Disability and Shopping: Customers, Markets and the State

273 Pages·2019·3.295 MB·English

by  Ieva Eskytė

Disability and Shopping
Disability and Shopping: Customers, Markets and the State provides an ex-
amination of the diverse experiences and perspectives of disabled custom-
ers, industry and civil society. It discusses how the interaction between the
three stakeholders should be shaped at aiming to decrease inequality and
marginalisation.
Shopping is a part of everyday modern life and yet businesses struggle to
adequately meet the needs of 80 million disabled customers in the European
Union single market. While there has been extensive research into how in-
dividuals engage in customer roles and experience, and how businesses and
policies both shape and respond to these, little is known of the same dynam-
ics and practices regarding people with impairments. This book addresses
this need by revealing the perspectives, interactions and experiences of disa-
bled customers and their interaction with policy and business.
It will be required reading for all scholars and students of disability stud-
ies, sociology, marketing and customer relations.
Ieva Eskytė is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Law at the
University of Leeds, UK.
Routledge Advances in Disability Studies
The Changing Disability Policy System
Active Citizenship and Disability in Europe Volume 1
Edited by Rune Halvorsen, Bjørn Hvinden, Jerome Bickenbach, Delia Ferri
and Ana Marta Guillén Rodriguez
Citizenship Inclusion and Intellectual Disability
Biopolitics Post-Institutionalisation
Niklas Altermark
Intellectual Disability and the Right to a Sexual Life
A Continuation of the Autonomy/Paternalism Debate
Simon Foley
The Changing Disability Policy System
Active Citizenship and Disability in Europe Volume 2
Edited by Rune Halvorsen, Bjørn Hvinden, Jerome Bickenbach, Delia Ferri
and Ana Marta Guillén Rodriguez
Cultural Disability Studies in Education
Interdisciplinary Navigations of the Normative Divide
David Bolt
Institutional Violence and Disability
Punishing Conditions
Kate Rossiter and Jen Rinaldi
Disability and Shopping
Customers, Markets and the State
Ieva Eskytė
https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Advances-in-Disability-Studies/
book-series/RADS
Disability and Shopping
Customers, Markets and the State
Ieva Eskytė
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2019 Ieva Eskytė
The right of Ieva Eskytė to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Eskytė, Ieva.
Title: Disability and shopping: customers, markets and the state /
Ieva Eskytė.
Description: 1st Edition. | New York: Routledge, 2019. |
Series: Routledge advances in social work | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018043001 | ISBN 9781138105775 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315101750 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: People with disabilities—European Union
countries. | People with disabilities—Services for. | Stores,
Retail—Barrier-free design. | Shopping—European Union
countries.
Classification: LCC HV1559.E8 E75 2019 | DDC 381/.1087094—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018043001
ISBN: 978-1-138-10577-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-10175-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
To my son, Dovydas

Contents
List of figures xi
Acknowledgements xiii
List of abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
Conceptual perspectives 3
Models of disability 3
CA theory 5
Research and data generation strategies 6
Research strategy and key research questions 7
Why Lithuania and the United Kingdom? 10
Policy framework 11
Mystery shopping 11
Discussing shopping experience – interviews with customers 13
Studying business and civil society’s perspectives 14
Analysing the data 16
Structure of this book 16
Bibliography 20
1 Disabled people in the market 26
Disabled people and markets: historical insights and
current practice 27
Useless eaters 27
Passive service users 29
From consumers to producers: example of direct payments 31
A target for new business 33
Vulnerable consumers 34
Shopping chain and disabled customers 36
Customer information 37
Navigation in retail premises 39
Interaction in the shop 42
viii Contents
Accessibility and the private market 44
Accessibility and user involvement 45
Accessibility and a common language 48
UD and retail premises 50
Concluding comments 51
Bibliography 53
2 Accessibility in the EU markets 70
Accessibility in the global context 71
Accessibility and the CRPD 72
Accessibility in the European single market 77
Disabled customers 78
Information provision 80
Accessibility of retail premises 82
Accessibility in national markets: Lithuania and
the United Kingdom 85
‘Socially vulnerable’ consumers in Lithuania 85
‘Vulnerable consumers’ in the United Kingdom 88
Accessibility in Lithuania 90
Accessibility in the United Kingdom 92
Concluding comments 94
Bibliography 96
3 Communicative action and the EU markets 102
Market accessibility and a lifeworld 104
‘System’ and ‘lifeworld’ 104
EU policies and the lifeworld 107
Large business, SMEs and the lifeworld 110
Private market, customers and the lifeworld 111
Access to the discourse and power relations 112
Communicative action 113
Bargaining and arguing 114
Bargaining, arguing and international relations 117
Communicative rationality and OMC 119
Concluding comments 121
Bibliography 122
4 The chain of an accessible shopping 128
Customer information 129
Information about shops 129
Information about products 133
Information about product accessibility 136
Contents ix
The journey to a shop 140
Home environment 140
Public environment 141
Public and private transport 145
Navigation in retail premises 148
Entering the shop 148
Operating in retail premises 151
Reaching products 154
Interaction in the shop 157
Interaction with informal assistants 157
Interaction with shop assistants 158
Interaction with ‘special’ shop assistants 162
Concluding comments 164
Bibliography 166
5 The lifeworld of accessible markets 169
Notions of disabled customers and accessibility 170
International business and civil society’s perspectives
on disabled customers 170
National business’ perspectives on disabled customers 173
National civil society’s perspectives on disabled customers 176
International stakeholders’ perspectives on accessibility 178
National stakeholders’ perspectives on accessibility 180
The role of policy discourse 183
Global regulations 183
EU instruments 187
National policies 189
The role of business practice 193
Accessibility, expenditures and profit 194
Corporate social responsibility 197
Product accessibility information 198
Trainings 199
Concluding comments 202
Bibliography 204
6 Access to the discourse and power relations 206
Formulating the discourse: internal processes 207
Stakeholder position: international perspectives 207
Stakeholder position: national perspectives 212
Stakeholder position and disabled customers 214
Formulating the discourse: public sphere 216
Communication and a common goal 217