Wheelchair users in search of a swift half will always be welcome at one Cornish pub. "We are fully accessible," says the landlady confidently. If nature calls, "there are always three strong men here to carry you down".

Mary Dixon, a wheelchair user herself, describes responses to her survey of pubs, restaurants and snack bars around Britain as both humiliating and hilarious.

In answer to the question, "Do you have a wheelchair-friendly entrance and a disabled toilet?", she was told by a south London pub: "Give us plenty of notice so we can move all the tables and unlock the side door." A pub in Northumberland replied: "There's a perfectly good public disabled toilet in the car park over the road."

Dixon, who has multiple sclerosis, conducted the research for her website, www.yourlevelbest.com, which has a directory of pubs and restaurants accessible to wheelchair users.

From October 2004 , by law every business will have to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act and make changes to ensure Britain's 8.6 million disabled people can use services

By October 1 next year, every business will have to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act and make changes to ensure Britain's 8.6 million disabled people can use services

"Well-meaning proprietors do not see the importance of access to the toilets, which is often difficult or impossible," she says. "A common response was, 'Disabled ladies could use the gents. I'll clear the men out'."

She found information often hard to come by. Some chains provided lists of accessible branches; others failed to, or ignored her requests.

The website lists over 4,000 destinations, throughout the UK and new additions are made every week. ‘If you are a disabled tourist, you can use this list to target the most disabled friendly holiday areas ‘ she says.’you’ll enjoy yourself more and put more money into the local economy.

Pubs came out worst. "Many had been recently refurbished, but the improvements still took no account of access issues and disability discrimination laws," Dixon says.

The website grew out of Dixon's frustration at being excluded from many pubs, teashops and restaurants while on holiday. The pleasure of visiting new places was often overshadowed by anxiety about whether her chair would get through the door.

She is looking for a sponsor for the website. If it thrives, she says, it will allow disabled people to visit areas and businesses where they know they'll be welcome. And the prospect of being manhandled downstairs to use the loo will be a thing of the past.

Contact
Website: www.yourlevelbest.com

Mary Dixon is on 020-8355 4328