Blue Badge Access Awards to reveal 2023 winners

The winners of the Blue Badge Access Awards 2023 will be announced on 26 October during a ceremony at last year’s BBAA winner for Best Luxury Hotel, The Great Scotland Yard Hotel in London.

12 awards will go to the best – and the worst – venues who have excelled in providing accessibility and inclusivity in the hospitality and leisure industry.

The BBAA, in association with Bespoke Hotels and Blue Badge Style, gave the panel of judges a difficult task this year. The industry is becoming much more in-tune with providing better accessibility, and this has been demonstrated by the quality of the nominations in 2023, as well as the passion behind improving not only accessibility but improved customer care for disabled guests.

“We’re thrilled with the response to our 2023 awards,” says Robin Sheppard, a BBAA judge and co-founder of the awards. “We’ve talked this year about positive progress, and the number, quality and variety of nominations in all categories of the Blue Badge Access Awards is proof that accessibility is now so much higher up the agenda for the hospitality industry.”

Fiona Jarvis, Chair of the judges and founder of Blue Badge Style & Chair, comments: “It was heart-warming to see so many organisations approaching accessibility with a sense of style. This is why we started these awards in 2016, and it has been gratifying to see our goals come to fruition. There were a record number of entries both from the UK and Internationally and it was exceptional that so many changing places facilities entered the Best Accessible Toilet/Bathroom Award. This shows a shift in the change of accessibility, and which requires understanding of some most complex needs. Rather than rely on governments to impose regulations, we have shown that accessibility is both ethical and economical. We are getting real traction with venues asking us to validate them as BBAA approved.

We’ve had some horror stories too, from a resort venue where the cost of transporting an electric wheelchair to it was more than the holiday itself, to another where an accessible toilet had to be crowdfunded to raise enough money as it was not provided as standard by the developers.”

The BBAA will also present the Ludicrous Loo and Ridiculous Ramps awards, which highlight the regular abominations that continue to exist in the industry. Nominations have been encouraged for both awards, as well as for Bewildering Bathrooms and Obnoxious Obstructions.

Amongst the judging panel are broadcaster and disability activist Mik Scarlet, BBC journalist Alex Taylor, former RIBA President Jane Duncan OBE and former Page Group CEO Steve Ingham. Also on the panel are Michael Vermeersch, Accessibility Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, Yuval Wagner of Access Israel and Josh Grisdale of Accessible Japan, while hospitality experts include Tina Norden, Director at Conran and Partners, and Robert Richardson and Dorothea Jones DEIB of the Institute of Hospitality.

The full list of awards, along with this year’s nominees, can be viewed here.

Sleeper and AHEAD have partnered with the BBAA on the Best International Venue award. We also spoke to Robin Sheppard and Fiona Jarvis as part of our accessibility feature in Sleeper 109.