On Line Disabilty-accessibility awareness

[Jensteronlinetraining]

Hi...please be gentle....this is my first time.

I'm a former nurse, former Glaxo Rep, who is getting back into things now that the boys are at school.

I've had a passion for ages to make sure that people with a disability, or general access issues (could simply be old age) are treated with respect from the shops, hotels, stores etc that they visit.
I've developed a pretty nice ( even if I say so myself!) website which explains it. I am really struggling with how to get the message out there to the 000's of potential customers and seem to have frozen and don't know which way to turn.
Do any of you lovely people have some kindly words of advice ?

Hello Jensteronlinetraining

Is your website aimed at the business owners (advising them on their responsibilities, best practices etc.) or is it aimed at the people with the disabilities (advising them on how to make sure they are treated correctly)?

What I'm getting at, I suppose, is who exactly is your target audience and what's their motivation for visiting your website?

Is this something you are intending to make money from (I'm assuming so, given your use of the word 'customers'!), or is it a personal project?

What have you tried so far, in terms of getting your website "out there"?

If its aimed at people with disabilities, can I just nominate Zara as being in dire need of training?

They think its perfectly fine to completely fill their one accessible fitting room with boxes and leave them there for months ( I tried to use it on a number of occasions).

Presumably they think they'll get more boxes in there as its bigger....

Best of luck with your new venture OP

Hi it's aimed at the business owners, hotel chains,anywhere that is customer facing. Yes there is a cost attached to each login, but the whole point is that it's very cost effective in that no employee needs to leave the office for the course, it's just a matter of logging in and if need be you can revisit the course if you get side tracked! It's a general awakening of the difficulties that people might well face and how to handle all sort of different situations. Many people shy away from disabilities, I am determined to make each and everyone be treated with respect and understanding.
The bit I'm struggling with is how to bring the service and website to the attention to the business owners in a cost effective way, when I do get the chance to talk to someone the whole concept is greatly received!!

Hi

Congrats on setting up.

If you aren't actively marketing the product aside from having the website then you ideally you need to start.

If you want cost effective I would do a mix of direct marketing via email, SEO work, Pay-Per-Click advertising to help you get to the 1st page of google, social media and in-person speaking opps.

Email is probably the quickest and easiest to start. mailchimp.com is a good free HTML email tool. You need to identify who you think will be the decision maker - business owners or HR people?

I would consider your angle. Your arguments for fair treatment sound admirable but a business owner might be more swayed by either:

A) a message about how much the disabled/older community is worth/they are missing out on that £ by not being accessible etc
B) The damage to their reputation that poor accessibility can do to their brand esp in social media age (see Zara comments by decaff)
C) that they are falling foul of the law by not being accessible.

If you feel in-person works well, then I'd look for relevant networking events where you could possibly speak about the product. It might help to have a presentation about accessibility and legal obligations where you can weave stuff in about your product. It is unlikely you'll be invited along to simply pitch.

Have you spoken to charities/campaigning groups that represent people with disabilities/are older? They might have a way for you to reach their audience which could include potential customers.

One thing occurred to me...you mention shops and hotels, most staff (thinking shopfloor) there won't have a desk/office. How can they access it?

HTH. Good luck.

Is your course accredited or endorsed in any way eg by a charity?

There is an accreditation body for this kind of thing. www.nrac.org.uk/
I've been involved with them as an architect & accessibility consultant.
Larger organisations tend to want accredited assistance with these kinds of things.