VISIT WITH CONFIDENCE

Knowing what to expect makes planning a trip so much easier. So many places have been making changes so that they can safely reopen. At Euan’s Guide, we want to do all that we can to make sure information about these changes and venues’ disabled access are easy to find. That’s why we’ve introduced a new feature on our website to enable people to quickly find places to visit where information has been shared on venues’ COVID precautions. To make this feature as useful as possible, we are calling on reviewers to tell us about the places they have visited recently by adding disabled access reviews to our website. We already hold thousands of reviews for all sorts of places, including shops, restaurants, parks and transport hubs. At the same time. we’re also reaching out to venues to get them to update their listings with information on the changes they have put in place.

When leaving a review we ask you to rate the place’s disabled access between 0 and 5 stars. To help make the review more useful we ask you to talk about the venue’s disabled access, how you got there, what the toilets were like and how you found the staff. Now we also ask you to say whether or not you felt ‘COVID Confident’ visiting the venue. This simply means whether or not you were happy with the measures they had put in place. There is then the opportunity to provide more information on the venue’s preventative measures within your review. As our co-founder Euan MacDonald says: “Our reviews are written by and for disabled people. Disabled access reviews are a powerful way of quickly finding new places I can visit. They remove the guesswork and make planning a trip simpler and easier. Reviews are particularly needed right now as venues make changes that could negatively impact on their accessibility. Together we can celebrate the places who prioritise their accessibility and encourage others to make changes to improve their access for everyone.”

As Euan mentioned, reviewing on Euan’s Guide not only provides other people with useful information, it is also a great way to provide venues with valuable feedback. We email venues new reviews that they receive, that way they are reading your feedback and can easily find areas where they can improve. We surveyed hundreds of disabled people to find out what their concerns are around places reopening and what precautions they would like to see put in place. Our

research showed that people are particularly concerned about other people not keeping a safe distance away and not having access to adequate and clean toilet facilities. Things that people are particularly looking for, which would be great to reference in your review, are:

Accessible routes that can be navigated independently

Clear marking to encourage people to social distance

Sanitising stations, with hand sanitiser and wipes, that are at an accessible height Another concern that we were hearing from our users that we were keen to address was a lack of understanding that some people are exempt from wearing a face mask. People who are exempt told us that they were worried about being confronted for not wearing a mask. Similarly, research from Disability Rights UK showed that nearly 60% of people who cannot wear a face covering fear being challenged for not wearing one. In response to this, we created ‘Face Mask Exempt’ badges which we have been giving out for free to disabled people who are exempt from wearing a face covering.

People’s reasons for being exempt may not be obvious at first glance. The badge has been designed to make the wearer feel more comfortable visiting places where the majority of people will be wearing a face covering. It can stand out and quickly alert others that there is a reason why the individual is not wearing a mask. We hope that it will prevent unnecessary questioning and harassment that people might otherwise face. We received requests for 10,000 badges within the first three weeks of offering them – a number far exceeding our initial expectations. We were able to fulfil the orders thanks to generous donations. And we hope that with the support of further donations we will be able to keep producing and distributing more badges for as long as they are required. To leave a review on Euan’s Guide visit EuansGuide.com/ write-a-review.

To request a ‘Face Mask Exempt’ badge visit EuansGuide. com/badge.