Purple Tuesday – 3 November 2020
What is Purple Tuesday?
Purple Tuesday was launched two years ago to shine a light on accessible shopping and the barriers faced by disabled customers on a daily basis. Purple Tuesday encourages businesses to take steps towards making shopping a more inclusive experience, not just for one day but all year round. One in five people have a disability, and 80% of these disabilities are considered as invisible or hidden impairments.
Purple Tuesday is setting the standard for an accessible customer experience and engages with different organisations, large and small to raise understanding, make changes and equip staff to provide a quality customer experience 365 days a year.
Participating organisations will make public commitments (a minimum of one new activity or initiative) to ensure sustainable changes are made. For organisations, this will result in the opening up of products and services to the disability market. For those with a disability, it will be liberating and empowering, and for those who provide support to someone with disabilities, it will improve their life as a Carer too.
Participants of Purple Tuesday
For the past two years Sainsbury’s has been the official partner of Purple Tuesday. To read what changes Sainsbury’s has made to improve their customer experience for customers with disabilities, just click here.
Other participants of Purple Tuesday have included:
For a full list of participants, please click here.
What about in Birmingham and beyond?
Gracechurch Shopping Centre in Sutton Coldfield is participating in Purple Tuesday and has just installed a new Changing Places facility which is fully equipped with adult-sized, height adjustable changing benches and hoists. The new facility will enable local people with profound learning or physical disabilities to use the bathroom facilities at the centre safely and comfortably. This is obviously great news for Carers too! Find out more about how this shopping centre caters for customers with disabilities here.
Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre is also supporting Purple Tuesday, they have adopted the Sunflower Lanyard Scheme (to indicate that the wearer may have additional needs due to a hidden disability) and have a Chill Out Corner. This is a free, quiet area available to use every day which takes into consideration the needs of autistic customers should they need some space away from the hustle and bustle of the shopping centre. The Chill Out Corner is located in a quiet area of the mall, it has dimmed lighting, comfy seating and relaxing colours and pictures. They even have a Sensory Shopping guide to shopping at Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre.
If you have shopped in any of these places or anywhere else in Birmingham that you consider to be #CarerFriendly, where changes have been made or staff have gone out of their way to make your life as a Carer that little bit easier, please nominate them for a Carer Friendly Business Award. Just complete this form.
Nominations close on Saturday 31 October 2020.
