How accessible are shopping centres in the UK?

In 2016, the UK’s population peaked at 65.6 million. Reportedly, 18% of the population were aged 65 and over. With an ageing population, are businesses accommodating for elderly people and their differing needs? Similarly, are they making themselves accessible to those with disabilities? Despite Britain’s disabled population having a spending power of £80bn, many retail stores are inaccessible to many. Some companies are potentially losing out on their share of the weekly £420m in sales by not having wheelchair ramps and access to all floors. To further investigate, Acorn Stairlifts looks at the ten biggest shopping centres in the UK and how accessible they are for those with mobility restrictions. The shopping centres considered include: Metrocentre, Gateshead Trafford Centre, Greater Manchester Westfield Stratford City, London Liverpool One, Liverpool Bluewater Shopping Centre, Kent Westfield London, Greater London Merry Hill Centre, West Midlands Meadowhall, Sheffield Manchester Arndale, Manchester Lakeside Shopping Centre, Essex Parking The Disabled Parking Accreditation (DPA) is aimed at improving parking for disabled people and reducing incidences where non-blue badge holders misuse the designated spaces. The requirements to qualify include parking bays which meet specific dimensions, monitoring of accessible bays and easy entry to the car park. Amongst the ten biggest shopping centres in the UK, 40% have received the accreditation amongst which are Metrocentre in Gateshead and Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent. On the other hand, Merry Hill Centre in the West Midlands is not. In fact, disabled parking on-site at many of the big shopping centres is limited. At Manchester Arndale, only 2% of spaces were dedicated to blue badge holders. Likewise, at Meadowhall Sheffield, this number stood at just under 3%. Westfield London shopping centre has 5% of their parking bays dedicated to disabled spaces, which should in theory increase the likelihood of disabled shoppers visiting the premises. Mobility around the centre Those with a long-term disability often bring with them their own wheelchair or walking aids. However, it’s important for shopping centres to offer the facilities to hire this equipment for elderly people who may need some relief from walking around or those who struggle walking long distances. All of the big shopping centres offer facilities where it is possible to hire manual or electric wheelchairs or powered scooters. The process in the shopping centres do differ however. In the Trafford Centre, users must pay £2 per hour for the use of a wheelchair yet in Bluewater Shopping Centre, this cost is £3 for four hours. Lakeside Shopping Centre offers the use of the service entirely for free, as does the Metrocentre. Facilities A big consideration for disabled people and the elderly is the availability of appropriate toilets in shopping centres. Many people will avoid going certain places with the concern that they won’t have access to the facilities that they need. ‘Changing places’ are facilities with a large accessible toilet, an adult-size changing bench and a hoist. This avoids people having to lie on toilet floors to be changed and provides enough room for carers to assist someone with going to the toilet comfortably. Unfortunately, there are only just over 1,000 changing places in the UK — yet millions of regular toilets for non-disabled people. There has been some improvement, as there were only 140 of these facilities across the UK in 2007. Only 50 out of around 500 shopping centres have them in the UK, but what about the ten biggest shopping centres? Our research found that 90% of the ten biggest shopping centres offer changing places, in fact Westfield Stratford City in London have two. Meadowhall in Sheffield also has accessible shower facilities — a great facility for disabled and elderly people who may be more prone to toilet accidents. As well as changing places, the number of disabled toilets that are available is also important. This means that older people or those with disabilities who visit the centres will be in close proximity to a disabled toilet should they need it. In the Metrocentre, there is one disabled toilet point per 48,600 m2 of retail space — the same distribution of regular toilets. In the Trafford Centre however, there is one disabled toilet point per 61,000 m2 of retail space and more regular toilets than disabled. Merry Hill have one per 21,666 m2 — providing disabled people with easier access to the facilities that they need. As we can see, there is still work to be done when it comes to giving disabled and elderly people the equal opportunities of non-disabled people when shopping. There are many things that all shopping centres should certainly consider implementing to improve the experience of disabled and elderly shoppers — including additional disabled toilets, changing places, ramps and more. Contributed by Acorn Stairlifts, the world's leading independent company specialising solely in the manufacture and installation of stairlifts

How accessible are shopping centres in the UK?

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