Today, Tuesday 2nd November 2021, marks Purple Tuesday 2021.
In the UK alone, the spending power of disabled people and their families – the so-called Purple Pound – is worth over £274 billion. This is estimated to be rising by at least 14% each year, but less than 10% of organisations have a plan in place to access the disability market. This isn’t only a huge frustration for disabled people, but also a massive missed opportunity for businesses.
What is Purple Tuesday?
Purple Tuesday 2021 is an annual change programme that aims to improve the customer experience for disabled people – not just for one day, but for the whole year. This initiative is centred around improving the awareness of both the value and the needs of disabled customers. To put it simply, Purple Tuesday is all about making the customer experience accessible for everyone.
Organisations of all sizes and from all sectors can get involved in Purple Tuesday. These participating organisations will make some public commitments to ensure that sustainable changes are made. This commitment is a minimum of one new activity or initiative to open up their products and services to the disability market.
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What Public Commitments Can Organisations Make for Purple Tuesday?
Purple Tuesday is an initiative that is free for all willing organisations to get involved with. These organisations need to make at least one new commitment to improve the customer experience for disabled consumers. There’s an endless amount of commitments you could make, but here’s a few of our favourites:
- British Sign Language (BSL) – many deaf people use BSL as their main form of communication, so training staff to know some key phrases in BSL can enable conversation. Here, it’s important to use deaf-led BSL courses.
- Complete an Online Accessibility Audit – this helps you to identify areas of your website that could be improved for online accessibility.
- Formalising Quiet Hours – quiet hours can help customers who have sensory needs, such as those with Autism. During this time, all loud and harsh noises will be removed or reduced.
Asda Introduces ‘Quieter Hour’ to Coincide with Purple Tuesday
The new ‘Quieter Hour’ in Asda’s stores will last between 2pm and 3pm Monday to Thursday. During this time, there will be reduced noise levels in their stores to make visits more accessible for customers with additional needs.
The Asda Store Locator is also being updated to provide better accessibility information. This will include information about changing places bathroom facilities, braille guns and hearing loops which are available in a number of stores across the country.
