About Access

About Access provides a variety of services concerned with accessibility for disabled people.

We offer consultancy and accredited practical advice on disabled access to and within buildings, including how the features of a property can help or hinder accessibility.

Our services range from the preparation of Design and Access Statements for new planning applications to audits of completed projects and guidance on what to do when things go wrong.

We deliver training courses on disability awareness and policies, and on the provisions of the Equality Act that are relevant to access. We also conduct courses for aspiring access auditors and we provide guidance for architects.

We do these things partly because there is a growing realisation that disabled people have just as much right as non-disabled people to gain entry to and use buildings and services, and partly because it is the law.

So our aim is to help companies and other organisations ensure that their premises are accessible, and their staff are properly trained and aware of the needs of disabled people and the business opportunities that can result from looking after them properly.

Successful outcomes are a more inclusive world in which disabled people are treated fairly and everybody else recognises that access is about procedures and policies as much as physical barriers.

About Access works with organisations of all sizes around the country in the public and private sectors, and on all property types from listed buildings to those still on the drawing board.

Managing Director Ian Streets is a member of the National Register of Access Consultants and the Access Association and as such works with BSI Standards, the UK’s national standards body, to advise on appropriate designs for buildings and their surrounding areas.