With the rate of people with disabilities growing significantly in the consumer market, ensuring that your business is accessible is increasingly important.

According to the Toronto BIA Association, nationally people with disabilities account for an estimated $25 billion a year in consumer spending and influence the spending decisions of 12 to 15 million other Canadians.

Additionally, our population in Huntsville and Ontario is aging. Seniors often struggle with mobility, hearing and sight issues, and would benefit from more accessible stores. This raises a question of whether downtown businesses and those in the rest of our community are losing out on significant business by failing to adequate serve all our potential customers.

A number of downtown Huntsville businesses were spurred on to increase the accessibility of their businesses when Huntsville hosted the Ontario paralympic championships. The town’s accessible advisory committee was instrumental in helping to fit many of the downtown retailers with custom ramps to enable better customer access. Those bright yellow ramps have been appreciated by a number of customers since their installations. The town’s new downtown streetlights will help too by ensuring better downtown sidewalk lighting. But these efforts are only a start of what can be done in a cost effective way to enable better access to all customers.

The sidewalk and area just outside of a business and the care it’s given by the business owner show how a business presents itself to the community. When setting up outside displays, consider if your business is setting up your walkways and entrances to ensure greater accessibility or if you are adding more obstacles. Are your entrances wide enough to accommodate individuals using wheelchairs, walkers and other mobile devices or is your main entrance costing you money, as it limits the range of customers that can get into your store?

Assuming that you have an accessible business, have you left enough room to manoeuvre between aisles and displays, or for customers to line up at the cash? Does your business have adequate lighting?  Have you removed all the tripping hazards?  

As you are thinking about increasing your sales and market share in your business consider whether there are potential customers in the community who would like to visit your business but cannot access it. Can you make it easier for people to find your business?  Can you make it easier for people to get into your business?  Can you make it easier for customers to get around your business?  Are you making the most of your customer service?  

For more information on making your business more accessible, you can talk to the town’s accessible advisory committee, or check out the numerous business tip sheets at www.toronto-bia.com/resources/tipsheets.php.

There are a number of shoppers who might like to make purchases at your business, but are denied access by stairs, small doors or limited lighting. Let’s see what we can do to ensure that customers, co-workers, family and friends are all welcomed in our Huntsville businesses.