Director named one of UK’s most influential disabled people

A director at Nimbus Disability has been named as one of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK.

Mark Briggs has been named in the Digital and Technology category of the Disability Power 100, which recognises the strengths and talents of disabled people who are pioneers, changemakers and influencers.

Mark has been included in recognition of his work to develop the internationally recognised Access Card.

He has been instrumental in the massive growth of the Access Card, which has been recognised with a Queen’s Award for Innovation and is held by hundreds of thousands of people in the UK.

Nimbus, which is a social enterprise, originally created the Access Card, the first accessibility scheme of its type in the world; offering a universal and consistent way of disabled people evidencing and communicating their access requirements to providers quickly and discreetly.

The Access Card is already widely recognised at the majority of the UK’s leisure and tourism venues, including  Buckingham Palace, The NEC Resorts World Arena and Alton Towers, as well as venues in the US, Europe and New Zealand.

Mark said: “Nimbus is run by disabled people for disabled people and our mission through the Access Card is to provide a universal, digitised way of communicating all verified access requirements, from eligibility to essential companion tickets to the necessity for wheelchair-accessible facilities and so much more.

“Our system enables each access requirement flagged to be integrated directly into ticketing systems to remove the need to continually call ‘special’ booking lines’ and fill in ‘special’ booking forms or answer personal and invasive questions over the phone.

“Ultimately, our operating system lessens the administrative burden on disabled people at the same time as opening up equality of access to online ticketing solutions from West End theatres to theme parks.”

The 100 finalists in the Disability Power 100 were selected by an independent judging panel, chaired by Andrew Miller MBE, from more than 1,500 public nominations.

The top 10 and all-important top spot, will be announced tomorrow.

Previous winners of the Disability Power 100 number one spot have included comedian and presenter Alex Brooker, campaigner and peer Baroness Jane Campbell and BBC disability journalist Nikki Fox.

Mark said: “I am deeply honoured that I, and therefore the whole team at Nimbus Disability, have been recognised in this way.

“The Disability Power 100 is an important way to highlight disabled role models and advocates across a number of sectors whose work is changing society.”