Ireland: +353 (0)15079081
Award-winning Universal Design and Accessibility experts. Led by disabled people.
Direct Access Group is an award-winning, full-service accessibility consultancy specialising in access audits, regulatory compliance, and inclusive design strategy across built and digital environments.
We support organisations to meet statutory requirements and WCAG standards through expert consultancy. Our experience spans complex private and public-sector environments across retail, finance, hospitality, education, healthcare, and culture, operating within diverse regulatory and operational frameworks at local, national, and continental scales.
Our majority-disabled consultants combine technical and lived expertise on every project. We also design bespoke tactile maps and produce accessible formats including Braille, Easy Read, and Large Print.
The mission is a simple but important one: to help organisations move beyond exclusive design practices and foster environments where people with disabilities can participate fully and equally. We believe true accessibility isn’t a one-time fix: it’s a mindset, a culture, and a commitment that must grow and adapt with our society and the technologies that shape it.
Our work spans a wide range of projects, from small community venues to UNESCO World Heritage Sites and world-renowned museums, collaborating closely with clients, architects, and design teams to deliver truly inclusive spaces.
Direct Access are the Accessibility Consultants for the Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, helping Cumbria become a thriving place for everyone through the development and implementation of an accessibility Read More
Direct Access were the accessibility consultants for the 5 C’s Project in Belfast, providing a review of 5 proposed street refurbishments for The Department for Communities (DfC) Belfast Regeneration Directorate. Read More
Direct Access provided accessibility audits to the East Riding Museums Group to ensure that its sites are fully accessible and inclusive to disabled visitors and staff. The initial site audits Read More
Image © O’Donnell + Tuomey / Ninety90, 2018. The Victoria and Albert Museum, more commonly known as the V&A is the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and Read More
Direct Access has provided Universal Design and accessibility consultancy services for the new International Organization for Migration Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Working with the Architectural and design teams at each Read More
The Ellison Institute is an interdisciplinary, patient-centered research center that provides cutting-edge cancer care and wellness services, undertaking research initiatives that span the scientific spectrum to change how cancer and Read More
Visitors can be lost before they arrive. Many venue owners think of accessibility as something that only starts at the front door. They think: do we offer step-free access? Does our reception desk have a hearing loop? Is there an accessible toilet on site? But for disabled people, their interaction with
Focus groups have become a standard step in accessibility work, and the instinct behind them is sound. Bringing disabled people into the room early is better than designing in isolation and apologising afterwards. The risk sits in what happens to the output. A room of opinions gets written up as
For twenty years, retail could afford to be inefficient. Growth hid the waste. There were always enough new customers entering the market that losing some never mattered. Open another store. Launch another range. Buy more advertising. Sign a bigger influencer. If one customer drifted away, another was usually waiting behind
The employers winning the competition for talent are not always the ones offering the highest salaries. The winners are the organisations removing the barriers that keep skilled people out. Nearly one in four working-age adults is disabled. An employer whose hiring doesn’t account for them is competing for a shrunken pool of candidates and
What are “Reasonable Adjustments”? Reasonable adjustments are legal changes, adaptations, or accommodations made by employers, service providers, or educational institutions to ensure that disabled individuals are not substantially disadvantaged. They promote equal access to opportunities, employment, and services. Many business owners think that reasonable adjustments are purely about avoiding legal
When was the last time you chose the stairs over the lift or escalator? For most people, the answer is rarely. Recent research from the University of Peking in Beijing, replicating earlier findings from the University of Montreal, found that people overwhelmingly favour the path of least resistance when navigating
Accessibility problems in retail parks are not accidental; they are a byproduct of the original commercial logic behind retail park design, and increasingly, they are becoming a major drag on footfall, dwell time, and long-term profitability, Large retail parks were originally designed around a simple commercial model: high-volume visits on
Most accessibility policies aren’t worth the PDF they’re saved in. That sounds harsh. It isn’t. A policy that nobody implements is a policy in name only, and the gap between what an organisation says and what it actually does is where the trouble lives. Customers notice. Regulators notice. The press
Most websites don’t work for one in five of their users. Most businesses don’t know it. Most agencies don’t tell them. That’s not an indictment of disabled users. It’s a description of an industry that has, for years, treated accessibility as someone else’s problem. The cost of that quiet decision
A member of our award-winning accessibility team will be in contact. If you would like to communicate in a specific way, please let us know.
United Kingdom
Pepper House,
Market Street,
Nantwich,
Cheshire,
CW5 5DQ.
Ireland
77 Camden Street Lower,
Dublin,
D02 XE80.
info@directaccess.group
Phone
United Kingdom: +44 1270 626222
Ireland: +353 (0)15079081
