June 30, 2025
Disability and The Cost of a CX Catastrophe
Ignoring disability awareness is a recipe for CX disaster. Chris Jay of Bascule Disability Training, explains how businesses can avoid PR fallout whilst improving customer service for all…
Every so often, a headline surfaces revealing how an organisation has mishandled an interaction involving a customer with a disability. These stories usually tend to attract the attention of every national news outlet, before going viral across all social platforms, whilst somewhere, a PR team scrambles to control the fallout.
The most recent example of this took place in a well-known high street bakery chain, where a staff member insisted that a customer must ‘prove their disability’ by revealing their catheter bag, before being allowed to use the accessible toilet.
It’s hard to imagine that there is a more embarrassing way of revealing that your staff have not been properly trained.
The sad thing is, these events are way too common, with many organisations only really addressing their shortcomings after the damage of a national PR disaster is done. Now, people often think that stories like this are short lived, and that it’ll all be yesterday’s news before you know it, but those impacted don’t forget quickly. And, given that people with disabilities account for 25% of the population (or 16.8 million people), a fiasco of this calibre is certainly worth avoiding.
What Can Organisations do to Avoid A Disability CX Calamity?
Training, training, training! Whether these catastrophic interactions occur in retail, hospitality, or public services, one thing that always remains the same is the root cause which is invariably a lack of training and a failure to equip customer facing staff with a proper sense of disability awareness.
Now, one interesting fact about the afore mentioned high street bakery chain, is that they are a member of the Valuable 500, a global initiative that brings together 500 CEOs from large companies, to commit to advancing disability inclusion in their organisations. Remarkably, one of the pledges from this very company was that it “will train all colleagues about Hidden Disabilities ensuring we can best support our colleagues and customers.”
So, what does this tell us? Well, it indicates that either the training they implemented was inadequate or that they didn’t train at all, despite their pledge. Either way, regardless of promises and global initiatives, the company obviously needs to go back to the drawing board if it wants to improve the CX for people with disabilities. If it is already training staff, (as the pledge suggests), it needs to reassess whether that training is meaningful, interactive, effective and user-led (meaning those with disabilities create and deliver it).
For this company, and any other with customer-facing staff, the frontline team should be aware that 80% of disabilities are non-visible, therefore many people may require support and accommodations that aren’t obvious at first glance.
The Benefits of Understanding
A major advantage of improving the customer experience for individuals with non-visible disabilities is that it elevates the CX for everyone. When staff receive training focused on supporting people with hidden disabilities, they tend to become more understanding, patient, and perceptive in general. Their ability to respond with empathy and awareness benefits every interaction they have, not just those with individuals with a disability.
This is especially important when you consider that many people live with undiagnosed disabilities, (such as autism or dyslexia) and may not even identify as disabled themselves. However, it goes without saying, that it is never anyone’s role to determine whether a customer has a disability. Treat all customers with respect, attentiveness, and dignity.
Training your client-facing teams to have the skills to pick up on social cues, communicate effectively, and respond to discomfort in subtle, supportive ways, generally helps create more welcoming customer environments, regardless of whether a disability is visible or apparent. If nothing else, consider something we often learn from unconscious bias training which is ‘if you wouldn’t do it to a straight white male then you shouldn’t do it to anyone else!’
In this example, you would never ask someone wanting to use the men’s toilet to prove their ‘credentials’ so why would you ask the person with a disability to do so? Their word should be enough. If your staff need further reminders, then a lot of organisations have signs saying ‘not every disability is visible’ on the disabled toilet door, get some!
A Final Word
In summary, if your organisational culture teaches staff to verify or question customers’ access needs, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. Instead, equip staff with the ability to respond compassionately and appropriately to any need presented to them. That begins with understanding that disability isn’t always visible, and if someone tells you they need support, believe them, and provide it.
And, if you fail, and the proverbial hits the CX fan. Apologise, investigate, re-evaluate and be better.
