People Sensitivity For Physically Challenged People

Today at store we had a training on "People Sensitivity for physically challenged people" who visit our stores. The training was about how we should support such people. Note the word used is support and not help.

There was a role play where everyone attending the training had to sit on wheel chair and other person had to move the wheel chair. This made us realize the difficulties faced by physically challenged people. The space in the aisle of the section was not enough for the movement of wheelchair; because of the difference in eye level of person on a wheel chair and able person, the disabled person will not be able to read the signage, we also understood how a disabled person will like to touch and feel every product but what all will be the difficulties faced by him in reaching every product.

We learned the sign language and learnt the signs used for alphabets. And below are some key points which we should keep in mind while dealing with disabled customer:

• If you are pulling the wheelchair, ask if the speed is fine
• Never pat on the back of the person
• Never try to help, only support
• Treat them as adult vs adult.
• Never be too friendly and don't ask personal questions such as "When did it happen?"
• Never try to play with the wheelchair or touch the wheelchair with your feet. For a disabled person it is their body part.
• The sign language learnt for helping the customers should not be used for your fun.