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Campaigns
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Access for All: Open Your Doors
Access for All: NHS Services Campaign
Access for All: Safer Streets Campaign
Access for All: Fireworks Campaign
Access for All: PETS Travel Scheme
Access for All - Guide Dogs launched the "Access for All" campaign in 2000 to ensure that guide dog owners receive the same treatment as everyone else and lead the fullest and most independent lives possible. The ongoing campaign has been led by the concerns of guide dog owners who have faced difficulties in accessing some basic services such as pubs, restaurants and hotels. Access for All also aims to ensure that businesses provide the best possible standard of service for guide dog owners.
We have worked closely with guide dog owners, companies and MPs and together we have won major victories.
Click here for full details: http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/index.php?id=1668
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Access for All: Open Your Doors
Guide Dogs’ access to services campaign
More than half of guide dog owners have been turned away by a service provider such as a pub, restaurant, hotel, shop or bank in the last five years, new research has found.
A survey commissioned by The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has found that 50% of service providers, and seven out of ten restaurants, have concerns about accepting guide dogs.
In response to these findings, Guide Dogs has launched its Open Your Doors campaign which aims to put an end to the discrimination faced by guide dog owners in accessing everyday services and facilities. The campaign will help educate service providers about how they can best serve visually impaired customers, as well as dispel misconceptions about the behaviour and cleanliness of guide dogs.
Guide Dogs’ Opening Doors pocket guide outlines the obligations of service providers, and gives practical advice and tips on how to provide a quality service for visually impaired people and assistance dog users. Free copies are available to service providers by phoning 0118 983 8379.
A new microsite has also been launched on Guide Dogs' website, which can be found at: www.guidedogs.org.uk/access
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Access for All: NHS Services Campaign
In June Guide Dogs launched its Access for All: NHS Services Campaign, which aims to improve the facilities and provision of NHS services for visually-impaired people. The first phase of the campaign is focusing on GPs' surgeries.
It follows a survey carried out by Guide Dogs which showed that more than a third of visually-impaired people feel that their GP is not fully aware of their needs. Although many blind and partially sighted people were happy with the service from their GP, significant problems and areas in need of improvement were also identified. The major problems faced by people with sight loss are: limited physical assistance, limited staff awareness and a lack of information in a preferred format, such as Braille or large print.
Guide Dogs is currently working with the health care sector to bring about improvements to ensure that visually-impaired people receive the best standard of service possible.
Click here for full details: http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/index.php?id=1902
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Guide Dogs - Safer Streets Campaign
Today's often cluttered street scene is a real hazard to the country's 1.4 million visual impaired people.
Advertising boards and hedges, scaffolding and wheelie bins; these all feature in the A-Z Guide to Street Obstacles, launched by Guide Dogs as part of its Safer Streets campaign.
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association's publication includes a pop-up pavement, with three-dimensional pedestrian obstructions - Slalom Street. It offers practical suggestions for an obstacle-free environment. These include cutting back overhanging hedges, and avoiding blocked walkways by removing badly positioned A-boards and wheelie bins.
Click here for full details: http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/saferstreets
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Access for All: Fireworks Campaign
Every year we are forced to sedate or retire guide dogs who have been traumatised by fireworks. Guide Dogs was instrumental in the success of a new law which will give the Government the power to regulate the sale, use and noise levels of fireworks. Over 130,000 people signed our fireworks petition before it was handed in to 10 Downing Street, demonstrating the strength of feeling over the issue.
Guide Dogs is now calling upon the government to launch a safety awareness campaign to ensure that fireworks are used responsibly in the future.
Click here for full details: http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/index.php?id=1681
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Access for All: PETS Travel Scheme
We believe that our guide dog owners have a right to enjoy the same level of access to the transport system as everyone else. To this end we are working with the airline industry, Defra, ferry companies and other assistance dog charities to find ways in which guide dog owners and other assistance dog users can travel independently with their dog on all modes of transport covered by the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS).
Click here for full details: http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/index.php?id=1968
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