Days out and leisure – What disabled consumers choose to buy and why

Days out and leisure – What disabled consumers choose to buy and why

Introduction

We asked disabled consumers what they liked to do for fun and the factors that influenced their choice of where to go and what to do.

The disabled consumers we spoke to wanted to go to the theatre, cinemas, and concerts. They liked to visit museums and have days out at theme parks and attractions with family and friends. Some supported a football team and wanted to go to matches – home and away – and others wanted to participate in activities like dance. Everyone wanted to be able to enjoy the whole experience – the anticipation, the journey, and all the related activities such as eating and drinking and buying souvenirs to remember the experience.

Planning a leisure activity starts at home. Some of the biggest challenges related not to the experience itself but finding accessibility information in advance, and in some cases, making the booking itself.

Disabled people in the UK have an estimated spending power of £274 billion. Many want to spend on leisure activities, and they don’t just go alone. A business that doesn’t attract disabled consumers risks missing out on their family and friends as well.

Download the PDF for the full report.

Who is this for?

‘What disabled consumers choose to buy and why’ is for everyone involved in improving the experience of disabled consumers whether online, by phone or in-person. The findings will be useful for customer experience managers, customer service personnel, facilities and property managers and also for D&I and HR professionals responsible for attracting and hiring customer-service staff.

Methodology

Business Disability Forum (supported by Microsoft) commissioned Open Inclusion to gather business and consumer insights in the period from September 2021 to January 2022.

These insights were drawn from:

• Ten depth interviews with businesses were undertaken by Business Disability Forum amongst their Members and Partners.
• A quantitative survey of 1,001 people. A quantitative survey carried out by Ipsos on behalf of the Business Disability Forum, interviewing 1,001 adults aged 18+ in Great Britain between 26 November and 5 December 2021. The survey was carried out to explore the differences in attitudes to decision making between disabled and non-disabled consumers. Disabled respondents self-selected their disability and included people with sensory, physical, neurodiverse, mental health, cognitive and long-term conditions and access needs related to aging. In total 457 respondents opted in to one or more of these. The data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions for age within gender, government office region, working status, social grade (and ethnicity in the UK).
• A qualitative and detailed online survey (241 respondents all with disabilities answered a 25-minute questionnaire).
• Focus groups of four separate 90-minute sessions facilitated by Open Inclusion.

View full research methodology.

Read more

See the rest of the sector-specific reports in this series:

• Banking and insurance
• Holiday accommodation
• Hospitality
• Retail
• Technology
• Utilities.

See the main report and detailed findings.