My name is Alan Bruce. Having contracted Polio at the age of two years I spent a lot of time seeing doctors and having operations during the early years of my life. My parents were told I would never walk, however, with help from wearing calipers and shear determination I have led a near 'normal' life.

In 1995 my kidneys decided to pack in and I was diagnosed as having acute nephritis, added to that I also have asthma. Before long a series of hip and leg problems led me to give up my business as I was unable to work. I was eventually told I was suffering from Post Polio Syndrome - something that my own doctor knew little about.

Trying to navigate my way through DSS benefits on my own proved to be a nightmare. Being pushed from one department to another and back again, and never getting the same answer twice left me very frustrated. I had been told about organisations and places to turn to for help but nobody could lay their hands on addresses, phone numbers etc. when I asked.

During this period of inactivity and frustration my friend Nigel encouraged me to surf the net and I found ways to get information that I wanted. I found that America has an abundance of web sites covering every subject under the sun and including many disability information sites. This led me on an extensive search for UK web sites. I realised that although individual charities had information for their respective area of disability there was no site that gave general information applicable to all.

This led me to the idea for Access-Ability and this site was born.

We all need help and information on the basics before we find the specialist help we need.
I hope Access-Ability goes someway to providing help for you quickly and conveniently.

Update 01 July 2002

After five years and more than 116194 visitors, I am planning the next stage of development.

We see a site that will continue to offer extensive useful information, while also helping you to make easy contact with services and product suppliers that offer a very good service with fair prices, and proven customer care service.

If you can recommend a Company or Service that meets the stated criteria, please do not hesitate to let us know about them.