European Accessibility Act
EDF Fact Sheet on Economic Benefits of Accessibility
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Introduction
It is often argued that accessibility is “too expensive” and a “burden to the economy” – but is this really true? Of course, it is difficult to assess how many potential new customers you could gain by making your products and services accessible but there is some data that can already give indications of the direct economic benefits accessibility can bring. And this does not even include the side effects of making shopping more attractive to ALL consumers!
Facts and Figures
· Accessibility of websites has a huge impact on online shopping:
The 2016 “Click Away Pound Survey” found out that 71% of disabled customers with access needs will click away from a website that they find difficult to use. Those customers who click away have an estimated spending power of £11.75 billion in the UK alone, around 10% of the total UK online spend in 2016 and 82% of customers with access needs would spend more if websites were more accessible.
· An enormous amount of potential customers are excluded from high street shopping because of a lack of accessibility:
According to figures from the UK Department for Work and Pensions, the collective spending power of disabled people, often referred to as the "purple pound", has risen to £249bn. In contrast, according to a DisabledGo audit in 2016, 23% of the 1,295 fashion retailers audited did not have access for wheelchair, only 10% had a hearing loop available for shoppers with hearing aids, and only 38% gave staff disability awareness training. (Source: BBC)
· Accessible tourism is big business:
In a 2014 study on accessible tourism, the European Commission estimated that as of 2011, there were 138.6 million people with access needs in the EU and that in 2012, people with access needs in the EU took approximately 783 million trips within the EU and that. Furthermore, the study mentions that the direct gross value added of EU’s Accessible Tourism in 2012 was about € 150 billion; after taking the multiplier effect into account, the total gross value added contribution amounted to about € 356 billion.
· Making new buildings accessible costs much less than you would think:
A 2004 study of the Technical University of Zürich showed that the cost of making a new building accessible from its outset only costs on average 1.8 % of the entire construction cost. This is even lower for bigger projects costing more than 5 Million Swiss Francs, where the additional cost for accessibility is as low as 0.5 % of the entire construction cost.
· Providing alternative transport services to urban transport is much more expensive than making mainstream transport accessible:
In a financial evaluation of the 1990’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which includes provisions on accessibility of transport, it was stated that paratransit service (e.g. “Dial-a-Ride”) is 10 times more expensive than fixed-route service; by 1996, annual ADA costs are expected to be $700 million for paratransit service, $65 million for fixed-route service, and $130 million for rail service. It shows that accessible mainstream transport is much cheaper than special services, which are currently still necessary for lack of accessibility.
· Persons with disabilities travel with other people, hence creating a multiplier effect and benefitting more than “just” 80 Million persons with disabilities:
The COST 335 study on Passengers’ Accessibility of Heavy Rail Systems states that when we also take account of accompanying persons and able-bodied people with temporary mobility restraints (such as young parents with baby buggies or with luggage) who would also benefit from accessible railways, we can see that accessibility already affects 35-40% of the population (170 to 194 million people). This potential market for railways could rise to at least 200 million people by the year 2020.
And those figures above do not represent all those people that are currently unemployed and would be able to work if their work place, the transport chain, the built environment, and ICT were more accessible! A huge human potential is lost by essentially excluding persons with disabilities from the labour market and paying them benefits instead. This number is different to quantify but certainly significant.
For further questions don’t hesitate to contact Marie Denninghaus, EDF Transport & Mobility Officer:
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