Episode 189: Bad Business

Making sure your business is accessible is more than just the law — it's good business.

Transcript

Laura 0:00

These voices are going to keep getting louder.

Male VO 0:05

This is Bad Attitudes.

Laura 0:22

Hello, friends and strangers. Welcome to another episode of Bad Attitude, an uninspiring podcast about disability. I'm your host, Laura.

Laura 0:32

This week's supporter shout-out goes to Ruky Saavedra. Thank you for your continuing support.

Laura 0:38

If you'd like to hear your name on a future episode, consider becoming a member on Ko-Fi. Visit ko-fi.com slash badattitudes pod for more information.

Laura 0:50

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Laura 1:04

For questions, comments, or ideas, visit the website at badattitudespod.com. Email badattitudespod at gmail.com or reach out on social media. Follow at BadAttitudes Pod on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Blue Sky.

Laura 1:23

As always, I want to remind you that disability is not a monolith. My experience as a disabled person is going to be different from the experiences of other disabled people. I am one voice for the disabled community, but I am not the only voice.

Laura 1:37

It shouldn't surprise you to learn that I interact with a lot of disability content on social media. Some of it from creators I follow, some just randomly comes across my feed. A while back I saw a post about the Americans with Disabilities Act and businesses being required to follow those laws in having accessible businesses. As expected, there was one person, possibly more, in the comments who insisted it should be at the discretion of the business. Which, like, is not how laws work, but sure.

Laura 2:10

Of course, he pulled out the classic. We reserve the right to refuse service for any reason. And yes, this is a classic for a reason, but refusing service is not the same thing as refusing access. You can't refuse me service before I access your business. The whole point of the original post was about access, not service. And while you can argue that service and access go hand in hand, I reiterate this was not the point of the original post.

Laura 2:41

I tried to point this out, explaining that you can deny to serve me only after I've accessed your business, but the guy doubled down, insisting that there are some businesses that should not be required to follow the ADA because the services they offer require the customer to be in peak physical condition. His examples were scuba diving and space tourism.

Laura 3:06

So, of course, I immediately dropped a link to the story about Michaela Benthaus, the first disabled woman to go to space, thanks to Jeff Bezos' Space Tourism Company. Now, to me, this basically screams your argument is invalid. You argue that disabled people can't participate in space tourism, so I show you a story about a disabled woman who took advantage of space tourism. Microp Moment, right?

Laura 3:36

I'm sure you can guess where this is going. He took umbrage with my choice of news outlet. Not to put too fine a point on it, but he's a member of the fake news brigade. Now I'm sure I could have found a version of the story from Fox News. Can can you hear the air quotes? But there is absolutely no reason to do so. He had already proven that giving him empirical evidence isn't enough to cause him to reconsider his point of view. He had already made up his mind that disabled people aren't meant for certain things, and he shouldn't be responsible for making those things accessible to them.

Laura 4:16

I also didn't see the need to tell him that things like adaptive diving already exist, or that it is highly unlikely that people who would partake in these services were in peak physical condition just because they weren't visibly disabled, or that there is a reason liability waivers exist. He wasn't looking to be educated, he just wanted someone to back up his ableism.

Laura 4:43

Weird thing to look for on a post from a disabled creator, but I digress.

Laura 4:48

These voices have always been around. The voices of so-called businessmen who think it's a burden on their business to have to make it accessible to disabled customers. The voices who think that implementing accessibility is going to somehow drive a business to closure. If your business is so easily felled, I don't think you can really place the blame on the ADA.

Laura 5:13

One of the main reasons it took so long for the ADA to be passed initially is because public transportation companies didn't want to have to make their vehicles accessible. I can't say definitively that it was about the money, but I highly suspect it was about the money.

Laura 5:30

It shouldn't surprise anyone that these complaints against the ADA come almost exclusively from the right. Billionaires who are more concerned with their bottom lines than doing something crazy like paying a living wage. And of course, the more average citizens who have bought into the idea that marginalized groups are stealing from them, all the while billionaires have their hands in the pockets of said citizens.

Laura 5:55

Some complaints are valid. There are certain groups who will look for ADA violations and immediately file suit against small businesses in hopes of a big payday without giving the business the opportunity to rectify the issue. Thankfully, they are few and far between.

Laura 6:13

Realistically, pushback on the ADA is going to come hard and fast. This administration has already done so much that is detrimental to the disabled community, and they have no intention of stopping. Most recently, the administration has made it easier for landlords to evict tenants with emotional support service animals, which affects people with conditions like PTSD. You know, like veterans, for whom this administration has always had the utmost respect.

Laura 6:43

I wouldn't be surprised to learn they are already working behind the scenes to dismantle the ADA. I would be more surprised if they aren't.

Laura 6:53

And here's what I really don't get from a business owner's perspective. More than 25% of American adults live with a disability. That number is growing, thanks in large part to the effects of long COVID, and more people are becoming disabled every day. Now, a large part of disabled people don't have much disposable income. But regardless of that, they still need to make purchases. We still need to frequent businesses and services in our day-to-day lives. Why then would you want to alienate such a large portion of the money-spending public? That is textbook bad business.

Laura 7:30

Even if you suspect that disabled people don't want your product or service, what harm does it do to make it available to them? You are very unlikely to lose business because you make your business accessible. You are very unlikely to lose business because you have protocols in place to work with disabled customers. But you will lose business if you deny access to a portion of the population.

Laura 7:54

Going back to the guy's example of diving or space tourism or anything that might be considered extreme, it can be difficult to find companies who offer these kinds of services to the disabled public. They exist, but it's an underserved market. The only thing you can do by making your business accessible is expand your potential reach, thereby increasing your potential profits.

Laura 8:19

It doesn't take an MBA to understand that more customers means more money.

Laura 8:26

Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you in the next one.