As a person with disability and an assistance dog it makes going out a challenge sometimes. Not only do I have to think about my needs but also his…..
Like his toilet.

As you can imagine, going to workshop or conference would be pretty weird for a general dog and yet my assistance dog - Bundy, is getting pretty good at it by now.

We headed to the SCOUT23: Sunshine Coast Big Day Out For Tourism event at Venue 114 yesterday. I really wanted to go as I wanted to hear the speakers and also had some questions I wanted to ask Sunshine Coast Airport and a couple of other businesses. I was so relieved when I saw Cérge was at the event.

I’ve previously used Cérge to let a business know that I had an assistance dog so that I didn’t have all the awkward questions and permissions etc. it worked a dream!

So this time going to this event I was already feeling confident as I knew I could use Cérge to communicate directly with the venue. The one thing that really was SO helpful was the Visual Story and the Accessibility Guide on the website before the event opened.
So Helpful!

The fact they had on the Accessibility Guide that there was a toileting area for Bundy gave me instant relief. The Visual Story meant that I could get a sense of what I would see, hear, feel and smell and all the photos of every area so I knew in advance what to be mindful of.

Things where Bundy hasn’t been exposed can be tricky, he hadn’t seen a wheelchair before and had only recently learned how to navigate metal stairs. So to us even knowing the type of stairs is very important as it changes my day.

There is NEVER too much information on a Visual Story and Accessibility Guide.

Thankfully I had the visual story so knew from that where to go and what things looked like in advance. Brings the heart rate down a bit ??

One thing that was super exciting was Bundy and I meeting Sunshine Coast Airport, Bonza and Cérge all together. Imagine that! Bundy and I would have the world at our fingertips if those three joined up! Wow, I haven’t been able to even think of that kind of accessibility

That would be mind blowing for us. Thank you Cérge and for a great event!

scout23 Audio Guide