A visit to the supermarket can involve particular challenges for people living with autism or deafness. So we’ve taken steps to take the stress out of shopping.
We want to create an inclusive environment where everyone loves to work and shop – including people living with disabilities and those who care for them.
Positive signs
As part of our non-visible disabilities awareness week, we worked with colleagues who use deaf signing language to develop a film to help give all our store staff the confidence to communicate with people with hearing impairment or deafness.
“We want all customers to have a great shopping experience.”
Natalie Dunn
Sainsbury’s Head of Customer Experience
The film – Life Doesn’t Come With Subtitles: Tips for Communicating With Deaf Customers – has won a number of awards and high-profile endorsements. It’s also won the backing of colleagues with first-hand experience of the problems facing deaf people.
Tracey Kennard, who works at Sainsbury’s Dartford and appears in the film, grew up with a deaf parent. She says: “Since watching the film, I have noticed a real change in my colleagues. They have gone from being nervous…to having the confidence to have a go [at communicating]. All it takes is a simple signed ‘Hello’ for a deaf customer to feel valued.”
Helping people with autism
In Liverpool, three of our stores trialled an initiative aimed at making shopping easier for those with autism.
It allows parents to ask for various store modifications when they begin their shopping trip, from turning off tannoy and café music to using our assisted shopping service and priority checkouts if their children find queuing particularly difficult.
Colleagues taking part in the trial received practical tips and training on aspects of autism from community enterprise Autism Adventures. They also spent time with a child with autism to learn from them directly.
Throughout the trial, we listened closely to the parents of children with autism about what more we can do to make visiting our stores as simple and stress-free as possible.