4 Benefits of Creating an Accessible Office

There are many different ways you can make your office more accessible, both in terms of physical and virtual access. It’s good to have these measures in place to improve business and relationships with both clients and colleagues. Focusing on the physical side of things, here are some ways in which improving access to your office space can have a positive impact on your business, as well as advice as to how you can achieve these changes.

1.  Widen Your Client Base

Without clients or customers, your business wouldn’t be able to stay open. Although you might already have a strong customer base, consider how the accessibility of your office might be a hindrance to certain individuals. For example, is your business space accessible by wheelchair? If a wheelchair user is interested in buying what you have in store but can’t access your shop, you will ultimately be losing out on that individual’s custom. This is the same if you work in an office – if a client uses a wheelchair and comes to your office for a meeting, it could create difficulties if they can’t get into the building with ease. It’s important to provide wheelchair access in commercial buildings. Consider having ramps installed outside your building to improve access to entryways and have elevators or platform lifts inside.

2. Make Your Staff Comfortable

It’s not just clients that need to be considered, but your employees, too. Wheelchair access isn’t the only way to make your company more accessible, either. There are other conditions your staff might be living with that need to be kept in consideration. For example, if a member of staff has impaired vision or is blind, you should have braille resources in the office for them to use, as well as other aids they might need. By not having an accessible office, you could be cutting yourself off from a pool of talented people because you’re not accommodating their needs. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to hire the perfect person for the job because your office isn’t accessible.

3. Reputation

Even though you shouldn’t be focusing on making your office more accessible to make your company look good, being seen not to be taking others’ needs into consideration could have an effect on the business’s reputation. If your company is alienating groups of people because of a lack of adequate office access, it comes across as though the business is insensitive and thoughtless. The last thing you want is for people to get the wrong idea about your company, so keep checking on ways you can improve the accessibility to your office for guests, clients, and colleagues alike.

4. Set Standards

Having a more accessible office space is also an opportunity to set examples for other businesses in your area. By ensuring these measures are put in place at your office, you’re encouraging inclusivity at your company, which is something all businesses should be striving to achieve and maintain.

All businesses have a moral and legal obligation to make their offices accessible to everyone. Make sure your workplace embraces these obligations to improve your business.