Mapping a world for the disabled

She was speaking at the London launch of DisabledGo – Health, a national online guide to disabled access at UK healthcare facilities that provides data on everything from the location of handrails and the degree of slope in corridors to the size of “disabled” parking spaces. Jonathan Baillie reports.

Compiled following what the provider described as “years of research documenting how difficult it is for the UK’s 11 million disabled people to find access to healthcare appropriate to their specific requirements”, the new Disabled Go-Health online information portal is designed to enable people with a range of disabilities – from permanent impairment to a broken leg – to make informed choices on their treatment venue and better prepare themselves for their visit. Reportedly the first such national guide, it provides free online information on, for instance, disabled access at local hospitals, dentists, and GP surgeries. It was launched towards the end of last year in Westminster by DisabledGo, the eponymously-named organisation that describes its role as “to help break down the barriers faced by disabled people when trying to access leisure, education, employment, and healthcare services, in their everyday lives”. The organisation’s founder and CEO Dr Gregory Burke is a 35-year old Cambridge University history graduate and MPhil and MBA holder who only became disabled aged 16 (he is now a wheelchair user) when he was struck down by a virus. He subsequently spent much of the next four years in hospital. Now a seasoned disability campaigner, he appears regularly on television and radio, and has also provided consultancy and advice to several Government departments. He told the launch audience he was delighted that, even before the access guide’s public unveiling, nearly 30 NHS Trusts had signed up, with feedback from others suggesting “the majority” would do so during 2010.

Living ‘half-lives’