Here we are in the depth’s of what has been described on television tonight as the coldest winter for years and years, so what better time is there than now to start planning your days out for the Spring Summer and Autumn of this year. Where would you like to go how  many of you will travel, what restrictions are there, what accessibility is there?  So many of these questions can have multiple answers and those answers can depend on your health  and condition, if you are young sensible and fully fit you could plan easily something like climbing Snowdon in North Wales and you can possibly , with some planning, even get to the top if you are disabled but that would be so much more difficult. Depending on your disability so many places are now open for you to enjoy but again it needs that extra  planning.  Do  you use a powerchair or wheelchair or even a mobility scooter then you need to get as much information as possible with regard to the place you want to visit and I always find that The Rough Guide to Accessible Britain is the book I turn to first, it has so much information that can save you so much disappointment if you use it properly and if you are a blue badge holder it is free.  I started looking at it today with thoughts of days out when this weather improves and thought that whilst I had lived in Stafford  for many years, before moving away, that I had never really been around Shugborough Hall and so I studied the rough guide and it gives real information even mentioning that as some of the buildings are ‘listed’ and so wheelchair and mobility scooter and power chair access can be restricted but it goes on to praise the helpful staff and tell you how  it is possible to over come some if not all of the problems this ‘listing’ of the  buildings creates. So hopefully when we go there for the day I will be able to enjoy it fully. Another place I would love to visit is Chatsworth House and again it is featured in this wonderful guide book I read the details and then as I turned the page I also saw that they had included a ‘Readers Review’ and that was just so helpful, this particular reader had a wonderful day out because they had made contact ahead with Chatsworth House as recommended on their web site and they arranged their day through a young lady called Kirsty, who made sure that they were expected and greeted at the gate who introduced them to a’house guide’they were given a personal tour of the ground floor before another guide took them by lift to the top floor. Restaurant reservations were made for them and they were available that way to avoid the long queues that can spoil your day out if you are in a mobility product such as a wheel chair  or power chair and a special accessible table was available at the edge of the room for them. This sort of attention to detail offered by Chatsworth House is wonderful but not always  known to people unless you find some sort of  information or recommendation from a guide like this one. Once you’ve  had a day out like this you will be pleased to get back home to use your electric recliner chair or adjustable bed or that  new  mattress because you will be excited and invigorated but  probably tired out. We are so fortunate that people and places now plan for those of us with disabilities in ways that were never dreamed of in the very recent past.  None of us want the problems that we have and we certainly don’t want to be restricted by them and this Rough Guide can help you in Planning your Day out.

Tags: Accessibility, Accessible Britain, Chatsworth House, Disability, Disabled, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, English Heritage, Insurance, mobility scooter, Mobility scooters, Motability, Public liability, Rough Guides, Shugborough Hall, Wheelchair

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 4:44 am and is filed under Power Chairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.