Lakeside Village signs up to the UK’s first accessible shopping day

Lakeside Village is set to take part in the UK’s first day dedicated to accessible shopping on Tuesday November 13.
‘Purple Tuesday’ will see the stores at Lakeside Village join in with retailers across the country to introduce new measures and promote existing measures that make the shopping experience more inclusive for disabled customers.
The initiative is being co-ordinated by the disability organisation Purple and has been endorsed by the government.
David Aunins, centre manager at Lakeside Village said: “We are pleased to be able to take part in this day dedicated to accessible shopping.
“At Lakeside Village we’ve already undertaken a number of actions to ensure that we are as inclusive as possible and that visitors to our centre find that the facilities they need are in place.”
Lakeside Village recently announced the introduction of a weekly Autism Hour to provide a calmer, quieter space for people with Autism to shop. The centre is already home to a Changing places facility, disabled toilets and a quiet room for shoppers who need a little time out.
“Our security, cleaners and centre management team have all taken part in Deaf Awareness training giving them the skills to communicate with and help any Deaf customers who need assistance and we’ve followed this up by creating a sign language alphabet wall in our indoor play area to encourage people to learn to finger spell using British Sign Language.
“We also have ample disabled parking and free loan of wheelchairs for our customers. The centre is easy access with no lifts of stairs throughout.
“Taking the time to focus on the needs of customers with disabilities is extremely important and we will be using Purple Tuesday to talk to customers and find out what else we can put in place to make sure that our centre is as accessible as possible,” added David.
Nearly one in every five people in the UK has a disability or impairment, and over half of households have a connection to someone with a disability.
The aim of Purple Tuesday is to make customer-facing businesses more aware of these opportunities and challenges and inspire them to make changes to improve the disabled customer experience over the long term.