The Museum of Liverpool ranked as the number one accessible visitor attraction in the UK

Revitalise, a national charity that creates revitalising holidays for disabled people and their carers, conducted a second national report to understand the accessibility of the UK’s visitor attractions.

The latest report by Revitalise comes five years on from the last study to understand if visitor attractions have been actively making positive changes since 2014 to become accessible to disabled visitors.

Six of Liverpool’s attractions dominated the rankings in the North West also featuring the Walker Art Gallery, International Slavery Museum, World Museum Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum and Tate Liverpool.

The estimated annual spending power of disabled visitors has increased to £249 billion compared to £212 billion in 2014, and the updated study shows that visitor attractions have been actively making changes since the 2014 findings. The Revitalise study highlights progress made by British visitor attractions.

One in four UK visitor attractions (26%) are more than 90% accessible, compared to the one in 10 in 2014

45% of UK visitor attractions have all their staff trained in disability awareness, which is almost tripled from the 17% in 2014

28% of attractions are now equipped with hoists, almost double when compared to the 15% recorded in 2014

Essential disability access information is now available across 57% more attractions’ websites.

Revitalise have welcomed these improvements in accessibility, but would still like to highlight where more progress needs to be made:

More than half of venues still do not have all staff trained in disability awareness

Three quarters were not equipped with hoists – an indispensable item for many disabled visitors

The survey scored UK visitor attractions on hoist availability, staff training in disability awareness, general accessibility, concessions for disabled visitors and their carers, disabled toilets as a percentage of the total number of toilets and disabled parking, and whether this information was available on the venue’s website.

Revitalise chief executive officer Chris Simmonds said: “We’re thrilled to acknowledge the venues that have made necessary changes in their accessibility for the benefit of disabled people. We are also impressed with the efforts of those venues that not only represent the very best of our British Culture, but that are making that culture fully accessible to everyone.”

Kate Johnson, deputy director from the Museum of Liverpool, said: ““We are so proud to be at the top of the list and will continue to listen and work with disabled people and organisations like Revitalise to maintain this position.”

Revitalise create revitalising holidays for disabled people and carers. They provide everything you’d expect from a proper holiday, combined with the reassurance of excellent nurse-led care and an army of brilliant volunteers. Revitalise Sandpipers is situated in Southport.