About Us
Handing out guides at an awareness event in Wales
My name is Frank Napper and early in 2001 my wife Sue and I wished to go away for a weekend and looked on the net for suitable destinations, bearing in mind my disability. We could not find anything that provided both places to stay and advice about what to see and do whilst there. In the end we went to York and did our own research, which we felt was worth sharing with other wheelchair users. As I was doing a computer course at the local college at the time my tutor helped me to create a small webpage of my findings. Encouraged by the local Tourist Information Centre in Oswestry we then visited several other areas trying out the facilities for accessibility with my own wheelchair. This was such a success that with the help of The Millennium Fund administered by Help the Aged we were able to continue to add further places of interest. This began to involve a considerable amount of time and effort so in order to be able to develop the site further we enlisted the assistance a small group of other wheelchair users and their carers.
We then received a grant from the Bruce Wake Charitable Trust (see Worcester page) with which we were able to complete further research and add more web pages, ensuring all the time that the places of interest we visited, really were accessible.
However not everyone has access to the web so in 2005 we received funding from the Community Champions Fund (administered by the Community Council for Shropshire) to complete research for the whole of the county of Shropshire, so in addition to Oswestry and Ironbridge there were now web pages for Shrewsbury, Ludlow and Whitchurch. This information was put into a free brochure called ' The Wheelchair Users Guide to Accessible Tourist Attractions for Shropshire'. We then received further funding and design assistance from Shropshire County Council and various other sources from within the county to update and improve the brochure.
Launching the accessible activities guide
In November 2005 it was felt that the group should become more formal with elected officers and a new constitution. Our work has continued and in 2006 we researched two more written guides for the county, one on countryside sites and trails (funded and produced by the County Council Countryside Access Team) and one on accessible activities (funded by Awards for All and produced by ourselves). All three guides can be downloaded in pdf from the Publications page on this site or by mail from our PO Box (details in Contact Us). We are also members of various access groups within the county and have been asked to represent people with disabilties on other committees. In spring 2007 we received a grant from the Community Fund for Shropshire to receive training (from IIS Ltd) on our new software which enabled us to redesign and update this website. In summer 2007 we revisited York and updated the original webpage bearing in mind all we had learnt along the way. We also held Awareness Events in and around the county where we handed out our free guides and other information. For a list of dates and venues for further events being carried out during the winter months visit our News and Events page.
We had several projects planned for later in 2007 (funding permitting). The first was for further web pages and a written guide for the whole of Staffordshire. Sadly we were unable to secure funding for this project.
The second was for a data base of all wheelchair accessible transport available to residents of and visitors to Shropshire. This project has been successfully completed and the findings have been incorporated into our Shropshire webpages under transport. We have also produced a new guide detailing the information that will compliment our existing guides which is available to download from our publications page.
Lastly we had the funding in place for Alan Thomas (who is a wheelchair user and a member of Ataxia South Wales) who had agreed to research a webpage for the Carmarthen area. The work was due to commence after Easter and to be available for Autumn 2007. ( Many thanks to The Bruce Wake Trust for the funding). Also thanks to Alan who completed some initial research on accommodation but as he was unable to complete the project by the Autumn, other members of our team have now finished the project and the finished page for Carmarthen including Alan's contribution for Syn-y-Gwynt and Cwmiar can now be found under our Wales section.
In June 2007 we received the exciting news that we were now a registered charity (reg.no.1119972). This is a major step forward that will allow us to seek funding to expand our coverage to the rest of the UK whilst making sure that we hold true to our original principle and continue to provide information for people with disabilities that is researched by people with disabilities.
Included among planned projects for 2008 is revisiting and updating all the webpages for the areas we visited over 2 years ago and to provide new web pages for Lincoln, the Lake District and Ayrshire. We have received some funding from The Bruce Wake Trust and The Saddlers Company towards this.
We have also received funding from The Hedley Foundation towards a new accommodation search facility. This has now been completed and will be launched at the Mobility Roadshow in Coventry from 12th - 14th of June 2008.