Disability and Shopping

Ieva Eskytė is post-doctoral research fellow in the School of Law at the University of Leeds, UK.

List of figures; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Conceptual perspectives; Models of disability; Communicative action theory; Research and data generation strategies; Research strategy and key research questions; Why Lithuania and the United Kingdom?; Policy framework; Mystery shopping; Discussing shopping experience – interviews with customers; Studying business and civil society’s perspectives; Analysing the data; Structure of the book; Bibliography; Chapter 1: Disabled people in the market; Disabled people and markets: historical insights and current practice; Useless eaters; Passive service users; From consumers to producers: example of direct payments; A target for new business; Vulnerable consumers; Shopping chain and disabled customers; Customer information; Navigation in retail premises; Interaction in the shop; Accessibility and the private market; Accessibility and user involvement; Accessibility and a common language; Universal design and retail premises; Concluding comments; Bibliography; Chapter 2: Accessibility in the EU markets; Accessibility in the global context; Accessibility and the CRPD; Accessibility in the European single market; Disabled customers; Information provision; Accessibility of retail premises; Accessibility in national markets: Lithuania and the UK; ‘Socially vulnerable’ consumers in Lithuania; ‘Vulnerable consumers’ in the UK; Accessibility in Lithuania; Accessibility in the UK; Concluding comments; Bibliography; Chapter 3: Communicative action and the EU markets; Market accessibility and a lifeworld; ‘System’ and ‘lifeworld’; EU policies and the lifeworld; Large business, SMEs and the lifeworld; Private market, customers and the lifeworld; Access to the discourse and power relations; Communicative action; Bargaining and arguing; Bargaining, arguing and international relations; Communicative rationality and Open Method of Coordination; Concluding comments; Bibliography; Chapter 4: The chain of an accessible shopping; Customer information; Information about shops; Information about products; Information about product accessibility; The journey to a shop; Home environment; Public environment; Public and private transport; Navigation in retail premises; Entering the shop; Operating in retail premises; Reaching products; Interaction in the shop; Interaction with informal assistants; Interaction with shop assistants; Interaction with ‘special’ shop assistants; Concluding comments; Bibliography; Chapter 5: The lifeworld of accessible markets; Notions of disabled customers and accessibility; International business and civil society’s perspectives on disabled customers; National business’ perspectives on disabled customers; National civil society’s perspectives on disabled customers; International stakeholders’ perspectives on accessibility; National stakeholders’ perspectives on accessibility; The role of policy discourse; Global regulations; EU instruments; National policies; The role of business practice; Accessibility, expenditures and profit; Corporate social responsibility; Product accessibility information; Trainings; Concluding comments; Bibliography; Chapter 6: Access to the discourse and power relations; Formulating the discourse: internal processes; Stakeholder position: international perspectives; Stakeholder position: national perspectives; Stakeholder position and disabled customers; Formulating the discourse: public sphere; Communication and a common goal; Communication and strategic goals; Communication and awareness; Concluding comments; Bibliography; Chapter 7: Summary and conclusions; Book overview; What are the experiences of disabled people as customers in the mainstream private retail markets and their perspectives towards accessibility?; How do stakeholders of the European single market for information and communication technology products perceive disabled people as customers, and what factors shape their knowledge and positions?; How do private business and civil society engage into communication and collaborative innovation to create accessible EU single market and facilitate disabled customers participation?; Way forward; Bibliography; Index