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Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 20/05/2024

We recently appointed AccessAble to provide an Accessibility Guide production service to Scottish tourism businesses following a tender process earlier this year. This contract will be place for three years.

Our current self-completion accessibility guide tool is being withdrawn on 30 June 2024.

Announcing a new service provider

Following a tender process that completed in February 2024, we’re appointing AccessAble to support Scottish tourism businesses with creating accessibility guides.

The new service offered by AccessAble, makes it simpler for businesses to provide their customers with expert-led accurate and detailed access guide information. The new service also includes the promotion of Detailed Access Guides to more than six million users through a dedicated access guide portal.

AccessAble has operated for 25 years and currently publish Detailed Access Guides for over 70,000 venues in the UK and overseas. The organisation represents a range of industries, including retail, hospitality, and healthcare.

Take a look at the portal


By working with an established access guide service provider, businesses can be fully supported by a team of professional access surveyors who will create and deliver Detailed Access Guides.

Inclusive tourism is an incredibly valuable market for Scotland and providing accurate, clear and easy to access product information is the simplest but most effective way to engage with disabled customers.

Learn more about Detailed Access Guides

What is a Detailed Access Guide?

Why are you removing the current accessibility guides tool?

The website has been in use since 2017 and will no longer be supported as the software it uses is now out of date.

We took the opportunity to review the value and benefits of continuing with a self-completion tool for the creation of accessibility guides.

We’ve taken into consideration business and customer feedback in forming a new approach. This identified areas where businesses sought further support and development.

We want to make it simpler for businesses to provide their customers with accurate and detailed accessibility guides. To help businesses feel equipped to manage this, we’re moving away from a self-completion model.

The importance of accessibility information provision

“The purple pound” – the term which refers to the spending power of disabled people and their travel companions – contributes approximately £1.3 billion to Scotland’s tourism economy each year.

Disabled people tend to travel in larger groups and stay longer, while the average senior traveller spends 35% more on leisure and hospitality than other age groups.

Find out more

Three individuals, including one woman in a wheelchair, enjoying nature in Craik Forest
A family enjoy a day out to Craik Forest which is suitable for all levels of accessibility. 

Get in touch

If you have any further questions about getting started with AccessAble or anything related to accessible tourism, please get in touch by emailing our team directly at inclusivetourism@visitscotland.com.

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