RiDC
12 Mar 2025
For the panel, by the panel
We are excited to announce our Re-imagining Retail project! This project explores the barriers and solutions to accessing online and physical shops for disabled consumers.
RiDC has been working with the panel to design a project that breaks down barriers to accessing the retail sector and brings together disabled consumers and retail stakeholders to form solutions.
We hope this is the first of many future projects chosen and developed with the panel.
Why did we launch this project?
In 2024, we asked the panel to tell us about their top research priorities. Our panel members have a range of disabilities and impairments, are aged between 18 and 90+ and come from all over the UK. Over 800 of them responded to our questionnaire, sharing which topics were most important to them and giving suggestions on how these could be explored.
As one of the most selected topics, and as the response to our recent work for Primark showed us, accessible retail is particularly important to our panel members so we chose this to be the subject of our first panel project. This project will be the start of driving real positive change across an industry that still places so many barriers in the way of disabled people.
What will we be doing?
Through engagement with our panel members and retailers, we want to understand the barriers that disabled people face to help raise awareness of these nationally and work collaboratively to develop tangible solutions that retailers can implement to make their stores and websites more accessible.
We are already working with a group of our panel members to guide us throughout the project, ensuring it reflects the experiences of disabled consumers.
How can you get involved?
If you are a disabled member of the public
You need to be a member of our consumer panel to take part. You can click here to sign up or you can call us on 0208 152 3236.
If you're already a panel member, you should have received an email with a link to the survey.
From the responses we receive, we will be selecting panel members to take part in interviews with our research team about their experiences in retail.
If you have any questions about taking part, please contact [email protected]
If you work in the retail industry
We would like to speak to retail stakeholders to understand the challenges they experience from a business perspective, and work together to develop accessibility guidelines.
If you are interested in getting involved in this project as a retail stakeholder please contact [email protected]
Keep an eye out on the RiDC website, our LinkedIn or Facebook pages to get updates on the project as it progresses and opportunities for further involvement!
