Sophie Morgan is the artist who designed ‘Mannequal’. The design is a wheelchair for mannequins to which can be used as a style guide in high street shops, as well as encourage inclusivity.
It’s been two years since DisabledGo highlighted the inaccessibility of the British High Street for disabled people.
Of the 1,295 fashion retailers DisabledGo visited in their 2017 investigation:
23% did not have access for wheelchair users
96% were able to provide somewhere to sit and rest
Only 10% had a hearing loop available for shoppers with hearing aids
Only 38% gave staff disability awareness training
Have you heard of the ‘purple pound’?
People with disabilities make up 15% of the world’s population, which is approximately 1 billion people. 80% of these people are of working age. Globally, only 20 % of disabled women and 53% of disabled men, are in work. Excluding disabled people from the work force costs developed countries 7% of their GDP. In the UK, disabled people spend £550 more per month. Spending by disabled people is worth £249 billion a year to the UK economy. This is the purple pound. So why are disabled people still being largely ignored, especially by businesses who are choosing to ignore such a large demographic of potential consumers?
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