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Dealing with Special Needs

The UK's Disability Discrimination Act 1995 introduced new legislation aimed at ending the discrimination that many disabled people face in accessing goods and services. While many service providers view the Act as just another cost to their business and more red tape, increasingly large numbers of organisations see past this and focus on the compelling business case.

The Disability Discrimination Act is about increasing access to products and services, and better access means more customers. With more than 10 million disabled people in the UK, and an estimated £80 billion they have to spend, taking action to provide equal access to goods and services could be financially rewarding as well as morally right and legally correct.

    - Over 10 million disabled people in the UK

    - £80 billion annual spending power

    - 70% of disabled people are over 60 years old

    - Almost 75% of the nation’s wealth is held by the over 50’s

    - £184 billion of annual income earned by the over 50’s

    - More than 360,000 disabled people under 16

    Following the move to our new Hanley Branch premises, and to comply with the Act, we have purchased the following auxiliary aid equipment.

    Portable Induction Loop

    Hearing induction loops employ a microphone to pick up speech that is transmitted to a hearing aid. The hearing aid is set to ‘T’ mode by the wearer greatly improving access to goods and services for customers with a hearing impairment. Portable induction loop systems are required for one to one discussions and are for indoor use only.

    Customer Care Pack

    The customer care pack is designed to help people complete transactions who have limited manual dexterity or visual impairment. The kit contains magnification equipment, cheque/credit card signature templates and easy grip pens.

    The Portable Induction Loop can be easily transported to any of our branches should they have a customer who needs to use this system regularly or for use during an appointment.