Design For Dignity
Retail Guidelines

What matters to customers with disability?

Being treated fairly

People basically just want a fair go when it comes to going about their business.

The ABS reported that 8.6% of people with disability^{*Persons aged 15 years and over with disability, living in households, types of situations avoided due to disability in the last 12 months–2015, proportion of persons} felt that they had been discriminated against in the 12 months before the 2015 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers.

People with different types of disability experienced very different outcomes.

More than 20% of people who experience intellectual disability or a disability related to social interaction felt that they had been discriminated against, while less than ten percent of people with sensory disability or mobility restrictions reported discrimination.

Younger people felt that they had been discriminated against to a much higher degree (20.1% of 15-24 year-olds) than older people (9.4% of 55-64 year-olds).

While there has been no research into this data yet, it may be that younger audiences are more familiar with their rights and have greater expectations older people with disability.

ABS data also tells us where the experience of unfair treatment is likely to happen by asking people with disability about the situations they avoid because of discrimination.

In public settings, people with disability avoid shops, restaurants, cafés and bars the most frequently.

There is a significant opportunity for accessible retail shopping centres, outlets and dining venues to ensure that they give everyone an equitable and dignified experience.

Baker (2006)^{*Baker, S. M., 2006, Consumer Normalcy: Understanding the value of shopping through narratives of consumers with visual impairments, Journal of Retailing, 82 (1), pps 37-50} studied the value of shopping to customers with vision impairment.

The study found that people wanted to be treated like other consumers and gained satisfaction and identity from shopping in four ways:

• “I am here” — being in the shopping centre or shop, purchasing things and being involved in the shopping experience.
• “I am me” — people wanted to be viewed for their unique needs and personality first and their disability second.
• “I am in control” — people wanted primary control over their shopping purchase decisions.
• “I belong” — they want to be a regular and expected part of the shopping.

The research found that while an accessible retail environment can attract new customers, it is the service that they receive in-store that creates the environment that retains customer loyalty.