On Saturday disabled people in the UK were encouraged to visit public venues during Disabled Access Day, but I wonder how much of our rich cultural heritage was inaccessible to them?

I work for Revitalise, an amazing national charity that provides respite holiday breaks for disabled people and carers. The issue of accessibility is very close to our hearts since we regularly take our guests on excursions to tourist attractions around the country.

We’ve done a lot of research into this and found some disturbing things. For instance, did you know that only a third of the UK’s top visitor attractions are fully accessible to wheelchair users and eight out of 10 disabled people have experienced problems with the accessibility of major high street stores?

And what is the upshot of this? Sixty-five per cent of disabled people have decided against visiting a tourist attraction and 69 per cent have been put off shopping on their local high street due to accessibility concerns or a simple lack of online information. This is terrible.

We think that disabled people have a right to access all that society has to offer, so why is so much of it off limits to them? Access should be a right, not a privilege, and improving it can be as simple as installing a ramp, taking an awareness course or putting better information online.

At Revitalise we think that public venues should be talking to disabled people themselves about how to become more accessible – after all, who better to ask?

Please join us in our call to make the UK more accessible. For more information about Revitalise breaks and how to support us, visit www.revitalise.org.uk

Colin Brook, Revitalise.

www.revitalise.org.uk