Specific guidance 4: Welcoming customers with sight loss

Last reviewed: November 2024

Overview

We are all customers and service users. We are also all potential customers and service users of your business or organisation.

Recent research has indicated that the spending potential of disabled people in the UK is £274 billion. A significant proportion of this will include that from people with sight loss and their friends and families.

Experiences of being a customer with sight loss

We asked our panel of people with sight loss about their experiences of being a consumer.

The Purple Pound estimates that UK businesses lose around £2 billion a month due to disabled customers choosing (or having) to shop elsewhere. It also estimates that 75 per cent of disabled people and their families say they have taken their custom elsewhere because of poor accessibility and customer service (according to Purple).

Making our businesses and organisations accessible and inclusive for everyone can have a significant positive effect on:

• direct sales income
• new customers and clients from referrals by disabled customers
• loyal customer base
• reputation among customers and the potential to become an industry or sector leader in inclusion
• be an employer of choice – having a reputation as an inclusive business doesn’t just attract disabled customers, but can help attract disabled employees as well.

People with sight loss have the same wants and needs as everyone else. They want to look good, have the same consumer experiences, buy the same items, and access the same services as their peers. This is true whether it is a theme park ride, purchasing the latest gadgets or jewellery, or paying their tax.

Advertising

Advertising can be seen as far back as Ancient Egyptian times. Advertising is everywhere we look, from walking down the street to watching tv or going to the cinema, in books, magazines, social media, radio or as leaflets through our doors.

Businesses need to advertise to and for consumers with sight loss in order to benefit from their custom. Our guidance on this topic divides into four strands:

• Inclusive communication and accessible advertising
• Sharing useful information
• Representation in advertising.

Inclusive communication and accessible advertising

In order for consumers with sight loss to know about your organisation and your products and/or services, your advertising needs to be accessible to them at the point they see it.

Our recent consumer research (2022) found that 54 per cent of disabled respondents felt limited by the way information is presented, including it being inaccessible or difficult to understand.

When it comes to advertising, it is especially important to design materials that are inclusive for people with sight loss. Unlike other areas of your business, providing alternative formats on request for people with sight loss is unlikely to achieve your aims, as consumers rarely go out of their way to consume adverts. Instead, your potential customers with sight loss are likely simply to ignore your advertising when they cannot access its messaging.

Common ways to ensure that your advertising is reaching people with sight loss:

• Convey the message in different formats – such as audio, visual, large print, Braille
• Follow guidelines on font style and size
• Follow guidance on colour contrasts
• Make sure the audio is clear
• Ensure written and visual adverts are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technology
• Add alternative text to images
• Check accessibility by using focus groups or ‘beta readers’
• Check that the language you are using, and the message you want to portray is inclusive of disabled people, including people with sight loss.

See our Inclusive Communication Toolkit for more information about what you can do to remove barriers in communication.

Sharing useful information

Advertising should tell consumers the information that they need to know – people with sight loss may need to know specific information to know whether they can use your products and services.

Our recent consumer research (2022) found that 60 per cent of disabled consumers felt that a lack of available information limited their ability to purchase goods and services. Even when brands are known to include accessible features, our respondents noted that this was rarely communicated in advertising.

Consider including information such as:

• Whether a product uses visual as well as audio cues
• Whether a service user can manage their account using any assistive technology they use
• Whether any apps or other software are screen reader accessible
• Whether you can provide water and other support for guide dogs and other assistance animals.

Representation in advertising

Our recent consumer research (2022) also found that disabled consumers wanted to see people like them represented in advertising. Consumers were more likely to feel that businesses were advertising to them if they saw people with their disability represented in advertising.

Consider how diversity is represented in your advertising. Someone with sight loss may be more inclined to patronise your organisation if you show them other people like them doing the same.

Our respondents said that they wanted representation to seem natural, not forced or tokenistic. Representation of disability in advertising should be incidental – people with and without disabilities interacting naturally.

Physical accessibility

You’ve designed excellent products and services, and you want customers to come and buy them. You have put a lot of work into making them attractive and the ‘must-haves’. You’ve followed all the advertising guidance and are now setting up your physical premises for customers and service users.

What issues should you consider to make your premises more accessible to customers and clients with sight loss? We suggest looking at the design of all your premises.

Wayfinding and navigation

• Colour and tone contrasts can make navigating your premises easier and safer for someone with sight loss. This includes steps, carpets, doors and walls, and decoration.
• Signage should be clear with appropriate colour contrast. Having an image and text that smartphones or other devices can read can be helpful. For example, good signage will help a person locate the toilet most suitable for them.

• Layout – is the customer journey simple, or complex? Are there ways of reducing the possibilities of a customer getting lost or frustrated? Consider how easy it is to navigate your customer premises, and any improvements you could make to simplify customer journeys.

Moving around

Make sure customer-facing staff are trained to welcome consumers with sight loss. They should know the following:

• Welcome assistance and therapy dogs, but do not stroke or distract them.
• Always speak to a customer with sight loss when you approach them. Introduce yourself and ask if they would like assistance.
• Offer to let them take your elbow or hand, but note that some people may prefer verbal guidance instead.
• If you are guiding someone, tell them clearly where obstacles, such as steps, ramps, stairs, how many there are, and whether they are up or down and advise when on last step.
• If you offer a seat, ask the customer if they would like you to guide them.
• If you need to leave a customer, tell them you are going and when you or someone else will be back to help them. Don’t just walk away.
• Consider bringing items to the customer.
• The customer may need you to accompany them as they move around an area which is busy or unfamiliar.
• Make sure aisles and public areas are free of trip hazards and are well-lit.
• Provide audio as well as visual announcements and be prepared to read information out to a customer who might not be able to see a screen or price label.

Welcoming assistance animals

Make preparations so that guide dogs and their owners will be welcomed when they arrive. For example, you could put out a water bowl so that they can have a drink.

Staff at the entrance and inside the premises need to know how to welcome people with guide dogs and other assistance animals. They must know not to turn away someone because they have a guide dog. This is unlawful.

Guide Dogs has more advice about welcoming guide dogs on their website.

Taking payments

• Ask the customer if they would like their money counted back to them.
• Using a PIN pad may be difficult. The customer may have a Chip and Signature card. The card reader will automatically ask the customer to sign to authorise a purchase, instead of putting in a PIN. Have a signature guide at hand.

Accessible communication

• Be ready to read out information to the customer. Have written information available in alternative formats, such as large print, audio, Easy Read or Braille, if possible.
• If you need to send information to the customer, check if they use email. This is the most accessible format for many people with sight loss – for example, if they rely on a screen reader.
• Check what format the customer prefers to receive information in.

Final actions to consider

Before leaving a customer, ask if they would like any help to exit the premises or locate public transport.

Refer to our Inclusive Communication Toolkit for more information.

Virtual accessibility

Websites and other digital systems are the only practical means for some people to access products and services. For example, living in remote communities, during pandemic lockdowns, disabilities, including sight loss, or no physical ‘shop’ exists. For other people, shopping and accessing services digitally is a preference.

To win these customers, businesses need to ensure they are accessible to all their actual and potential customers and clients. This is best done at the planning stage if possible.

Businesses and organisations can become more digitally attractive for people with sight loss if they:

• ‘Walk through’ their digital systems as a customer or client. Try different scenarios from deciding they need a product, choosing a provider or shop, looking online, buying online, including secure payments systems, invoices and receipts, to after-care and coming back as a happy customer.
• Use ‘secret shoppers’ who have sight loss to be customers and to give feedback on how your virtual accessibility is now.
• Offer customers the ability to ‘try before you buy’ – this is especially useful for consumers who are concerned about signing up to a service without knowing whether they will be able to manage their account. Allow customers to test out managing a ‘dummy’ account or app before they decide whether they want to sign up.
• Use focus groups to discover what customers with sight loss want and need from your digital shop front.

Do your digital resources:

• follow best practice guidance on accessibility?
• have accessible plug-ins enabling users to personalise font, colours, and size for your website and apps?
• is all your digital content compatible with screen readers, magnifiers and other assistive technology?
• do all your images have the ‘alt text’ feature enabled so that you can have all of your images can be described accurately?
• have an audio description of videos?
• is all your digital content accessible on all devices such as smartphones?

Guidance and standards

There are guidance documents and standards available on how to make your virtual systems accessible and legally compliant.

UK Association for Accessible Formats (UKAAF)

UKAAF provides standards for accessible formats. They have online guidance and can provide advice about how to create information in accessible formats.

• Website: ukaaf.org

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

WCAG is a set of guidelines about how to ensure web content is accessible. It can be quite technical, so we recommend making this something the technical team responsible for your website is familiar with. Consider upskilling any employees who work on or create web content so they are familiar with WCAG requirements.

• WCAG guidelines: w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag
• How to meet WCAG (Quick Reference): w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref

BDF

• Our Inclusive Communication Toolkit has advice and guidance on making sure customers and clients are included in the information you’re communicating.
• Our Advice Service can provide tailored guidance and specific situations for Member and Partner organisations.

Microsoft

Microsoft provides some free resources about accessibility on its website: microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/resources

---

Disclaimer: The Sight Loss Toolkit has been commissioned and funded by Roche Products Ltd.

Material Number (M-GB-00018540)

Date of preparation: November 2024