FOR HOTELS, VENUES AND WORKPLACES
You widened the doors, lowered the sink and put in a ramp. Good. Now for the guests nobody can see: people living with balance disorders, chronic fatigue, migraine, autism, sensory sensitivity or hearing loss. Most of what they need does not take a builder. It takes someone who knows where to look.
Hotels and holiday stays · Event and conference venues · Offices and company events
WHERE MOST VENUES ACTUALLY ARE
Most venues have done something. A ramp, a couple of adapted rooms, a handrail, sometimes a loop at the desk. That is more than nothing and it took budget and meetings to get there.
It is also, almost always, half of a job. Not enough adapted rooms to book. A step-free route that stops at the restaurant door. A loop nobody switches on. And then nothing at all for the guests you cannot see coming.
Two adapted rooms.
In a hotel with two hundred.
They are booked out months ahead. A wheelchair user either takes a room that does not work, or books somewhere else and does not tell you why.
A step-free entrance.
The route to it crosses a gravel car park and two kerbs.
A door nobody can reach step-free is a step-free door on paper. The route starts at the car, not at the mat.
Step-free all the way to the bedroom.
Two steps into the restaurant, and one into the bar.
Step-free to the bed is not step-free to dinner. Guests find this out at 8pm on the first night.
A hearing loop at reception.
Switched off, and nobody on the desk knows where the switch is.
A loop that is never turned on is a sticker on a window. Staff need to know it exists and how to use it.
A wider door and a step-free shower.
The wardrobe rail at 1.80 m. The safe on the top shelf.
Built for a guest who can reach up, in the one room meant for the guest who cannot.
Corridors that meet the fire code.
Lit so dimly that guests feel their way along the wall.
Dark corridors are hard for anyone whose balance leans on their eyes, and for anyone who reads faces to follow a conversation.
A handrail on the stairs.
Floors polished until they reflect the ceiling.
If your balance leans on what your eyes tell you, a floor that reflects is a floor that moves.
A lift to every floor.
Mirrors on every wall inside it.
Movement in every direction, in a small box that is also moving. Some guests take stairs they cannot really manage instead.
A long, handsome corridor.
Nowhere to sit between the lift and the far end of it.
For a guest whose energy is on a budget, a corridor with no seat is a corridor they ration. Two chairs would fix it.
A step-free conference hall.
Nowhere to sit during a forty-minute registration queue.
For someone with ME/CFS, POTS or long COVID, standing is not free. They pay for it later that day.
A flashing fire alarm.
Housekeeping still only knocks.
A guest who cannot hear the door either gets walked in on, or misses the person who came to help.
An adapted room on request.
The only one is next to the lift and the ice machine.
Noise other guests sleep through can keep someone with sensory sensitivity or migraine awake all night.
If two or three of these are your building, that is normal — and fixable.
WHO WE MEAN
According to the WHO, around one in six people worldwide lives with significant disability. Most of them do not use a wheelchair. Plenty have a condition nobody at your front desk could see or pronounce, and they will not mention it at check-in unless you make that easy.
Vestibular disorders, some neurological conditions, life after a concussion.
Their brain keeps them upright by borrowing from their eyes and feet all day. Busy patterns, shiny floors, glass and dark corridors turn a short walk into hard work.
What helps
ME/CFS, POTS, long COVID, fibromyalgia, autoimmune conditions.
Every walk, wait and stand comes out of the same small allowance. Spend it on your lobby and there is less left for the reason they came.
What helps
Autism, migraine, ADHD, sensory processing differences.
Noise, bright light, strong scent and surprises all land harder. A loud lobby can use up the day before it has properly started.
What helps
Deaf and hard-of-hearing guests.
A lot of hospitality still happens out loud: the phone in the room, the announcement, the knock, the quick word at the desk.
What helps
We will tell you which of these four is already walking through your door.
NOT A RENOVATION
Nobody is asking you to rebuild, or to change the way your place feels. Most of what these guests need is a chair, a light setting, a sentence or a habit — things your other guests will never notice. Everything we find is sorted by what it costs, so you can start with what is free.
costs nothing
costs a little
next refurb
Yours will be shorter than you think, and most of it will sit in the first column.
THE CHEAPEST FIX WE KNOW
One line on the booking form, asked of every guest, so nobody has to disclose anything to be looked after. It costs nothing to add.
It tells a guest with an invisible condition that you thought about them before they had to explain themselves. For a lot of them, that would be a first.
“Is there anything that would make your stay easier?”
HOW IT WORKS
Take one part or all four. Every venue is different, so we quote after a first conversation.
No obligation and no sales deck. Tell us what you have and we will say where we would start.
WHY IT IS WORTH DOING
they bring people
A guest who cannot manage your venue takes their partner, their family or their whole team somewhere else.
they tell each other
People living with a chronic condition research everything before they book. A place that made it easy stays on the list.
and at work
Many people never mention an invisible condition at work. An office or company event that works for them works better for everyone.
What this is not. Not a building-regulations audit, not a certification and not medical advice. We do not replace your access consultant or your architect. We cover the part they usually do not look at.
WHO IS DOING THE LOOKING
I am Stephanie Ish, founder of ISHLY. In 2024, after two and a half years of being told it was probably stress, I was diagnosed with bilateral vestibular hypofunction and oscillopsia. The balance organs in both my ears underperform, and the world jolts with every step I take. Supermarkets, busy streets and hallways became things to plan for.
ISHLY is a lifestyle, media and education brand for people living with invisible chronic illness. This is the same work from the other side of the front desk: helping the places people go get it right before anyone has to ask.
What kind of place it is, where it is and what you have already done. We will come back to you with where we would start.
Or write to [email protected]
Get started today before this once in a lifetime opportunity expires.
