If you own or run a business, you’ve probably experimented with many methods for attracting more consumers and increasing sales. Have you ever questioned if your business has physical barriers that prohibit disabled clients from entering your store? Making your business accessible to individuals with disabilities not only expands your customer base and generates revenue, but it also benefits everyone and contributes to a more inclusive environment.
Why Is This Important?
Creating an inclusive environment for individuals with disabilities in your business is key. People who live with a disability constitute 10% of the world’s population, which is about 650 million people. That being said, people with disabilities are actually a huge customer base. Making your business approachable and reachable for them means more money to finance your business and other different interests you have.
Keep in mind that disabilities vary. Some, like the elderly or temporarily injured middle-aged people, use walking aids like crutches, wheelchairs, and canes to move around. Some are visually or hearing impaired, while others have a recognized learning disability. Here are tips to make your business accessible.
Train Your Team
Your business team that consists of sales representatives, suppliers, and the like is important. They assist the buyer through the process of a purchase. To that end, they should interact more with customers. However, a survey conducted found that buyers just allocate 17% of their time meeting with suppliers due to the fact that buyers are now more into researching, learning, and meeting with fellow associates.
Is your business team conscious of the needs of customers with disabilities? Does your team have a meeting room that can accommodate business people, customers, clients, and other workers with disabilities? Offer training programs for your employees so they understand the best ways to communicate with and work alongside individuals with various disabilities.
Moreover, a customer care room that accommodates people with disabilities, and in which some sales reps are permanently stationed to answer questions that are posed by customers with disabilities, can be created to make the customers feel welcomed and important. These reps must be patient and communicative so that business can remain a priority.
Consider Safety
Generally, the state of your workplace either invites or scares away customers. This emphasizes the need to ensure that your workplace is on point, in this case, in relation to customers with disabilities.
Imagine if a fire occurs at your workplace and everyone needs to evacuate the building at once, including customers who have crutches and are in wheelchairs. Setting up an NFPA25 code helps increase the effectiveness of a fire alarm system to prevent failure and promotes an emphatic response in a fire emergency. These kinds of systems undergo inspections monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, and at five- and 10-year intervals. These habitual visual examinations and functional testings at different intervals ensure the system works properly all of the time.
This way, customers with mobile disabilities have time to evacuate at their own comfortable pace, and your business place earns a reputable standing as an inclusive environment.
Ensure Restrooms Are Easily Accessible
An accessible washroom features a wide entrance, a grab bar on the side and rear of the toilet, a 90cm area alongside the toilet, and a 1.3m turning radius. If the toilet stall door swings out rather than in, you can create even more space because wheelchair maneuverability is required for accessible restrooms. Remember that debris and stored things must be removed as well.
You would want everyone to have access to your business, whether it’s a local restaurant, a music venue, a coffee shop, or a corporate business building. Don’t miss out on potential customers because your business is not accessible to all.