ABOUT ENABLE accessibility

Here at Enable Accessibility, our passion is helping those who live with disabilities to access more places and enjoy greater freedom. Whether an individual is a wheelchair user who needs a specialist vehicle to access rugged terrain, someone who experiences mobility impairment due to health conditions or injuries, or those who need temporary support due to ill health or injury, we can help.

MEET OUR TEAM

Jamie Hanlon

Founding Director

Jamie is a highly qualified and an experienced Interior Designer Specialist, Accessibility and Inclusive Design Consultant.

He has extensive experience working with a wide range of businesses and also public sector organisations, local government, charities and voluntary organisations.

Jamie’s interest in helping people with disabilities began when he worked as an Interior Design Specialist in 2010. Due to his own personal experiences of hidden disabilities (deafness, dyslexia and Crohn’s disease) Jamie was encouraged to take access consultant courses in London.

He subsequently qualified in:

Access Auditing & The Equality Act 2010 (An understanding of the practicalities of access improvements). 

Housing Standards – Designing for Dementia – Accessible Housing: (Category 3 – Wheelchair user dwellings), 

Building Regulations and British Standards 8300 (BS8300).

Jamie is passionate about supporting those with all kinds of disabilities to enjoy the same freedoms that many able-bodied people take for granted and works to encourage businesses and individuals to find ways to make the world more accessible for all.

Angie Phythian, director of Enable Accessibility CIC sitting in wheelchair, smiling with Union Flag behind her in the sunshine

Angela Phythian

Director

Angela, 73, has a wide range of experience. Now retired, she previously ran her own business as a trainer and project manager of IT systems and qualified in later life as a Humanistic Therapeutic Practitioner, volunteering as a one-to-one counsellor for school children and also supporting the treatment and rehabilitation of adults suffering from substance/alcohol misuse problems.

In October 2019, an accident resulted in Angie having her right leg amputated above the knee. This has not dented Angie’s love of life and you can read her story regarding her quest to go wild sea swimming following the accident here. It was through Angie’s desire to live life to the fullest potential that she met Jamie and became involved in Enable Accessibility CIC.

“Until one becomes differently abled (dif-abled), so many actions one does without thinking,” says Angie. “We take it all for granted. And of course there are many people born with conditions which make accessibility to beaches as well as toilets exceptionally difficult and even degrading. I find there is usually a different way around doing most things but finding a way to access and move around on a beach either with my prosthetic on or in a wheelchair is a challenge which does not seem to have been addressed in many places.