Good Access Guide Blog

Now that’s not a question you expect to be asked at five past nine on a Monday morning. Come to think of it, it’s not the sort of question I’d expect whatever the time of day!

But this morning I spoke to a lovely lady who sounded just like Catherine Tate’s Nan (without the expletives, thankfully), who was desperate to find a supplier of plastic pants.

So I had a quick look on the Good Access Guide while trying to track down plastic pants. Being very aware of the sensitive nature of the subject I was very careful about what I said. This is how our conversation went:

Nan: (You’ll have to add the London accent yourself) I want some plastic pants. Mind you, you sound too young to know what I’m talking about. You’ll have to ask your mother, sonny.

Me: OK, I’ll just have a look for you…

Nan: We used to have these things years ago. Big buggers they were. They had straps to go round your legs, a big flap down below and high enough up your midriff to give Simon Cowell a run for his money…

Me: (deperately searching for suppliers…) Ah, here are some companies that may be able to help…

Nan: We used to wear them about the house when we was doing the housework…

Me: (getting worried now) Really…

Nan: Used to work wonders if you were trying to lose weight…

Me: If you’d like to take down the… details.

Nan: Oh, what a lovely young man you are. The girls will be happy if I can get my hands on these plastic pants.

So there you have it. We list suppliers of ‘plastic pants’ under Continence Care on the Good Access Guide.

But it seems that if you can get the right sort they can also act as an aid to losing weight!

This is a true story… I kid you not.

What a great day that was – our first ever trade stand at the Suffolk Business Exhibition 2010!

Jo, Wendy and me arrived at our allotted time and quickly set about demolishing and then rebuilding our stand. Once this had passed muster we took it in turns to have a wander around the exhibition before it opened to the public.
And in the couple of hours we had to spare we made loads of useful contacts from potential customers to companies that could possibly help us to promote our online Disability Awareness Training.

Once the public were allowed in it seemed to be non-stop. Plenty of people showing a good deal of interest in our various businesses but most especially the training side.

We had a Lowestoft contingent in our aisle – in fact I think our three stands were the only representatives from ‘up North’. We were joined by the Lowestoft Air Festival team and the Lowestoft College crew. It’s a shame that more businesses from here didn’t make the effort to exhibit. Ipswich does seem a long way away when you’re here in Lowestoft and that’s precisely what people in Ipswich think too! So we have to bridge that gap – business from Ipswich won’t just come to us, we need to make that extra effort to attract them…

The event organisers reckon there were over 1500 visitors to the exhibition which means 1500 potential customers – so well worth the trek to Ipswich!

If you didn’t make it to SBE2010 – don’t worry. You can learn more about our online Disability Awareness Training by visiting www.equo.co.uk.

And for anyone who has had the pleasure of speaking to Wendy or Jo on the phone – a picture of them so you can put a face to the name…

On Wednesday (April 28th) the team from GAG HQ are exhibiting (not like that!) at the Suffolk Business Exhibition 2010 in Ipswich.

It’ll be the first outing for our brand new pop-up banners – as long as I can remember how to put them up! I’m sure that with expert help from Jo and Wendy, nothing can go wrong…

So we’ll be telling anyone that’ll listen to us all about the Good Access Guide and also our new online disability awareness training package.

Our disability awareness training has only just been launched and will give businesses the chance to give their staff good quality training at a reasonable price.
And because it’s online there’s no need to get everyone together for a training session, which for most businesses can be both a nightmare to organise and an expensive exercise.

The training is flexible allowing users to start and stop and pick up where they left off. It can also be modified to make it industry specific or to ask more questions about a specific subject.

Jo was gutted at not being able to get back from Egypt for Naidex at the NEC. So I expect she’ll be on top form this Wednesday – visitors to the Suffolk Business Exhibition, you have been warned!!

My feet are still aching from spending two days wandering around Naidex 2010 at the NEC in Birmingham.

There should have been four of us taking in all there was to see but we only made it with three – and it nearly was two!

Jo and her family had gone on holiday to Egypt and got caught up in the aftermath of the volcanic ash saga. With the days ticking down to Naidex it became clear that Jo wouldn’t be home in time – in fact she made it home last Thursday, just as we were leaving the exhibition!

And Paul had a dose of Man Flu, which, as all the ladies know, knocks us chaps for six! But Paul wasn’t going to be defeated by a thumping head, sore limbs or monstrous traffic jams on the M6.

It’s been a few years since I last visited Naidex and it never ceases to amaze me the sheer ingenuity of lone inventors and their corporate competition. The number of products that you see and say to yourself, “Wow, what a fantastic idea!”

We also met some lovely people too as well as making some useful business contacts too…

Now we’ve ‘done’ Naidex we’ll be adding a few more exhibitions to our diary.

Another year draws to a close and a tough one for businesses at that. Yet many have seen the benefit of advertising with the Good Access Guide to fully promote their accessible properties, goods and services. So a big, big thank you to all our existing customers and the many new ones that we have welcomed onboard this year.

We’re hoping that 2010 sees the UK economy start to recover and with it the confidence that must be present for all businesses to move ahead.

The team here are heading off on their Christmas break at close of business on 23rd December. We will all be back, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, slightly overweight and sick of the sight of turkey, on Monday 4th January.

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our visitors and advertisers.

You couldn’t make this up!

A gold medal winning Australian paralympian resorts to crawling through Brisbane airport instead of being forced to use the airlines less than ideal method of getting hime to the boarding gate.

I would sincerely hope this could never happen in the UK or Europe, but I’m not so sure. We have European legislation in the form of EC1107 to stop people with disabilities being treated like a burden when making their way through airports, onto the plane and the reverse at their destination.
But we already know of problems experienced by UK travellers.

The travel and leisure industry has made great advances in making itslef a more ‘disabled friendly’ sector but there is still so much more to do.

Take a look at the full story in the Good Access Guide News section…

Access Auditors Ltd, the company behind the Good Access Guide, has just picked up a prestigious award from Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service.

The award recognises the commitment made by the company in supporting a member of staff in their vital role as a retained firefighter.

Richard Thompson, company director, said, “It’s a great honour to receive this award. Ian Carter, our Operations Manager in Lowestoft, has been a retained firefighter for over seven years and we are proud to support the work he does for the local community.”

Mr Thompson added, “We would have no hesitation in employing more retained firefighters. I would urge other local businesses to do likewise. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the award ceremony but felt it was fitting that Ian was able to receive the award on our behalf.”

“It’s great to work for such an understanding employer”, commented Carter. “Thankfully there are a number of employers around Suffolk that also support their retained firefighter colleagues. Yes, it can be inconvenient if someone dashes off on a shout but the positives of having a retained firefighter on your staff far outweigh the negatives. You get a good team member and someone who brings a whole new skillset to the workplace.”

Find out more about life as a retained firefighter.

No, don’t worry. I’m not after your list of presents for Father Christmas!

We’ve got our own wish list of improvements and enhancements that we would like to make to the Good Access Guide website.

But… we would love to hear your thoughts too. Tell us what you would like to see added to the website, what works for you (and what doesn’t!).

We can’t promise to add all of them but we will look at all ideas you send over to us.

Would you like us to Twitter more? What about a Facebook group? More blog posts?

Let us know and we’ll see what we can do…

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Send your thoughts to ian [at] goodaccessguide [dot] co [dot [uk]
Don’t forget to replace the [at] and the [dot]’s…