New 'mystery shopping' team to test disability access

Sunday 29 May 2022

Liberate and Jersey Cheshire Home have teamed up to use volunteers with disabilities from Jersey Cheshire Home to become accessibility “mystery shoppers”.

They'll be visiting organisations aiming to become Accès-accredited by Liberate.

Accès is Liberate’s accessibility scheme which awards organisations with the Accès ‘kitemark’ to demonstrate to employees and customers that the organisation takes accessibility for the disabled community seriously.

The Accès accreditation provides organisations with a report containing recommendations for adjustments that improve access for people with disabilities, employee training on welcoming people with disabilities as customers or colleagues, and a mystery shopper visit.

Pictured: The Accès “kitemark” allows people with a disability to know that they can enter that workplace, as a customer or employee, and be confident that the barriers to inclusion that they encounter will be adjusted for, as far as possible, by the organisation.

The partnership between Liberate and Jersey Cheshire Home is giving residents of the Home the opportunity to become a “mystery shopper”.

They will visit organisations hoping to be accredited to test out how welcoming they are for people with disabilities.

Paddy Haversham-Quaid, CXO of Liberate, said: “We know from working with our auditors who have disabilities how powerful it is when someone with lived experience is part of the team offering advice on the changes that an organisation could make."

Pictured: Paddy Haversham-Quaid, CXO of Liberate.

She continued: “For our auditors with disabilities the experience has been about making a difference for other people with disabilities, and rather than being about finding barriers, it has been about finding out where they can access. 

“We wanted to extend that feeling of empowerment to more people in Jersey’s disabled community, so we approached Jersey Cheshire Home to see whether any of their residents wanted to become one of our RAMS (reasonable adjustment mystery shoppers).

"We were really pleased that they said yes.”

Pictured: Donna Abel, CEO of Jersey Cheshire Home.

Donna Abel, CEO of Jersey Cheshire Home, added: “We are truly delighted to be working in a partnership that is providing real and meaningful opportunity to our residents and the community. Accès is helping us to fulfil our mission of enhancing lives of disabled islanders. 

“By including our residents, Liberate has enhanced their sense of purpose and provided them with a higher self-esteem, particularly important following prolonged periods of isolation due to the pandemic. 

“The scheme is mutually beneficial, inclusive and rewarding and we look forward to seeing how this partnership develops in future years.”