Businesses Disabled By Access Limits

If you think having a couple of required handicapped parking spaces makes your store attractive to disabled shoppers, think again.

Accessibility experts say steps, narrow doorways and counters too high to welcome a wheelchair shopper are costing you business. In fact, they say businesses that don’t welcome and accommodate the disabled are ignoring about one-fifth of the U.S. population - 49 million disabled citizens with $188 billion in discretionary income.

“Accessibility is really a customerservice issue,” said Lyn Falk, president of Retailworks, a retail design and consulting firm in Cedarburg, Wis. “Once someone who is disabled feels comfortable in your store, they will spread the word and bring in more business.”

Falk, who incorporates accessibility into all her store designs, said rather than living in fear of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act, small-business owners should consider money spent on making their stores more accessible an investment in future sales.

For example, ramps and accessible parking spaces don’t just help shoppers in walkers and wheelchairs. They also assist people with heart or respiratory problems get to your store. Wider doors and aisles and bigger restrooms make shopping much easier for parents with strollers and children in tow, as well as for overweight customers. Signs and prices printed in a larger typeface assist any shopper with a vision problem.

Although advocates for the disabled heralded the passage of the ADA about eight years ago as landmark civil rights legislation, many business groups opposed it as being too far-reaching and expensive. The law requires public and commercial spaces to meet a minimum federal standard of “barrier-free” accessibility. While the law requires new buildings to meet stricter rules, it doesn’t require existing buildings to be retrofitted until they are renovated or expanded.

“Existing buildings do not have to meet the designs required for new construction, but they (business owners) do have to remove barriers when its readily achievable,” said David Yanchulis, public affairs director of the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barrier Compliance Board, better known as the Access Board.

Big and small businesses must obey the ADA, which is enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department doesn’t have the staff available to run around the country citing business owners for violations. Most enforcement actions are prompted by someone filing a complaint against your business.

Still, it makes sense to review the accessibility of your store to see if changes can be made.

In 1996, when Jim Sajdak, president of Stan’s Bootery, a three-store footwear chain in the Milwaukee area, remodeled his main store, he worked with designer Falk to make it totally accessible. The store features accessible restrooms, wide aisles and doorways, and a special counter for wheelchair customers. His landlord installed a ramp, and he has a handicapped loading zone in front of one of the stores.

Sajdak goes a step further by advertising his stores in Arthritis Today, aimed at older readers, and The Source, which covers disability issues.

“It’s important for independent retailers to find a specialty,” said Sajdak. “Any group of people you can attract will help your business.”

Business owners may also benefit from special tax deductions provided under the Disabled Access Tax Credit. You may be able to deduct up to 50 percent of the cost of making your business more accessible. Ask your accountant to research and explain these credits.

Here are additional ways to make your business more accessible:

1. Rearrange your racks and displays to provide wider aisles.

2. Print signs and price tags in 16-point type or larger.

3. Convert brochures and flyers into Braille to serve blind customers.

4. Widen the doorway, and add hand rails and new faucets to your restroom to accommodate disabled customers.

5. Set up a small table or provide a clipboard for credit card transactions and check writing. This really helps seated customers.

6. If you are installing new counters, include a lower one to accommodate customers in wheelchairs.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jane Applegate Los Angeles Times