As Mark Twain once wrote,

“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”

Development of an online directory would usually take many months of work by a large team of programmers, front-end web designers, User Experience (UX) specialists and marketing/branding gurus.

By contrast, OpenForAll.com.au was brought to you by a small handful of volunteers in a matter of weeks.

We would have loved the luxury of more time to test and perfect what we’d created, but we knew how desperately consumers wanted to connect with inclusive businesses. So we decided to take a Twain-style approach and refine as we go!

Since the directory went live on Monday, many of you have contacted us with suggestions about how to make listings more visible. We’ve taken your feedback on board and made the following improvements:

• The homepage now features quick links to ALL businesses listed in each state
• You can search for a specific business type in a wider geographical area (city or LGA, not just suburb)

These changes will make it much easier to find inclusive businesses in your area while the directory is still growing.

Every day, more and more businesses are listing themselves as ‘Open For All’. Our registration form gives business owners the option of including a personal message and we love reading these as they roll in.

Here are just a handful of those received in the last 24 hours:

THESE are the business owners to get behind and support.

What they are saying is in line with a warning issued this week by Lyndall Dean, Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission:

“All Australians should vigorously oppose the introduction of a system of medical apartheid and segregation in Australia.

“It is an abhorrent concept and is morally and ethically wrong, and the antithesis of our democratic way of life and everything we value.“

We thank Ms. Dean for her courage in speaking the truth, and we thank the Open For All businesses refusing to support medical apartheid.

If listings are few & far between in your area, please let your local businesses know about Open For All by delivering our flyers.

With thanks,

The #OpenForAllAU team