Businesses must strive for more than accessibility. They need to work on being more welcoming to people with disabilities.
July is Disability Awareness Month. The latest annual Disability Equality Index Report on disability inclusion at major corporations is out. And on July 26, 2022, people with disabilities across the United States will celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
While the ADA continues to be a source of hope and pride—a remarkable example of what people with disabilities and their allies can achieve in the public policy realm—each anniversary tends to raise similarly mixed feelings of pride, frustration, and determination in the disability community. It also raises some of the same questions that prompted the ADA in the first place: “Why are so many places still inaccessible to us?” and, “Why do so many supposedly accessible places still feel so scary, so exhausting, and unwelcoming?”
These questions about everyday retail accessibility can sometimes seem old, even trivial. They often sound like just the lifestyle concerns of otherwise privileged and comfortable wheelchair users and elderly retirees with mobility issues – pale in comparison to some of the more dire freedom and confinement, life and death issues millions of disabled people still face.
However, common business accessibility is just as important today as it was in the early 90s, when the ADA was new and seemed to promise to make accessibility in every neighborhood’s shops and offices something of a mandatory legal requirement. It continues to be important because while the ADA and its accessibility guidelines have helped make most areas of America much more accessible than they were in previous generations, 32 years later, accessibility still too often feels like an afterthought. Accessibility continues to be treated as some sort of premium feature rather than a civic responsibility for businesses, or a civil right for customers. It may be even more important now than before, as the population as a whole continues to age, and as the disabled population is likely to increase in the wake of, (or continuation of), Covid-19 and its variants. Also, comparatively easier and more accessible options such as online shopping and delivery services make it easier for disabled people to simply reject inaccessible businesses, now without material loss except in socialization and choice. Accessibility of brick and mortar businesses may soon become a true and important competitive necessity, as it has always promised to be.
But if businesses want to benefit from doing the right thing, they need to look beyond mere compliance. They need to focus on more than physical access, more even than equal service, but also on fostering feelings and experiences that people crave especially from disabled people – capability, freedom and appreciation.
Here are five ways any business can begin to create or improve their accessibility, and offer a more welcoming environment for disabled customers.
1. Easy parking and entrance
Disabled people who drive choose businesses with the most accessible and available parking spaces. Read also : Charnwood Museum looks back at the Ladybird books. Sometimes it really is that simple – a breaker when parking is a pain, a handler when it’s a breeze.
Designated disabled parking spaces must be laid out and marked in a certain way, something that is still often overlooked or misunderstood. The spaces themselves should be as close as possible to the main customer entrance. They must be wide enough, generally 8 feet. And they must be marked “access corridors” adjacent, so that disabled drivers have room to get out of their cars and leave, without hitting a neighboring car. These are some of the simplest accessibility standards to follow. However, they are still often only partially or carelessly implemented.
Enforcement does not have to be a big problem, but businesses should take a positive interest in it. One of the weaknesses of the whole “accessible parking” laws is that it’s hard to find anyone willing to take responsibility for enforcing them. Aside from occasional high-profile efforts by police or volunteers, enforcement of accessible parking is often a low priority. And informal, citizen enforcement, while usually well-intentioned, often ends up being abused and generates more hostility toward disabled people than accessibility. Businesses can help by monitoring the spaces their customers use, eliminating neutrality on the issue, and weighing the side of respect and proper use of accessible parking.
2. Wide pathways, less clutter
Disabled people, especially those with mobility impairments, need space to move. For starters, they need wide, smooth sidewalks to easily get in and out of your business. This may interest you : ‘Food Swamp’ vs. ‘Food Desert’: What’s the Difference?. This is important for people who use wheelchairs of course, but also people using crutches or canes, with a guide dog or human assistant, or just with a slightly more delicate balance and limited stamina to physically assess walks.
Such accessibility cannot stop at the door either. Inside, disabled customers want to find wide, clear paths, product aisles and meeting rooms. Disabled people need sufficient clearance to walk, roll, stop and turn without crashing into product displays or other customers.
This is why layout and even decor is important. Keep in mind that some aspects of that cute, cluttered, “general store” look and feel can make a business distinctly uncomfortable as well as inaccessible to disabled customers. It’s one of the reasons why “big box” stores often have an advantage over some smaller businesses, at least in terms of physical accessibility. And don’t forget that lighting and sound dynamics can either make a commercial space more or less comfortable and usable for people with visual or hearing impairments – in ways you might not think of at first.
3. Reachable, usable, well-lit interiors
High shelves, service counters, and tables are bad for wheelchair users, and for Little People and others who have more trouble than most reaching up high to see, grab, and operate things in business. Read also : Health officials Promote Identification of Potential Bacteria in Local Water.
Try to be as creative as possible to keep the things you want customers to see, use and buy at a lower level. Check specific accessibility standards, but as a general rule, think about keeping things reachable and manageable under 4 feet tall. This applies to product shelves of course. But high tables and stools in restaurants and bars are also especially frowned upon in the disability community. They are difficult for shorter people to handle, and almost completely exclude wheelchair users.
As already noted, dark “moody” environments, such as in some restaurants and bars, create problems for visually impaired people. Just as noisy environments that are exciting for some customers, such as in nightclubs, can be as bad for deaf and hard of hearing customers as uncramped steps are for wheelchair users. If these aesthetic factors cannot be completely eliminated, businesses should at least offer some good, targeted accommodations, such as additional lighting or designated quieter areas.
Above all, try to make your entire business both accessible and enjoyable for people with all kinds of disabilities, and as casually and naturally as possible.
4. Wheelchair accessible restrooms
For restaurants in particular, good, accessible toilets are key. Wheelchair users really develop internal maps in their heads of where in their communities they can go to the toilet, and where they can’t. And visitors in wheelchairs almost always worry about this in unfamiliar cities and towns.
Wherever you want your customers to stay for more than, say, half an hour, they must be able to go to the toilet. People with disabilities will not patronize those who do not have them, and they will remember. Their families and friends will also remember. It’s an absolute deal breaker. And especially in neighborhoods with overall poor accessibility, a truly accessible and comfortable restroom is an asset to any business.
Toilet accessibility is also one of the more complicated and demanding areas in terms of proper design. Take the time to look up and fully understand all the requirements. And get both professional help and actual disabled people before you try to tackle it as a DIY project.
5. Aware, responsive staff
It shouldn’t go without saying, but it’s worth repeating – physical accessibility is only part of making a business welcoming to disabled customers. It’s harder to measure or fix than door widths or toilet placement, but personal attitudes and practices are probably more than half the game. Helpful and caring staff can even help offset at least some aspects of less-than-ideal physical accessibility.
Staff issues and customer relationship skills deserve entire articles on their own. And it can take a while to change workplace cultures. But businesses should at least begin to focus honest attention to avoid the most common and annoying habits able-bodied customers tend to encounter: neglect, condescension and rigidity.
When a visibly disabled commuter comes into a business, and staff don’t immediately know how to help or what assistance might be required, their first reaction is sometimes to ignore them. This is a major turn off for disabled customers, for obvious reasons. On the other hand, being too sweet, attentive and caring – too overtly condescending – can also make disabled customers feel uncomfortable and insulted. Disabled people notice both extremes, even when staff are completely unaware of them. Try to find a balance between letting disabled clients set the agenda and explore independently, and being receptive to their requests for help when they come.
The other major risk of driving away disabled customers is when staff are too rigid, too reluctant to break routines. As already noted, providing equal service often means providing different or additional assistance. Nothing drives a disabled customer away like hearing reasonable enough requests for help answered with, “I can’t do that” or “I’m not allowed.” Staff should feel empowered to step at least a little out of their usual roles and beyond usual procedure to serve a disabled customer.
Even if you think your business is already accessible, it can’t hurt to take a day to think methodically about any unnecessary barriers or unwelcome practices you might be able to fix.
And unless you have a disability yourself, try to get help from people with disabilities. If possible, more than one type of disability. And offer to pay them for their time, even if it’s a close friend, family member or already loyal disabled customer. Making business accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities is an important undertaking. It is worth doing well, both thoughtfully and professionally.
