An Enniskillen disability rights campaigner has launched an initiative to ensure all-inclusive accessibility for wheelchair users at hospitality venues and hotels.

Shelley Cowan was bed-bound, tube-fed, and unable to use her limbs for 12 years due to severe ME.

She spent another decade as a wheelchair user.

Ms Cowan said: "When people think of 'all-inclusive', they think of 'all you can eat' food and drink.

"I want it to mean that hotels and venues are fully accessible for all."

She founded Access Avenue, a business venture aimed at including people with disabilities in society.

Ms Cowan's research revealed that 75 per cent of tourists with severe physical disabilities find current hotel venue barriers "excessive, increasingly difficult or unreasonable to navigate".

She said: "50 per cent of tourists with severe disabilities bring, purchase or rent their own heavy, expensive hoisting devices to be able to stay in hotels.”

To address this, she created the 'Hotel Accessibility Grading Classification', a system that helps guests understand the level of accessibility at venues.

Her research into the problems faced by those with disabilities as part of her MSc in International Business found there are only 17 fully accessible hotels for disabled guests in the UK, with none in Northern Ireland.

She said: "Overall, Northern Ireland hotel accessible offerings are limited, basic, impractical and inadequately designed, however, this was found to also be a global issue.

“To be able to stay away from home for even one night took weeks of rigorous planning and several phone calls to the hotel to ensure the venue and facilities were suitable for my needs.

“The majority of rooms were not spacious enough to manoeuvre and use the equipment safely.”

She believes that accommodation providers lose millions of pounds annually due to inaccessibility-related non-participation.

She said: "Hotel guests with disabilities want fair, equal service and prices comparable to other guests.

"Guests with disabilities want barrier-free travel with accommodation as stated.

"We want to enjoy hotels as much as anyone else.

"I believe accommodation providers with full accessibility will benefit from an increase in trade from the 'purple pound'.

"It’s a win-win situation for everyone if we work together."