Businesses are losing £1.8bn a month by failing to consider the needs of their disabled customers, according to research carried out for a commission investigating financial burdens placed on the disabled.
By James Moore for the Independent
Some 75 per cent of disabled people and their families say they have left a shop or other business because it failed to meet their needs, according to the Extra Costs Commission, which published its interim report yesterday.
I’m one of those people. Having asked the staff at my local Tesco if it was alright for me to put my shopping into a shoulder bag I was carrying around my neck (I can’t easily manage a trolley or a basket and I didn’t want them mistaking me for a shoplifter), they at first offered me a mobility scooter.
Then they decided I couldn’t have a mobility scooter because I’d never used one before and I might hit someone.