Excuse me, how can I help you?

Have you ever been in an awkward situation not knowing whether or not to help a person with disabilities? Ever see a person who needs help but not sure if you will be undermining the person’s ability? A lot of us are faced with these situations and issues, in business or in a grocery store. It is completely normal and I am speaking from pure experience.  For people in business, customer service is one of the keys to maintaining a healthy relationship with the customer and keeps them coming back for your services. In a lot of cases employees and businesses don’t have the proper knowledge to deal with a person with disabilities turning them away without even noticing it. Here are some keys to knowing what to do in that situation: speak directly to the customer and make eye contact, do not refer to them as a disabled person but rather refer to them as a person with disabilities, ask how you can help them or what you can do to help, be courteous and lastly do not make any prejudgments. For a more detailed look into these practices, refer to the video posted below.

Improving Customer Service for People with Disabilities