Euan’s Guide, the disabled access review website and smartphone app, is going from strength to strength with the help of BT.
The guide was launched in March 2014 by Euan MacDonald, a Scot who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2003. The site offers reviews of venues such as bars, hotels, restaurants and cinemas written by people with accessibility needs. The reviews rate the accessibility of the venues and describe how user friendly they are for people with different disabilities. The guide gives disabled people the confidence to move beyond their comfort zone and visit new places.
The smartphone app allows users to find accessible locations while they are on the move, offering disabled people a freedom to explore places they couldn’t before.
So far, some 1500 venues in 350 towns across the UK have been reviewed on Euan’s Guide, with 80% of the reviews receiving four stars or more out of five.
In July this year, Euan’s Guide won the BT Infinity Lab People’s Choice Award from eight shortlisted innovations developed to address social challenges and help build a better connected society. The award guaranteed the organisation six months of advice and help in kind from BT, plus further consultancy services over an extended period.
BT has helped test the Euan’s Guide website and app for usability and the company has been instrumental in creating new iterations of the site, the latest of which launches this month.
Kiki MacDonald, Euan’s sister who co-founded the guide with him, says BT has been an invaluable partner in developing the site. Kiki and Euan have worked with BT’s Accessibility Practice to test the website for usability.
BT has also helped the guide produce a promotional video for the guide and has introduced Euan’s Guide staff to contacts in the charity world. “BT has been employing a lot of disabled people for a long time and has a great track record on accessibility. They have a large number of disabled employees and their offices are very accessible,” says Kiki MacDonald.
“We’ve been really impressed and delighted with all the people we have come across at BT and how they have been prepared to do what they can to help us grow. Everyone we have come across at BT has been willing to give us some time,” she adds.
The website is launching a new iteration this month after some rigorous usability testing with BT. This has involved working with a panel of disabled BT employees to test the website for compatibilities with assistive technologies such as using screen readers, which read out an audio version of the text for blind and partially-sighted people.
Kiki says the main change that has come about as a result of the testing has been to reduce the number of links used in different parts of the website. Consolidating links is important as having too many can become repetitive when read out by the screen reader. The site has also been tested with Eyegaze technology, which is used by Euan. This allows users to send emails and browse the internet using their eye movements.
BT senior innovation consultant, Daniel Ballin, has worked closely with Euan’s Guide. He is also the head of growth at BT’s Accessibility Practice, which has worked with Euan’s Guide, helping to create a new iteration of the site. The Practice has a panel of 1,500 disabled BT employees who help in website and application testing. The Accessibility Practice works with many businesses and public sector organisations as they implement the Equality Act 2010, providing services and consultancy to customers such as the Department for Work and Pensions and local councils amongst many others.
“The BT Accessibility Practice is all about helping organisations both public and private, small and large, to be able to support employees irrespective of their disability and to ensure they can reach out to their customers whatever their needs,” says Ballin.
The help BT has offered to Euan’s Guide is part of the company’s work to boost start-up tech businesses through the Infinity Labs unit. Based at London’s Silicon Roundabout, the Lab space was opened by London Mayor Boris Johnson earlier this year. Part of its work is to run competitions for start-up tech businesses. These include Dragon’s Den style sessions where the start-ups present their ideas to entrepreneurs and business experts. The winners receive help in kind and business and technical advice from BT as well as being give space at the Labs offices to develop their work.
Euan’s Guide was the winner of this year’s People’s Choice Award, where a number of start-ups competed for votes from the public via social media. Ballin says: “Euan’s Guide is fantastic, it empowers disabled people, supporters their carers and rewards organisations who have invested in making their venue accessible which in turn will help them attract more custom.”
It is the TripAdvisor of accessibility, allowing people who are disabled to look at reviews and get a perspective from other disabled people about how accessible different venues are for people.”
Over the coming months BT and Euan’s Guide are getting ready for Disabled Access Day on January 17th, 2015. This day will encourage disabled people to find new venues they have never been to before, not just tourist attractions but also everyday places such as coffee shops, hairdressers, and restaurants. They can then write a review of the venue and post it on Euan’s Guide.
BT’s work with Euan’s Guide is empowering disabled people and their carers. It is a powerful reminder of how communications can be used to create a better world.
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