Cornish CIC wins more than £80,000 to help the tourist sector become more accessible to all

Access Cornwall, which helps the county's tourist attractions and hospitality businesses become more accessible, has won over £80,000 in funding.

The money is to help members of the not for profit organisation continue their work helping Cornwall’s tourism sector welcome people with disabilities and health conditions.

The new pot of funding comes from the European Social Fund (ESF), via the Community Led Local Development Programme, and has ensured this Community Interest Company can build on its successful programme of training, carried out since 2020.

The organisation shares accessibility information about Cornwall’s tourist and hospitality venues and trains individuals who live with disabilities and learning differences to gather and share that accessibility information. It has now worked with more than 100 organisations around the Duchy, including St Austell Brewery, the Minack Theatre, Bosinver Farm Cottages and Looe Town Council.

Director Viki Carpenter said: “Within the last two years we’ve grown to become a team of 12 people with over 60 volunteers on our database.

“We’ve been thrilled to find incredible talent within the community we are serving and we are also hugely impressed by businesses that are making enormous efforts to consider the needs of people with accessibility difficulties, ranging from wheelchair users to those with vision, hearing impairments and other learning differences such as dyslexia and neurodiversity.

"Our team, who's support is funded by the ESF, are trained to go out and find fun places to visit or activities to enjoy and review them from an accessibility point of view. It’s a fantastic job, and thanks to the new funding we are now able to extend the training from West Cornwall to the South East, including areas around St Austell, Fowey, Looe and Saltash.”

The training opportunities are open to anyone who is not in paid work and we are particularly keen to work with individuals with lived experience of disability, health conditions or learning differences such as neurodiversity, or carers.

To date, 50% of the traineeships have led to paid work, often with Access Cornwall. The organisation also supports individuals into further education with unique one-to-one digital skills training, and confidence building sessions.

Access Cornwall is also seeking businesses, local councils and community groups or projects which are interested in accessibility support. Projects include supporting Looe Town Council to produce an Accessibility Guide as well as working with holiday let companies and hotels to support them in attracting and welcoming more guests.

If you are interested in receiving training, or making your organisation more accessible, you are invited to get in touch with Access Cornwall via [email protected].

For more information, please visit the website at www.accesscornwall.org.uk