Consumers with Disabilities

Observing the Challenged Shopper

• Americans with Disabilities Act  (ADA)
• Can retailers`understand the recommendations of compliance?
• What are the assumptions of retail planners?
• How can retailers learn how to understand the needs of challenged shoppers?
• 49 million disabled persons in U.S.- various types of challenges – 20 percent of the U.S. population

Challenged Shoppers want to be treated as Shoppers First

• Adaptations of retail space
• Assistance of well-trained support staff
• Accessible, well-maintained, equipment which matches shopping activities
• Title III:  accessibility of public accommodations, such as restaurants, movie theaters, retail stores,
• Compliance is difficult to translate into action - e.g. concert halls and sports stadiums

• “Barrier-free” cannot be investigated in isolation
• Activities must be considered by order, level of interaction, and transition among activities - a sequential approach
• ADA compliance regulations discuss these issues one at a time:  e.g. recommendations for doors, for ramps, etc.

• Field study of real-life frustrations of challenged shoppers
• Upper-level undergraduate student teams enrolled in Retail Marketing Class
• Simulation of mobility impairments:  wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, leg braces, and motorized carts

• At least four stores, including a grocery store, and at least one infrastructure, such as a telephone, restroom, or ATM
• Emergent design: there is no standard pattern for imitating  and/or studying the experience of challenged shoppers
• Recorded in multiple media:  photographs, videos, sketches, logs of perceptions and feelings
• Emphasis on discrepancy

• The continuous sequence of ramps and doors is often not coordinated
• “Pathway into the store” - often described in each part of the pathway
• Students found steep ramps with doors opening backwards, forcing the wheelchair user to balance precariously on the doorway edge

Access Equipment: Condition, Location, and Convenience

• Comparison of shopper bringing own equipment vs. shopper who plans to borrow store equipment
• Mixed findings:
• Excellent equipment in convenient locations
• Equipment stored in inaccessible corners, behind automatic doors
• Poorly-kept equipment, often piled with merchandise

• Aisles blocked by pallets, merchandise, boxes, high step ladders
• Displays must be moved in order to get through
• Merchandise required reaching, bending, lifting ... all inaccessible
• Displays, mirrors, and information placed overhead
• Vending machines with overhead coin slots

• Often located in back of store
• Often locked requiring searching for personnel
• Often crowded with stored merchandise, boxes, etc.
• Wall hooks placed too high
• Little or no room to turn around; chairs and carts become stuck

Phase II: Accompanying Challenged Shoppers
Upper-level undergraduate student teams enrolled in Retail Marketing Class
Actual observations of real-life shopping problems as experienced by a challenged shopper
Both “visible” and “invisible” challenges:  Accident injuries, Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, Epilepsy
 

What do we assume about shoppers?

• Average, able-bodied shoppers
• That they  have a choice of stores and that they can get to our stores without difficulty
• That we will “notice” if they are challenged
• That they have access to merchandise & displays
• That they can reach things which persons of average “height” can reach
• They enter the store on foot, can see and hear clearly, can lift and carry products through the store, and are able to use conventional shopping carts and baskets

It Only Takes a Problem in Part of the Process ...

• Gaining information on mass transit may be difficult
• Parking and access may be blocked; parking spaces too narrow for van lifts
• Rainy entrances may  be slippery; curb cuts may fill with water
• Problems can be product-specific:  Types of merchandise may be impossible to evaluate in store:  e.g. bathing suits
• Personnel may be insensitive

• Strobe lighting is dangerous to those with seizure disorders
• Colors may be inaccessible to those with color-vision deficiencies
• Displays which spill over into aisles may trip customers on crutches; may block customers in wheelchairs and carts
• Displays may make lifting necessary; many cannot lift items from overhead or from below waist-level

• Doors are too heavy to be opened
• Doorways are too narrow for wheelchair access
• Retail aisle space is used a display for excess merchandise
• Handicapped fitting rooms are used as storage
•  Wheelchairs and motorized carts are dirty and unobtainable

• Critics claim substantial costs to retailers to gain compliance, without analyzing what accommodations are like from the perspective of the challenged shopper
• Accommodations can benefit all customers and employees alike
• The ADA is often not implemented because it is not understood
• Overly-technical regulations difficult to translate into operational compliance
• Lack of interest due to “insufficient” numbers of challenged customers

• Some equipment, such as automatic doors, benefit other customers, such as parents with small children and older shoppers
• Universal design improves life for all consumers

• Many persons have a limitation in a life ability which is unseen
• They are often insulted and ridiculed, since they may “look” as if no disability exists. Their needs may go unaddressed.
• Benches for resting needed by invisible disabled, such as those with asthma, back problems, and epilepsy

• Designed to uncover and examine reasons for noncompliance
• Designed to develop ideas for inexpensive, more easily-understandable methods of creating user-friendly shopping environments
•  We wanted to find out if retailers could answer:  “What does the ADA mean to my own business?”

What did the Retailers Know?

• 16/22 had some knowledge; “ADA allows disabled people to have access.”
• 64% had policies to assist the disabled; they spoke in terms of parking and ramps
• They did not translate the accessibility in terms of their own stores
• Less than half referred to automatic doors, low counters, or periodic checks to keep walkways clear

• Assisted disabled customers “when they needed it”, when they ask, when they point out a problem
• ADA requires us to “treat customers with respect”
• Disabled shoppers want to be treated like “everyone else” without needing to ask for help

What is Really Wanted is ...

• To have a set of expectations about successful patronage:  no surprises!
• To be able to enter stores without getting stuck
• To be able to trust that the elevator or escalator is working every time
• To shop without embarassment
• To shop without having to travel farther than everyone else
• To be able to get a drink, use the restroom, wash and dry their hands, rest if they get tired, sit with their friends, look into mirrors, try on clothes, and get their purchases to and through the checkout

And There’s More . . .

• To be spoken to directly
• To be treated as a valued customer, rather than as a problem to be solved
• To encounter employees who have received training in accommodations

Notice That Many of These Wants Are Cost-Free

• The items on the chart are what customers expect in a predictable shopping environment
• Retailers need to examine how each issue is addressed in their particular stores:
• e.g. Do my customers have to travel farther? Why?
• Do my employees know how to speak to disabled customers?

• If shelves and counters cannot be lowered:
•  Post signs and call buttons to summon assistance
• Try vertical placement rather than eye-level
• If ramps are too steep and doors are too heavy, but cannot be changed:
• Call buttons for assistance
• Railings and skid-strips can be installed; monitor drainage
• Modify height, angle of door handles

• If crowdedness is a barrier
• Establish preferred shopper times during less crowded hours
• Aisle-displays are hazardous for all customers!
• Post hours for inventory restocking
• If mobility aids are stored “in the back”
• Identify a spot in front, or place call button for access

Limit Expense and Maximize Cost-Effectiveness of Accommodations

• Reusable Aids: large-print and Braille shopping information, menus, bills, deli lists, store maps. . .
• Clipboards to shoppers in wheelchairs, for signing charge slips
• Audio-enhanced recordings of store information
• Names of color information for color-blind shoppers
• Communication media must match the customer’s communication style; post hours for sign-language interpreter

And the Good News is . . . Accommodation is No Surprise!

• Retailers can implement low-cost, high impact accommodations which involve simple readjustments of their existing policies
• Do not see customers as “victims”
• Ask: What are the unmet needs of people with certain challenges?
• A no-surprise, high-respect environment can be achieved through minimal expense by many retailers