Friday Feature: Zubee Kibria
⭐Disabled Entrepreneur ⭐Founder, Access My Events ⭐
Every Friday at Dwellability, we like to highlight community members and their amazing stories of accomplishment…
My name is Zubee Kibria and I am the Founder of Access My Events.
I am a disabled entrepreneur who loves to make a difference to people’s lives through the work I do. I have worked in the field of disability equality for many years, with a varied career, having worked and volunteered for a number of organisations doing various different roles in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Zubee is a multi-talented individual that has a passion for arranging and promoting events, Two of her most notable achievements include:
Taking the responsibility of organising a ground breaking inclusive fashion show called Fashion with Passion for charity with disabled and non-disabled designers and models, raising over £2,000, receiving local, national and international press coverage with an article in British Vogue Magazine
Being a part of arranging the UK’s first ever Conference for Disabled Entrepreneurs.
To see more exciting events that Zubee has worked on, please go to her Facebook page accessmyevents.co.uk
Fashion with Passion Show
This was a groundbreaking fashion show to feature disabled and non-disabled designers and models. I wanted to do this show to raise money for Action on Disability and to raise awareness of disability in the fashion industry, and that as disabled people we can look as glamorous as non-disabled people. The success of the show was something I was not expecting being my first time putting on this kind of event.
Access My Events
Access My Events is a unique business designed to give disabled people an opportunity to attend events that are accessible in the UK, from fashion shows to trade exhibitions, just to name a few. My company will give businesses a way to reach out to the disability community and to make them aware of accessible events that they may not have known about locally or nationally. I will source events that are accessible and build partnerships with those businesses and grow my network of disabled individuals keen to attend events as well as encourage others to do so as well. This will enable me to promote the event to the disability community across social media, through my network and Disability Horizons, an online lifestyle magazine (https://disabilityhorizons.com/) which attracts over 50k readers a month and is growing. If I find an event is not accessible, I will work with the business to make it inclusive as possible through my solutions-based consultancy service.
As a disabled person myself I understand the challenges disabled people face when it comes to accessing events. I have a passion for helping other disabled people attend events in and around their local area – it’s so important for independence and wellbeing.
Here are just some of the challenges disabled people face:
The challenges vary for each individual depending on a person’s disability as well as the event. Challenges could include:
No lifts or ramps
No accessible toilet facilities
An attendee being unable to actually get into a venue due to lack of access
limited or no disabled parking near the venue
No British Sign Language or subtitles for those who are deaf
No provisions for someone visually impaired, such as Braille or a hearing loop
No accessible train stations on a route for those needing to get there by public transport
No hotels nearby with an accessible room for those who want or need to stay overnight.
To find out more, please watch my short video. CLICK HERE
If you’re a business that hosts events and are interested in getting more disabled people to attend, please get in touch using either of the following ways:
Email: zubee@accessmyevents.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.accessmyevents.co.uk
Twitter: @AccessMyEvents
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zubee-kibria-35394231
Other Activities
The 2.6 Challenge
A lot of people took part in a range of different events to save UK charities as many of them are losing money due to Coronavirus. I got involved with only two day’s notice to get prepared, bearing in mind I had not cycled for a while, plus it was the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Thanks to Bikeworks https://www.bikeworks.org.uk/Pages/Category/what-is-all-ability
I was able to get out again, but this time making a difference for our chosen charity, Disability Rights UK. https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/ A few members from the All Ability User Group took part in West London and East London. Myself and a user group member completed 13 laps each of Little Wormwood Scrubs Park and at the time we raised £90. Over the coming weeks we reached our fundraising target of £250, which had gone beyond our target. It's an amazing feeling to know this money is going to a good cause and will make a difference for the disability community :)
As always, please share this newsletter with your friends and family. Also, visit our main website https://www.dwellability.com/ to learn more about Home Sharing for People with Disabilities…by People with Disabilities.
Cheers!
Jeff