Dingley’s Promise had partnered with The Oracle Shopping Centre and Connect Reading to host ‘Wheels of Fortune’ an imaginative treasure hunt to mark Purple Tuesday.
In the spirit of providing continued support for the local charity, the totalsurf team took a break from their usual SEO and web development duties to take part in the hunt. The hunt came with a twist, though. One member of each team must compete in a wheelchair.
Both ‘Wheels of Fortune’ and Purple Tuesday are focused on raising awareness of the needs and values of disabled shoppers, and educating everybody about the hardships that disabled people are faced with while shopping. The Oracle, on this wet Tuesday afternoon, became a treasure map riddled with clues. Teams had to figure out where the clues were, based on cryptic riddles and questions.
Each team that took part were given a wheelchair which they could customise. Naturally, the technically-minded team at totalsurf decorated their wheelchair with flames, lights, banners and a huge amount of double sided tape. Our collective efforts earned us the award for ‘Best Dressed Chair’! Our takeaway thought was that if we could dress ourselves as good as we dress a wheelchair, we might be onto something!#
The ‘Wheels of Fortune’ event itself, though plagued with wind and rain, definitely left a lasting impression. Surprisingly, while confined to the wheelchair, we all were bewildered at not only how difficult being physically disabled must be, but also how accessible Reading is as a town. While we are all able to stand comfortably and therefore only have limited experience in this regard, it became apparent throughout the treasure hunt how some parts of the town centre are very wheelchair-friendly.
The consumer spending power of disabled people (known as the Purple Pound) is worth nearly £250 billion and is rising every year. The Purple Pound is all about raising awareness of disabled shoppers’ needs and values, and participating organisations commit to ensure changes are being made, by incorporating more products and services to the disabled community.The BBC ended up featuring the event on their South Today programme late yesterday evening.
Dingley’s Promise is a charity that helps young children with special educational needs and disabilities. Dingley’s mission is to provide support to these young children who cannot adjust to mainstream settings, and the charity has done wonders in assisting with specialist learning, family support, training and aid in adapting these children into regular schools. The charity were awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2011
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