Direct Access has won two prestigious export awards for exporting British expertise in accessibility: the Franco British & Trade Investment Awards and the Insider North West International Trade Award.
Both awards were won on the same night in different countries and followed on from our founder Steven Mifsud’s MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours last June. For our team, this is an incredibly encouraging way to cap off what was another challenging year, as the instability and uncertainty presented by the Pandemic has forced much of our operations to adapt in ways we previously had not considered.
That is to say that, although we recently employed two new consultants to meet the growing demand for our services, we remain a team operating in different countries and time zones much of the time. Certainly, we have found it a huge challenge to keep up with each other in the past year, but being pulled in all directions is a typical result of rapid company growth, and for this reason, we have embraced it.
In fact, it is precisely due to this commitment that we believe we won the Insider Northwest International Trade Award – Team of the Year category for companies achieving something exceptional in the international trade field. Likewise, the Franco-British Trade & Investment Awards 2021, where we won the Jury award for contribution to trade and investment.
Speaking with our firm’s local news directory Nantwich News, Steven commented “The irony is such is the level of our international success meant I was not able to attend either award event,” who is currently in the Middle East working on accessibility programs for the world exposition Expo 2020 Dubai.
Instead, our Chief Operations Officer; Steve Dering flew out to France to pick up the award, where we received praise for our role in identifying and working with new French partners to develop and deliver transport accessibility programs in regional cities in France and create opportunities with the next Olympic games, Paris 2024. We were honored to have received these awards from (L-R) Menna Rawlings, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to France, and Chris Barton, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Europe.
The awards board comments: “The Awards focused on key commercial priorities for both France and the UK across our four categories: Clean Growth, Technology & Innovation, SME of the Year, and the Jury Award. Congratulations once again must go to our winners JCB, Connecting Food, CX Brokers Ltd and Direct Access”.
We do not take the praise we have so kindly received lightly. In 2022 and beyond, Direct Access will continue to innovate ways for disabled people to receive agency, respect, and equal opportunities on a global scale. We have many exciting projects ahead both at home and internationally, with some huge developments in the Middle Eastern region, Europe, and North America to come, even stretching as far as Oceania!
Are you looking to make your site accessible to thousands of disabled people? Feel free to contact us and lay out your specific needs so that we can find improvements to suit your needs or budget. Or alternatively, have a look at our Access Consultancy options.
Unit 3706,
Platinum Tower JLT-PH1-12,
Jumeirah Lakes Towers,
Dubai,
UAE.
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