By: Bryan Gogg
Today I will address how to best accommodate customers with different types of disabilities. I will be taking into consideration areas in which there is clear guidance from the government, as well as areas in which there is only guidance from individuals with disabilities themselves.
The Law and You
Most likely your small business has to be Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant with Title III, which covers who you serve, and possibly with Title I, which covers who you hire (which I do not plan to go into detail about here). Title III covers, “any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation.” This language has been read to cover everything except some private clubs and religious institutions.
However, even if you don’t have to comply with the ADA, you should still want to. There are millions of people in America, and a good percentage of people in your area, with disabilities. These people with disabilities go shopping just like everyone else. Thus, by making your place of business and your business website accessible, you will be increasing your customer pool a great deal.
The Place of Business
ADA guidelines, last released in 2010, cover several ways to easily make your business more disability-friendly. These primarily address physical disabilities, deafness, and blindness. These don’t include some other disabilities such as autism, but I will speak more about that later.
One of the simplest things to do is to go around your place of business and imagine what it would be like for someone in a wheelchair to get around your business. Are all the aisles wide enough? Is there enough room to turn the corners? Can they reach everything they might want to buy? Is there a way for them to easily check out? If you have a bathroom, can they get into and out of it easily? If not, think of ways to make your place more accessible.
Other issues to consider have to do with other disabilities. Is there a way for people with certain disabilities to speak to you, such as with a pencil and paper or with communication devices? Does your business accommodate service dogs? Do you have enough handicapped-accessible parking spots (generally the rule is one accessible parking spot for every 25 total parking spots)? These are the sorts of questions you should ask when trying to make your place of business ADA compliant. More suggestions can be found here.
Website and ADA
When it comes to business websites, the law is messy, to say the least. Some courts have said that a website needs to be attached to an actual business, some courts have said all websites count, some courts have yet to rule on this, and of course, the Supreme Court has yet to address it at all. While the government did release some guidelines, these are only guidelines state and local governments must follow, and they are more than a decade old, so not that useful to a business owner like yourself.
Instead, what has generally become the accepted standard for private businesses is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines were created by a private consortium but have generally been recommended by courts in settlements about websites, and therefore are likely what you should follow when developing your own website.
There are some simple things you can do to make sure you are meeting these guidelines. For one, if you have pictures on your website, make sure to describe what the picture is conveying in the text below (text to speech software used by those with visual problems can translate the text but not the picture). Another example is not having audio play for too long as it can interfere with other software. More suggestions can be found here.
What ADA Does Not Address
One thing that ADA guidelines fail to cover (which I hope it will cover soon), that I feel is important to cover here, is accommodating people with autism and other sensory disabilities. Autism affects millions of children and adults here in America today. Those are millions of potential customers that all need things too. Autistic people need stores to be mindful of sensory issues. Loud sounds, smells, crowds, etc., will all make autistic people not want to visit your store.
For some stores, that might be hard to manage. If for example, you run a store that sells coffee, you might have a hard time running a store that does not lead to sensory overload. However, many stores can manage these issues by just having less clutter, sensory hours (one hour a week where you limit customers), not having lights so bright, less overloading websites, and other small things. Look at your business and see if there is anything you can do to help. In addition to that, if there is no way to avoid sensory overload in your store, having a way for people to not have to enter your store such as curbside shopping, might be a good idea.
Below is a good example of what becoming overstimulated is often like, while this involves a child, adults can and often do experience much of the same thing (even if they have developed coping strategies over the years):
This post has been reproduced with the author’s permission. It was originally authored on March 29, 2021, and can be found here.
Sources:
https://www.ada.gov/smbusgd.pdf
The Muddy Waters of ADA Website Compliance May Become Less Murky in 2019
Photo Sources:
https://www.ada.gov/business/retail_access.htm
https://www.aruma.com.au/about-us/blog/6-facts-about-sensory-hypersensitivity
Video Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPknwW8mPAM
