Living with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and being honoured with having the youngest-ever seat on the board of trustees for the charity Muscular Dystrophy UK, means I represent many members of the disabled community.
Chloe Docker
You might be surprised to learn that 23% of working-age adults in the UK are disabled. But disability is a spectrum. While accessibility is an issue across the whole spectrum, in this instance I am talking about physical accessibility.
Accessibility requirements can be complex. So let’s start by acknowledging how daunting it can be when first confronting this topic without the right guidance.
The most common barriers to physical accessibility that people with disabilities encounter are problems with disabled parking, a lack of ramps and handrails, narrow stairs, doors and corridors and insufficient lifts and escalators.
Here is a common scenario: I drive to a place and struggle to find suitable parking. If I do manage to park and get to the front door, I probably cannot get in. If I am able to get through the door, I often cannot get around inside the building. All of which creates a lot of stress and anxiety.
Given this range of difficulties, it is no wonder that three quarters of disabled people report having left shops or businesses because of a lack of accessibility.
People with disabilities and their households in the UK reportedly spend £274bn a year; but disability charity Scope has revealed that businesses lose around £2bn a month by ignoring their needs. That is a lot of money being missed by not considering the needs of people with disabilities correctly. Surely, it is worth investing in accessibility for the financial return?
Looking at disability as part of the broader spectrum of diversity and inclusion, I am convinced it lags so far behind with progression because it is the one area that requires more than just a mindset change to become more inclusive. It costs money to adapt the elements mentioned above, and those components are just the tip of the iceberg.
Changing perceptions
A phrase I often use in speaking engagements is “people’s perceptions need to change to eliminate limitations” and this applies to the property industry, too. It may cost money to make the necessary changes, but that does not happen unless someone considers them in the first place.
Shutterstock / LightField Studios
A survey by Scope reveals that 60% of people underestimate how many disabled people there are, and 32% think disabled people are not as productive as non-disabled people. This is probably because individuals with visible disabilities are not able to access buildings to be seen and interact with non-disabled people. Most people don’t think about us at all, let alone think of us as equals.
If we do not see and consider people with disabilities, then how will changes be made to make the world a more inclusive place?
It is a vicious circle, and it can only be broken by giving people with disabilities a seat at the decision-making table. We need to be seen and heard when decisions are being made about designing inclusive properties.
And for the 77% of the working population who are not disabled: please become better allies, so that when we have not been thought about, or cannot get inside the buildings to have a seat at those important tables, you can speak up for us and help make those all-important, inclusive changes for the future.
Chloe Docker is senior account manager at Battenhall and an ambassador for Muscular Dystrophy UK