Cumbria County Council Fulfils Disability Equality Duty with Services from Direct Enquiries Ltd

Cumbria County Council fulfils Disability Equality Duty with Services from Direct Enquiries Ltd 

Cumbria County Council, England’s second largest Council, has invested in comprehensive access assessments across 100 meeting venues in Cumbria to meet its Disability Equality Duty (DED) obligations.  The assessments, undertaken by Direct Enquiries, the Nationwide Access Register, will provide people with disabilities or restricted access requirements, detailed information about the services available at each location.

Under the DED, public bodies have to pay ‘due regard’ to the promotion of equality for disabled people in every area of their work.   To this end, Cumbria CC worked with the Cumbria Disability Network (CDN) to find the best way of promoting venues catering for all kinds of disabilities.  The Direct Enquiries service was evaluated and considered to be the most user friendly and comprehensive tool to ensure people with disabilities are able to fully participate in public life.

Joel Rasbash, Equalities Officer, Cumbria County Council commented: “Before the launch of this service, a person with disabilities couldn’t tell how accessible a venue was before getting there.  Now, they can go to Cumbria County Council’s website or directenquiries.com to search for meeting venues and prioritise the support facilities they require.”

The service enables those organising and attending meetings to search against different impairments and find the most accessible venue for delegates.  Therefore, people with disabilities are not excluded and accessibility across the County has a higher profile. “This project will remove the barriers people with disabilities face when taking an active part in public life.  It’s a valuable service to a large section of the community and The Council hopes the Private Sector will follow our lead,” continued Rabash.

The service will be officially launched at the ‘Voices Count – Listening to Disabled People’ event on 2nd July 2007 at the Carlisle Race Course.  The information will however be available on directenquiries.com and the Cumbria County Council website in advance.  Grant Kennedy, Chief Executive, Direct Enquiries commented: “As the number one source of accessibility information across the country, it is a natural progression to include details specific to meeting venues.  Cumbria County Council has demonstrated its commitment to people with disabilities and I’m sure the project will deliver real value to the community.”

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Notes to Editors:

directenquiries.com, was developed as the Nationwide Disabled Access Register in 2002 in partnership with RADAR (Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation) and The Employers' Forum on Disability.  During the past 18 months the information available has grown to include access for parents with pushchairs as well as the general public.  This allowed directenquiries.com to rebrand as The Nationwide Access Register in January 2006.

For users; directenquiries.com provides a full directory service for UK companies detailing the access and facilities available at those sites registered with directenquiries.com.  The register currently includes disabled access information on leading high street names such as Argos, Asda, Boots, Costa Coffee, Gap, John Lewis, LloydsTSB, PC World, Pizza Express, Sainsbury’s and Waterstone’s as well as thousands of small and independent businesses.  The disabled access information encompasses everything from parking, entrances, lifts, toilets, counter heights, wheelchair and pushchair access to staff assistance and auxiliary aids such as Braille, large print and induction loops.

For business; directenquiries.com is the only Nationwide Access Register specifically designed for companies to showcase their disabled access and other facilities.  On average, directenquiries.com receives over 4.2 million hits each month from people looking for businesses, organisations and services with the disabled access they require.   Registration is only £35 per year, per location, for which companies receive the following:

• Nationwide registration on directenquiries.com detailing company name, address and other contact details, including links to their website, should they have one,
• Exclusive access to an interactive Action Plan as required under the Disability Discrimination Act,
• A “More Information” section, equivalent to five pages of A4, updateable on a daily basis.  This allows businesses to include information on forthcoming additions or changes to their disabled access as well as useful information about their business in general,
• Feedback facility providing customer comments and opinion.

For further information, images and interviews please contact us on
01344 360101 or e-mail press@directenquiries.com

www.directenquiries.com