How Can Your Small Business Be More Accessible

What are you doing as a small business owner to aid accessibility within your business?

In 2022, diversity and inclusion should be synonymous with how a brand is run. Many organisations rely on people with disabilities to overcome barriers themselves, when in reality the onus should be put on the designers (the organisation creating the experience), who have built these barriers, to create more accessible experiences.

Providing a holistic experience for all customers must be at the heart of your business. Implementing accessible practices is not only beneficial to all patrons but also to the reputation of the business itself. Consumers are excited to be a part of a business and community that values the power of inclusive and accessible experiences. 

If you are still understanding or working toward being an accessible business, that is okay! We will walk you through how to make the lives and experiences of people who are blind or low-vision a bit easier at your business.

Get your staff on board!

Training and educating staff to be proactive and attentive is at the core of providing accessible consumer experiences to the blind or low vision community. Creating a safe space for patrons to engage with your products, staff, and services benefits your business as well as the greater community. As a business owner, it becomes your responsibility to ensure your staff are equipped with the knowledge and skills required to make a person’s experience as stress-free as possible.

When staff participate in ‘Disability Awareness Training’ - stereotypes, assumptions, and preconceptions are challenged and broken down. This will provide skills and tools to your staff ensuring they can confidently engage with patrons or colleagues with disabilities. 

Australian Government portfolios, such as Job Access, provide vetted Disability Awareness Training programs for small businesses and their staff. Learn more about Disability Awareness Training here. 

Image Description: Coffee shop owner is running a training program with two of her employees.

Making changes

While your staff may be trained, your business itself might not be accessible - those changes need to come from you! Remodelling your website, online social content, and physical workplace services are simple things you can do that will make a world of difference. 

Creating an accessible website is crucial for your business. It is estimated that there are approximately half a million blind or low vision people in Australia, this is 2.4% of the population. An inaccessible website means you are missing out on engaging with 240 out of every 10,000 customers, that is a significant amount of people who want to know more about your business, but you miss out on their patronage due to lack of access.

With social media being an integral part of business development now, most small businesses must create content in some capacity. Content may be produced for several reasons; to build a loyal community, to spread brand awareness, or simply to convert leads into sales. Whatever your function for social media is, if your content is not accessible to everyone, you are actively losing business for yourself. 

So, what can you do to improve the accessibility of your content?

Make active changes to the language used, content structure and emphasis, colour contrasts, and video captioning to increase the accessibility of your content to the blind and low-vision community and is simple to implement.

Read our previous blog on how to make web and social content more accessible here.

Image Description: Red and blue text reads “just start” on the laptop screen in an office.

All you have to do is… Ask!

As a small business owner, striving to be inclusive is exceptionally important, but you might not always know exactly what to do. That is where asking the community and experts is your biggest asset. Find social media groups, post to your own page, send out email blasts and pose the question:

 ‘How can we improve your experience with us to be more accessible?’ or simply just google ‘Is my website accessible?’

There is nothing more powerful than starting a conversation and consulting with the local community about how you as a business can improve accessibility on a practical level for your patrons.

To get you started, here are a few things that small businesses can do to make life a little easier:

QR codes

Through assistive technology, a blind or low-vision person can access information on websites with more ease than ever before. In doing this, you are providing the option to a blind or low-vision person to access the same information as everyone else. This can be in the form of menus, pricing package options, brochures etc. 

Braille

Where possible, include braille signage in public spaces, lift keypads, door signs, menus, labels etc. Braille increases independence and reduces the need for support. 

Providing online shopping and booking options

Services such as online shipping & delivery or click and collect makes it easy to shop without having to go into a store for an extended period. Another simple step you can take is removing the ‘timeout’ sections of your online ordering or booking systems - these sections can take longer than the allotted time to fill out for a blind or low vision person. 

Automatic doors

This option is not available to every business owner, however, if you are able to, installing automatically opening doors is a simple yet significant act that will assist patrons navigating your premises.

Image Description: White writing reads “Welcome please come in” on a wooden board

Provide the right information

Travellers with a disability require more information to plan their experiences if they are to travel as much as they wish to, and for it to be an enjoyable experience, rather than a stressful one. This information needs to be; easy to absorb, well structured and relatable to one's disability. Easy access to information can be the difference between a great and terrible, tedious experience.

Accommodating for people who are blind and low-vision will not only benefit those within this community but also build the reputation of your company in the process. No matter what type of business you run, providing an accessible, safe, and inclusive experience for all patrons, should be at the forefront of your practices, because everyone deserves a holiday.