A WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT

WelcomingA ENVIRONMENT

Gavin Neate is the founder of the WelcoMe app, a service that improves customer service and access for disabled people at venues throughout the UK

Iwas becoming increasingly frustrated, whenever I followed one of my guide dog owner clients into a shop the fact that the staff member didn’t know how to communicate with them always surprised me. It wasn’t until a few years later that I got tired of being shocked and angry and started looking at the reasons why, even when they later told me they had received training, that none of the most obvious procedures for communication were being followed. The discrimination encountered was mostly not introducing themselves, or distracting the dog, or using language like “it’s over there” or taking my client’s arm instead of offering theirs. However, at the end of the day I knew that these instances were tiring for my client and often embarrassing for the staff member when correct procedures were pointed out. Of course, you don’t have to look far on your social media news feed to find much more serious discrimination where a person with an assistance dog has been refused access or even been thrown out of a venue completely. By 2015 I’d had enough but I’d also had an idea.

I’d introduced “tech talks” in all of my classes. Not because it was part of the Guide Dogs training curriculum, but more that increasingly folks were turning up to train with their new guide dogs and would invariably end up talking about and demonstrating their new tech gadgets to other class members. From voice-activated TVs to digital banking, it seemed the world was changing and nowhere more than through the use of smartphones, and particularly the iPhone.

The more I thought about it the more I started to wonder if I could link my client to the venue they were visiting via their smartphone and use this connection to allow them to specify their needs and trigger awareness training before they arrived. This idea grew and in 2019 after lots of testing WelcoMe was launched.

WelcoMe is a free-to-use service which connects disabled people to the venues they wish to visit. A pre-populated profile triggers awareness training with information and links provided by charities and organisations representing disabilities and conditions the visitor thinks staff could have more awareness of. With over 30 conditions on the platform including the option for non-disclosure, it’s a solution available to everyone with visible or hidden conditions.

The service is paid for by each venue through a subscription which allows them to list themselves on the platform and go on to offer the highest standard of customer service and staff disability awareness possible. Key for WelcoMe, considering my background, is the empowerment of the individual, so there is very much a focus on the disabled person being in control of each interaction, sharing as much or as little information as they would like prior to a visit. There is also the option for users to request new venue locations expanding the service to destinations they feel could improve the service they offer.

HOW WelcoME WORKS

Users of the service can either download our app and set up a profile or complete a profile online at any of the venues using the service. Once completed the disabled visitor can then plan a visit to the venue. Within the service, users can check on access and the level of service provision available as well as check any access reviews from a list of wellknown review sites such as, Euan’s Guide, AccessRating, AccessEarth, SociAbility, Snowball and others. The visitor can also state exactly what they wish to achieve on arrival or mention anything specific they feel a staff member should know in regards to their access or communication needs. On arrival the visitor can press an “arrival” button within the app which lets