Euan's Guide

Euan MacDonald was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in 2003 and co-founded Euan’s Guide with his sister Kiki in 2013. MacDonald is a powerchair user and wanted to discover more places to visit.[1][2] MacDonald said: "Lots of disabled people have favourite places to go out but that information often doesn’t get shared and everyone has to reinvent the wheel. The hope is to provide a platform to share that information and to help people get out."[3] The site has been endorsed by JK Rowling and Professor Stephen Hawking.[4] In 2015, The Guardian named Euan's Guide as one of the Tech Innovations that could improve lives.[5] The organisation has featured in The Disability Power 100 since 2016 and was recently featured in the Community Action category of the 2021 edition.[6]

The charity launched the annual Euan’s Guide Access Survey in 2014[7] and has been making accessible toilets safer since 2015 through the Red Cord Cards initiative.[8]

Users can find and share disabled access reviews and experiences on the disabled access at venues and public places across the United Kingdom and beyond. Euan’s Guide has become a tool for many disabled people, their families, friends and carers to plan a day out and find somewhere to go. The website has thousands of submitted disabled access reviews and venue listings since it launched in 2013 and uses reviews to give feedback to venues as a way of suggesting improvements to their accessibility. Venues can voluntarily list their disabled access information on Euan’s Guide to promote the accessible facilities and services they offer.

Reviews have an emphasis on the overall access of getting into and navigating around a venue, including experiences with accessible or Changing Places toilets, customer service and transport to and from the venue. Euan’s Guide also encourages multimedia from users and venues to showcase the experience a disabled person would expect when visiting somewhere new.

The website has been described by author Ian Rankin as “TripAdvisor with wheels on.”[9]

Euan’s Guide has been the main sponsor of Disabled Access Day since 2015, a biennial event in the United Kingdom that raises awareness of the access issues faced by many disabled people.[10] The next Disabled Access Day will take place in 2023.

Since October 2014, Euan’s Guide has carried out the Access Survey on an annual basis to gather information on the experiences of disabled people, their families, friends and carers, and their thoughts and attitudes towards disabled access.[11] The survey is the largest and longest running of its kind in the United Kingdom and has been supported by Motability Operations since 2021.

A Covid Survey was conducted in 2020 for disabled people to express thoughts on lockdown and restrictions, after the Access Survey was postponed due to the pandemic.

Euan’s Guide has previously asked disabled people about their experiences of using bathrooms in a separate Accessible Toilets Survey.

A Red Cord Card dangling on a red emergency cord

Red Cord Cards are designed to make accessible toilets safer. The cards, created by Euan’s Guide, slide onto emergency red cords in accessible toilets and are pocket-sized notices with easy-to-read font. They inform people and venues about the importance of leaving cords untied, not cut short and hanging freely to the floor.[12] There have been over 100,000 Red Cord Cards distributed since the initiative launched in 2015.

• The Power 100 List[14]
• Shortlisted for AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards ‘Community Impact Award’ 2020[15]
• Finalist in the DigitalAgenda's 2019 Impact Awards[16]
• Digital Leaders 100 2017[17]
• New Radicals 2016[18]
• Cracking Campaign, The Scottish Charity Awards 2016[19]
• Points of Light Award[20]
• Charity and Social Enterprise category of The Herald Scottish Digital Business Awards 2015.[21]
• People's Choice Award, BT Infinity Lab 2014[22]
• Nominate Trust Top 100 2014[23]

• Euan MacDonald
• The Access Survey
• Disabled Access Day
• Accessibility

• Official site