians estimates are caused by pollution (related mostly to road traffic).

I just hope he does not try telling any parents who have just lost their eight-year-old child from pollution-related asthma not to be too upset because pollution reduces life expectancy on average by only one to six months. I find his complacency shocking.

All causes of non-natural death can be laughed off by converting annual casualty numbers into periods of life expectation reduction. On the same assumptions:

• The 78,000 annual smoking casualties would reduce life expectation by about six months;

• The 1,730 annual road deaths by about three days;

• The 61 annual murders by about three hours;

• The 0 railway passenger deaths by no time at all.

Is the writer suggesting that we reintroduce liberal attitudes towards smoking, ignore the dangers of road junction, abandon murder investigations, stop developing safer railway signalling systems? Why has he singled out tackling pollution for inaction?

Estimates of deaths from pollution are inevitably approximate, but the deaths themselves are very real and very high in number. People’s obscure and irrelevant calculations should not deter us from taking urgent action, now.

Phil Smith, Blackburn

Be mindful of your brain

FROM March 13-19 we are asked to be particular mindful of our brain, and how to cope when it malfunctions.

It is a fact that more than 12 million people in the UK have a neurological condition.

The Brain and Spine Foundation is the only UK wide charity providing support and information on the full range of neurological conditions to patients, carers and health professionals.

As charity ambassador for the Brain and Spine Foundation, it is my responsibility to bring people’s attention to Brain Awareness Week, and to encourage them to visit brainandspine.org.

John Kedge, Brain and Spine Foundation