The U K’s biggest and best independent living event for disabled people returns to the NEC, Birmingham tomorrow and Thursday (19th-20th March), here’s what you can expect.
Naidex has been part of the disability landscape for over 50 years. Always empowering, always impactful and always inspirational, it’s back for 2025. As regular readers will realise, Able Magazine has been a key partner and source of advice for the event for several years and has again been selected as the headline media partner for Naidex.
A visit to Naidex opens up all manner of opportunities for disabled people looking for the answers and solutions to living well with disability. This year’s event will again be packed with amazing ideas, insight and innovations, including a wide range of products, adaptations, services and resources, that suit an enormous variety of needs and support an even wider set of aspirations.
If you’re a disabled person, carer or healthcare professional, visiting Naidex is a must, since the event covers every aspect of living with disability, including education and employment opportunities, as well as leisure and lifestyle.
Mobility Test Track
Mobility aids, such as manual wheelchairs, powerchairs and scooters, are among the most important pieces of equipment for disabled people to get right. Naidex is arguably one of the best places to see a wide range of options and compare them, to find out which one best suits your needs and preferences.
The mobility test track is something of a focal point for people looking for mobility solutions and includes a variety of artificial off-road terrain, ramps, and obstacles to gauge both the capabilities of mobility aids, as well as their suitability to individual users, and all under safe, supervised (indoor) conditions. It’s a great place to try before you buy.
Adaptive Climbing Wall
Naidex has an encouraging ethos and atmosphere, where you’ll discover ways to push your boundaries and challenge what you think you know about your potential. Although it’s perfectly safe and supervised, it does take a moment of steel to agree to take on the adaptive climbing wall. You won’t need to bring any equipment or specialist clothing, but you will need a spirit of adventure!
The Marketplace
Sometimes, it’s the small things that make a difference. The marketplace area of the showfloor is the place to source functional and affordable daily living aids and resources that empower and enable.
Naidex also has a proud tradition of supporting disabled entrepreneurs and business owners who put their talents into products that help make the lives of their fellow disabled people that bit easier. As such, it’s an area that draws people looking for innovations and bargains – with products priced from as little as £5.
The marketplace is also great for OTs and healthcare professionals to check out handy ideas for the people they care for.
The Village Green
Giving Naidex a real festival vibe, without the muddy terrain, is the village green area, where you’ll enjoy performances and interactive sessions, including music, dancing, cookery ad comedy.
Able Magazine Best In Show Award 2025
The team behind the renowned Able Magazine product awards pages will be in attendance to review a selection of the leading products and services available at Naidex.
The challenge is vast, since there are thousands of models and manufacturers present. However, since Able Magazine has been reviewing products for disabled people for over 30 years, we’re confident that we’re up to it!
Reviews are based on four areas: functionality, form, innovation and of course, price, so you can be sure the winner will be worthy.
Main Stage sessions
Among many different stages and theatres with great guests and fascinating speaker sessions, is the main stage.
A growing tradition over recent years sees Able Magazine editor, Tom Jamison, interviewing the headline guests.
This year, Tom will be interviewing ParalympicsGB great, Jody Cundy, about his amazing success in elite sports, and TV personality and model, Mollie Pearce. Jody Cundy has represented ParalympicsGB at every Games since Atlanta 1996, wining multiple gold medals in both swimming and cycling, although he’s not afraid to talk about some of the setbacks he’s faced along the way.
Mollie Pearce is best known for her appearances on the BBC’s Traitors and ITV’s Dancing On Ice. You may also have seen her raising awareness of travelling with a stoma or celebrating limb difference.
You really won’t want to miss these insightful sessions. To see the full seminar schedule, go to: www.naidex.co.uk/naidex-agenda-2025
Accessibility notes
Free Blue badge parking is located by hall 16, hall 16A, hall 17A and hall 18.
If you’re arriving by taxi and have your Blue Badge to hand, you can be dropped off at the main entrances. For pick-up, advise the taxi firm that you have a Blue Badge and they’ll be permitted to collect you from the main entrances. T.O.A black cabs will also collect you at the ranks by main entrances.
Accessible toilets are available across the NEC, as well as additional accessible toilets and HDUs within the Naidex hall.
Wheelchairs are available to hire for £5 and scooters for £20, though numbers are limited, so be sure to pre-book, or ideally, bring your own. Bookings can be made via the online access guide: www.accessable.co.uk/the-nec
A designated quiet space is located in concourse 34 and is furnished with sofas, tables and chairs. Assistance dogs are welcome but should be recognisable by their working harness or jacket.
BSL sign language interpreters support every main stage session and are available to request for other theatres. Hearing loops operate at all stages and live captioning is also available.
The NEC has partnered with AccessAble in creating a detailed access guide. Visit: www.accessable.co.uk/the-nec
Pop by the Able Magazine stand and enter our competition to be in with a chance of winning an E-TREK All-Terrain Mobility Quad Bike
The fully electric E-TREK is compact but capable. It might be the ideal mobility vehicle for disabled people with suffi cient core strength and balance, since it’s pavement and road legal – but has a defi nite wild side that can be released off-road, over the toughest terrain, backed up with plenty of power and torque.
We always enjoy meeting Able Magazine readers and commercial clients at Naidex, so please drop by our stand to say hello and enter our competition. Entering the competition is free, so visit us at stand number D166.
Naidex opening hours:
Wednesday 19th March 9:30am – 4:30pm
Thursday 20th March 9:30am – 4pm
There’s still time to register for free tickets, go to: www.naidex.co.uk
