Today is #PurpleTuesday, a day dedicated to raising awareness of what it’s like to live with a disability and here at The Westgrove Group, we pledge our support. 

With 1 in 5 customers living with a disability, accessibility is more important than ever.  Purple Tuesday has been created to recognise the importance and needs of disabled customers and to promote inclusive shopping and improving the customer experience for disabled people, 365 days a year.  Taking place to coincide with the run up to the peak Christmas period, the event has been created by disability organisation Purple.

The day will see retailers in stores and online introducing new measures to make shopping a more inclusive experience, sending a powerful message that they care about all their customers and that their business matters to them.

Our colleagues at Touchwood Shopping Centre are spending the day raising awareness and are making a commitment to provide colleagues with British Sign Language training so they are better equipped to support their community.  The training will provide our colleagues with some key words and phrases in British Sign Language to enable basic conversation with customers who use this as their main form of communication. 

Touchwood’s Total Facilities Manager, Sharon Hughes said: “There is a real barrier that makes it harder for disabled people to enjoy the shopping experience, which is why at Touchwood we are celebrating Purple Tuesday.  We’ve spent time providing our colleagues with relevant training including BSL, so they are able to better support everyone who visits our centre”.