Member-only story

High Street Stores Need to Make Accessibility a Priority

Laura Elliott
3 min readApr 16, 2018

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Stock photo of a woman shopping

We’ve all been there — you’re out on a shopping trip and there’s a huge queue for the changing rooms. It can be a little annoying, but we all know that when the people in front of us have had their turn, we’re next. Right? Well not, it seems, if you’re disabled.

On a recent shopping trip to their local Topshop in the Palace Exchange, Enfield Town, Nina Grant, a wheelchair user and disability activist, found that they were unable to use the disabled changing rooms. Why? Because the accessible room was being used as storage for Topshop’s stock.

Writing on their blog, brainkittens.com, Nina said:

“I was pleasantly surprised [Topshop] had thought to include a wheelchair accessible fitting room, but less pleasantly surprised at what it was being used for”:

Topshop’s accessible changing room filled with “For Sale” clothing rails

Although the staff member monitoring the fitting rooms was very apologetic, and helped Nina to cram the chair into a standard-sized cubicle and pull the curtain around the back of it, they were still forced into an incredibly small space that wasn’t appropriate for use.

“I was left feeling that ‘sorry, we’re using…

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Laura Elliott
Laura Elliott

Written by Laura Elliott

Disabled freelance journalist and copywriter. Words on feminism, disability, books, and healthcare — probably. Twitter @TinyWriterLaura

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