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People with disabilities share how clothes shopping could be made more accessible

"Easy press buttons needed! I have to tell people my pin in very public places."

Rachel Thompson

on June 28, 2018

Clothes shopping can be a stressful experience at the best of times. But for people living with disabilities, shopping for clothing can be even more difficult due to lack of accessibility in stores.

Journalist Dr Frances Ryan — who writes about disability rights — asked fashion-loving people with disabilities to tweet about "what would make clothes shopping more accessible" for them.

YouTuber Jessica Kellgren-Fozard wrote that she'd like to see more photos of people sitting down when she's doing online shopping for clothes. "Considering that's what I do most of the time I'd like to know it still looks good."

She also added that "more awareness among staff" is needed when it comes to trying items on in the fitting rooms. "I need my wife to come in with me or else I cannot put the garments on," she wrote.

Twitter user @Tingletoot68 wrote that changing rooms are often "not big enough for a carer to be in there too."

@Luna_Sulla wrote that they live with hyperacusis, a condition which causes an "intolerance to everyday sounds that causes significant distress and affects a person's day-to-day activities," per the NHS. "The music in stores is simply too loud for me," they wrote.

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Sam Hepworth — who works for WhizzKidz, a charity supporting disabled young people through mobility equipment — says that young wheelchair users have commended UK store Primark for its "low till counters, larger changing rooms with simple doors."

But, Hepworth added that "customers leaving clothes on the shop floor" makes it "hard to wheel round the store."

@RebeccaPorter_ also praised Primark for its "disabled till point" which allows people to "skip the queue and get served quickly."

@Itsstillsnowing, who is blind, wrote that they "have trouble buying clothes online" due to a lack of "detailed descriptions" on most retailers' websites. "Usually, the colour is the only thing you can find there, sometimes even that's missing," they wrote.

@MrEugeneGrant, says he'd like to see clothing that fit dwarves better. That means, "jeans that fit a dwarf bum AND legs," along with "shirts and jumpers that fit a (male) dwarf chest AND arms."

@Charliex92 tweeted that they'd like to see "accessible changing rooms," along with "lower tills, and card machines that detach."

@KylaHollywood wrote that they "can't press the buttons" on most card machines, and that "easy press buttons" are required.

Over to you, retailers.

Topics Activism Social Good

Rachel Thompson

Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.