Why Disability-Inclusive Customer Service Is Never A One-Size-Fits-All

Woman giving card reader to visually impaired man to make contactless payment

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Ensuring products and services are fully accessible to customers with disabilities, who potentially comprise 15-20% of the customer base in many sectors, is a nuanced endeavor requiring careful consideration and a deep understanding of personal needs.

This is because different types of businesses and economic sectors can pose unique access blocks and pain points, which may disproportionately impact a particular segment of the disability community in comparison to others.

The above principle was neatly encapsulated in government-sponsored research to emerged from the U.K. earlier this month. As part of its National Disability Strategy, the U.K. Government commissioned the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers to examine the access to and experience of various physical and digital products and services for people with disabilities across the country.

RIDC’s research involved a survey exploring the types of barriers consumers with disabilities encounter when interacting with different types of businesses. The questionnaire, which had 1,545 fully completed responses, was undertaken between September and October 2023 and was accompanied by two separate focus groups. Questions were asked about the following sectors: well-being, personal care and beauty, financial and legal services, retail, technology, sports and exercise, entertainment, leisure and hospitality, household goods and services and couriers, delivery and postal services.

Overall, retail came out as the most problematic sector with 65% of respondents reporting access barriers. This was followed by entertainment and hospitality (57%) and wellbeing, personal care and beauty (49%). There was also variation depending on the type of disability a respondent had. So, for individuals with a social impairment, the financial and sport sectors were the most problematic, with 45% and 53% of respondents reporting barriers, respectively.

However, when it came to technology, it was individuals with vision impairments who led the way in terms of access issues at 47%. Whilst in the entertainment sector, which includes cafes, restaurants and food services, those with dexterity issues fared worst with 68% reporting issues. People with cognitive impairments and disabilities struggled most in the well-being (62%) and household goods and services sectors (50%). Wellbeing involves services like hairdressers and beauticians, whilst household goods and services include white goods and kitchen appliances.

Commenting on the findings, Angela Matthews, Director of Public Policy and Research at Business Disability Forum, which produces its guidelines on accessible and inclusive customer experiences, said, “This research shows that businesses are not providing accessible customer experiences and service delivery. This is not only a failure of basic equal rights but is also a missed business opportunity.

“Businesses are putting up barriers that prevent more disabled people from spending more money with them. It has a direct impact on businesses – on profit and growth as two basic examples – if they are not seeking to get their product or service purchased by as many people as possible. Many businesses talk about customer and client “needs” which are “tailored” and “individual” and that they are “happy to help”. Yet these words we associate with excellent service are not being experienced by disabled people. Adjustments and accessibility here are really about removing a difficulty that gets in the way of someone spending money with a business. If the legal and moral case that every human being is valuable and of equal worth in society doesn’t land with businesses, the profit case certainly should. Either way, the outcome is the same: businesses, why are you making it hard for people to spend their money with you?”

In terms of recommendations, the researchers do point to several principles of best practice for including individuals with disabilities on the customer journey based on what the survey respondents identified themselves. These include the enforcement of mandatory accessibility standards, codesigning alongside customers with disabilities and enhanced disability-focused staff training.

However, given that there appears to be a significant degree of variation between different disability segments, another approach could be to roll out specific programs and initiatives for different groups at different times. There are multiple examples of these going back in time. In 2023, Microsoft enabled its users with sight loss to connect to its help desk via video link and AI through a partnership with the visual interpretation service Be My Eyes. Between 2016 and 2022, Starbucks opened several stores with staff fluent in sign language. In 2020, Virgin Atlantic launched its Sunflower Lanyard scheme to discreetly identify individuals with hidden disabilities to its staff. Finally, in 2018, McDonald’s UK launched a Quiet Hour initiative to assist neurodivergent customers with adjustments such as reduced lighting, background music and general noise levels.

The beauty of such tailored schemes is that they provide learning experiences for fuller integration and can be cycled alongside other disability-specific initiatives to create maximum impact across the board. This combination of first-line principles and tailored schemes should produce a powerful net effect, provided that this is underpinned by authentic customer feedback and an understanding of where the pain points lie.