24 | In April 2025, 80-year-old Barry Dobner embarked on an EasyJet flight to Athens for a two-week holiday. Or so he thought. Just moments before take-off, Barry – a wheelchair user – was asked to disembark. What had Barry done that was so irregular, disruptive or heinous? Well Barry has limited mobility and therefore cannot walk to the onboard toilet. This does not stop Barry flying, he just plans for these trips like most other people do. However, Barry’s urinal bottle, which he only brings for emergencies, had caused consternation among service staff. Stewards quickly asked Barry to disembark. Barry and his family left the flight, gave up more than £2,000 they had spent on their holiday and felt utterly dejected. Unfortunately, Barry’s experiences are a lot more common for those with disabilities than you might expect. With an estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide said to have a disability, and with them holding disposable income of approximately $13 trillion, consumers with disabilities (CwDs) make up the largest emerging market in our world. Yet, despite the mid-1990s witnessing the instantiation of accessibility regulations and laws, such as the UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Americas with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the USA, 30 years on accessibility barriers continue to exclude CwDs like Barry from full enjoyment and inclusion in commercial experiences. LACKING PERSPECTIVE Issues to accessibility are numerous and complicated but in the interests of brevity, two major issues hold sway. Firstly, legal regulations continue to be informed by able-bodied persons. They often ignore the lived realities of disability. Shelves and service points are not designed for wheelchair users, doors and entrance points do not always consider those with visual impairment, and service offerings on the high street do not account for how lighting and sound levels can disinhibit those with neurodivergent conditions. Secondly, the level of detail, understanding and guidance on how to implement accessible adjustment(s) to cater for CwDs is ambiguous. Organisations simply do not know what to do, beyond the minimum, and they most often prioritise accessibility in terms of physical and infrastructural changes. Further to this, as in the case of Barry and many others, there remains a stigma around CwDs. Anything that deviates from the norm, that may disrupt others, or any special adjustments and requirements are viewed by many organisations as beyond their well-defined rules or organisational practice. These frustrations prompted us to explore the barriers to access for CwDs. Rather than conduct the standard interviews, focus groups and surveys, we undertook an alternative approach. We turned to art! ACCESSIBILITY AND ART Our project started in 2015, when Leighanne began voluntarily caring on holiday trips for people with a range of different disabilities and care levels, including many unable to walk, talk, feed, bathe or toilet without assistance. It quickly became apparent how many of the patrons had creative ways of sharing their sense of self. Many painted, others wrote poetry or were avid photographers. An idea formed that it would be wonderful to learn about their commercial experiences through the creation of art. The Marketplace and I was born. THE MARKETPLACE AND I The Marketplace and I began in early 2019 by asking CwDs from across the UK to make any creative artwork or expression. It could be painting, song, dance, poetry – any medium creative in nature was accepted. The only remit was that the artwork should speak to commercial experiences. This resulted in the submission of 36 pieces exploring experiences in retail, hospitality, tourism, care and a plethora of other commercial sectors. The artworks comprise poems, song, dance, paintings, sculptures and installations and represent mobility (i.e. wheelchair users), sensorial (i.e.
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