Following our recent work with businesses and service providers, many collaborators have told us that we ought to promote “Wideaware Standards” as a new way of helping disabled customers evaluate the accessibility of a product or service.
The words “Wideaware Standards” are used to communicate to the consumer (disabled or not) clear, identifiable standards of disability inclusion, especially with regards to customer service.
An organisation that meets “Wideaware Standards” is one that:
1) promotes the inclusion of disabled and vulnerable people in the way they do business or provide services
2) strives to address barriers in their own built environment as much as possible, reasonably and cost-effectively
3) trains all their sales or service staff in Inclusive Customer Service to disabled people
4) values disabled customers or service users for the long term, and not only as part of their legal obligations
5) engages with disabled customers or service users to find out what works for them individually.
Feel free to contact us if you have any comments on these standards, or would like to know how we can help you achieve them.