Access and attitude
Missed markets
In the UK, people with disabilities have a combined spending power of £80bn (BBC):
- There are over 10 million disabled people in Britain. Office for Disability Issues.
- Over 6.7 million disabled people are of working age which represents 18 percent of the working population. Labour Force Survey, May 2009.
- One in every three people either has a disability or has a close relative or friend who is disabled. Office of National Statistics, Census 2001.
- An accessible website can increase a company’s UK market audience by more than 17%, and boosts traffic because it will be indexed more efficiently by search engines. Nomensa humanising technology report, January 2011.
- Around half of households with a disabled member have access to the internet, compared to over two thirds of households with no disabled members. British Social Attitudes Survey 2006.
How disabled people choose where to buy
Disabled customers spend a lot longer choosing where to buy than the average consumer and tend to make more ‘informed choices’. The main decision factors underpinning customer choice are ‘past experience of good service’ and ‘reputation for good service’: EFD, RADAR: The Walk Away £, 2006
The main reasons for disabled customers’ switching to a more accessible competitor include (Ibid):
- Inaccessible premises
- Inaccessible websites
- Poor customer service: lack of awareness, poor communications, lack of flexibility
- Inaccessible telephone systems
- Inaccessible printed information