It’s important that you support all of your customers with disabilities. This way, you can create a welcoming environment while making disabled customers feel safe and included. Read more about how to do this in the following article.
From country to country, disabled customers are a big part of the consumer base.
For instance, in the UK alone, more than one in five potential customers has a disability.
Your business likely has a significant number of disabled customers, too. Or, if you’re only a small business, you’re probably going to attract disabled customers further down the line. Knowing this, you need to know how to support your disabled customers.
By supporting your disabled customers, you can make them feel included, improve your brand image, and even boost your sales. Really, the benefits are endless.
If you’re currently looking for ways to make your business more inclusive of disabled people, you can start your journey today by following the steps below.
Have An Accessible Website
In the eCommerce era, most businesses now sell products via their websites.
As great as it is to sell products online, you need to make sure your website is accessible to people with disabilities. Otherwise, you’re going to miss out on hundreds (or potentially even thousands) of customers. Not to mention, you’re legally required to make your website accessible to disabled people, which is why it should be a top priority moving forward.
One of the best ways to make your website accessible is to use accessibility overlays for commercial websites. Whenever disabled customers visit your website, they’ll have access to all the options they need, such as being able to change the color contrast settings.
On top of this, you can also do things like add a keyboard navigation option to your website. This way, visually impaired customers will still be able to navigate your website and buy products that they’re interested in.
Make Your Store Disability-Friendly
Do you have a physical store as well as a website?
If the answer is yes, it’s time to make your store disability-friendly! Don’t worry; it’s a lot easier than you think and won’t require you to break the bank.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Install wheelchair ramps and handrails.
- Make the aisles wider (this is especially important for disabled people in wheelchairs).
- Provide disabled seating areas.
Remember, once disabled customers see that your store is accessible to them, it’ll make them feel cared for by your brand. As a result, they’ll be more likely to come inside, engage with your products, make purchases, and even return in the future.
Provide Staff With Disability Awareness Training
Disability awareness training is key, whether you employ 10 or 100 members of staff.
Through their training, staff will be able to get all the knowledge and information they need regarding disabled inclusivity, as well as how to support disabled customers both in-store and online.
Best of all, disability awareness training doesn’t take long and can even be done online, which means your employees can receive their training at home using PCs or smartphones.
Summary
These are just some of the best ways you can support your disabled customers. Remember, disabled customers matter, so it’s vital you make them feel included and supported no matter which specific industry you are in.