Accessible routes to Capitals sights

Direct Enquiries Charts London’s Top Attractions
Website details accessible routes to Capitals sights

directenquiries.com, the Nationwide Access Register, today launches a new service for Londoners and their visitors.  The website now provides a step by step route planner to some of London’s key tourist venues, specifically aimed at people with disabilities, access issues and parents with pushchairs. 

Following the success of the GOJO campaign, initiated by the Disability Rights Commission whereby directenquiries.com assessed five major cities, further routes have been assessed to include Buckingham Palace, the Churchill War Museum and Cabinet Rooms, HMS Belfast, the Imperial War Museum, the London Eye, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Science Museum, the Tower of London, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Westminster Abbey. 

For each location, visitors are presented with symbols summarising the support facilities available together with details of the attraction and options for planning their route.  The route planner service allows visitors to prioritise the obstacles they wish to avoid and presents a personalised route.  Each journey planner clearly states the total distance in metres from the closest Underground station, includes an interactive map, annotated pictures and a step by step route description to the venues most accessible entrance.  Where certain obstacles such as stairs cannot be avoided, the route planner clearly states the number of stairs to be negotiated and the presence of handrails.

This new facility complements the detailed information already available on directenquiries.com about London Underground’s entire network, plus it enhances the access information about Exeter, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.

Wayne Trevor, Accessibility Development Manager, London Underground commented, "Built by the Victorians, the Underground wasn't designed with our current standards of accessibility in mind.  Recognising this, London Underground has a long term strategy for investment and improvements to overcome these issues.  The information gathered and published by directenquiries.com is part of this investment and enables passengers to workout their route in advance to avoid pre-filtered obstacles.   Adding accessible routes to major tourist attractions is a logical progression and provides a comprehensive service to anyone with mobility issues."

Grant Kennedy, Chief Executive, directenquiries.com, commented on the new development, “The London attraction service is a natural extension to directenquiries.com.  With the entire London Underground assessed for accessibility, it seemed a logical progression to link in some of the capital’s key attractions.”

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, PizzaExpress, 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 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