Festival Place supports Unseen Aware movement

Festival Place will be the first shopping centre to rollout an exciting new movement next month (SEP) designed to create a more inclusive shopping experience for visitors with hidden disabilities.

Deaf campaigner Simon Houghton, from Basingstoke, created the Unseen Aware movement to help improve retailers’ understanding of unseen disabilities.

Around 80 percent of all disabled individuals have an unseen disability or condition such as MS, hearing loss, vision impairment, ADHD and autism and often find it difficult to get the support they need when shopping.

The Unseen Aware movement is more than just training – it is designed in such a way to embed behaviour change over time, and includes introducing the principles of how to engage with someone who has an unseen disability (such as communicating respectfully, avoiding assumptions, and always speaking up), as well as ongoing education and weekly interviews with individuals living with unseen disabilities or conditions, designed to really create understanding and empathy.

On completion of the initial “Becoming An Unseen Disabilities Ally” online course, staff receive a physical badge to wear which helps identify them to customers and colleagues who might need support.

The online training is being rolled out for participating retailers in Festival Place throughout the summer and launched to the public on 2^nd September.

More than 40 retailers have already enrolled on the course.

FP Business Performance Manager Rachel Carter said: “We’re delighted to be the first shopping centre to pioneer this movement. We’re always looking for ways to improve our customer experience and believe Unseen Aware will really benefit lots of our visitors and staff.”

Simon Houghton added: “I’m thrilled Festival Place have embraced the Unseen Aware movement. They are constantly striving to offer a more inclusive customer experience, and I’m delighted to be able to rollout Unseen Aware to their retailers and staff. The feedback from the staff who have completed the initial training has been excellent.”