Disability access audits for shops and cafés
When a customer cannot get through your door, they rarely tell you. They go to the shop next door,
or they order it online, and you never learn that it happened. That is what makes access difficult to spot from the inside: it does not show up as complaints, it shows up as people who were never there.
Why it is worth looking
Disabled customers do not usually shop alone. A family that cannot get a pushchair and a wheelchair through your entrance takes the whole party elsewhere, so what you lose is a group rather than an individual. Access information also travels between the people who need it, which means a shop that is easy to use gets recommended and one that is not gets quietly avoided.
There is a legal side as well. Under the Equality Act, the duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory, meaning you are expected to have thought about what disabled customers need before one arrives and asks. What counts as reasonable depends on the size of the business and what the building allows, which is exactly what an audit is for.
What the audit looks at
An access audit is not simply a checklist of door widths and ramps. Our Occupational Therapy background means we also consider how people actually use the space: finding the entrance, moving between displays or tables, reaching what they need, communicating with staff, using fitting rooms or toilets and completing a purchase. The audit follows the route a customer takes, starting outside on the pavement.
Getting in. The approach, the kerb, and the single step at the door that stops more people than anything else on the list. How heavy the door is, how wide, and whether it is propped open in July and shut fast in January.
Moving around inside. The width between fixtures, which is the part that changes every time you merchandise. Seasonal stock stacked in an aisle turns a usable shop into an unusable one for a week without anyone noticing.
The counter. Height for a seated customer, whether a card machine can be reached, and whether someone who is deaf or hard of hearing can follow what is being said at the point where prices and questions are exchanged.
Fitting rooms, if you have them. Size, rail height, whether there is a seat, and whether the accessible one has gradually filled up with stock. That last point is the single most common finding anywhere.
Seating. Somewhere to stop and rest matters for pain, fatigue and breathlessness, and costs almost nothing to provide. It is the cheapest improvement most shops can make and the one most often missing.
For cafés, table height and fixed seating. Bench seating bolted to the floor leaves a wheelchair user with nowhere to sit, so it is worth knowing how many moveable places you actually have.
Staff. Whether the person on shift knows where the ramp is kept, how to use it, and how to offer help without making it into an event.
If you rent the unit
Most high street businesses do not own their building, and the lease will divide responsibility between you and the landlord. Structural work at the entrance is often theirs. What happens inside is usually yours.
An audit is more useful when it separates the two, so you can get on with your side and take the rest to the landlord or managing agent with something specific rather than a general complaint. That is part of how we approach our access audit service for tenants.
Arranging an audit
Tell us what sort of business it is, roughly how big the premises are and whether you own or rent, and we will explain what the audit would involve and what it costs. Get in touch and we will take it from there.