Direct Access are the access consultants for Sweaty Betty; a British retailer specialising in women’s activewear who have over 60 stores in the UK and several others across the world in territories such as Canada, Germany, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. The company’s ethos is rooted in the empowerment of women and girls from every background to get active and stay active, including disabled people.
Direct Access delivered access audits of the franchise’s UK branches in Reigate, Fulham, King’s Cross, and Harrogate.
To ensure disabled people, senior citizens, families with buggies, people with temporary injuries, and visitors with luggage all benefit from improved access, our team of disabled consultants reviewed the site within different contexts and from multiple perspectives, highlighting adjustments which would benefit every type of visitor including staff and visiting customers.
Direct Access offered advice on frequently occurring aspects of retail accessibility, such as the height at which displays and counters were placed, colour contrast within the store space, as well as the surfacing and layout of the overall environment. Inclusive of the storefront, our audits took into account back-of-house areas such as storerooms, staff lavatories, staff rooms, on-site dance studios, kitchenettes, entry and egress routes, and each location’s evacuation protocol.
Our consultants delivered Disability Awareness Training to Sweaty Betty store management and other stakeholders, ensuring that each individual store was able to go beyond mere compliance and deliver an engaging, welcoming, and overall inclusive experience for its visitors. To go beyond accessibility legislation and embed a deeper understanding of disability-related issues and challenges, the training included basic sign language, a crash course dispelling disability-related myths, and a deep-dive into positive and negative language.
In 2015, Sweaty Betty won an award for “Healthiest Employees” as part of Vitality Health Insurances’ Britain’s Healthiest Workplace Awards. The retailer has its own Foundation which engages in sport advocacy for girls who are the least active and who face the biggest barriers to being active, particularly those from lower income families and ethnically diverse communities.
United Kingdom
| Pepper House, Market Street, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 5DQ. | Old Town Hall, 30 Tweedy Rd, Bromley, BR1 3FE. |
Ireland
| 77 Camden Street Lower, Dublin, D02 XE80. |
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