A DEAF campaigner from Basingstoke is working with Festival Place to become the first shopping centre to roll out a new movement designed to create a more inclusive shopping experience for visitors with hidden disabilities.

Simon Houghton created the Unseen Aware movement to help improve retailers’ understanding of unseen disabilities.

Around 80 per cent of all disabled individuals have an unseen disability or condition such as MS, hearing loss, vision impairment, ADHD and autism and often find it difficult to get the support they need when shopping.

The Unseen Aware movement is more than just training – it is designed in such a way to embed behaviour change over time, and includes introducing the principles of how to engage with someone who has an unseen disability (such as communicating respectfully, avoiding assumptions, and always speaking up), as well as ongoing education and weekly interviews with individuals living with unseen disabilities or conditions, designed to really create understanding and empathy.

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On completion of the initial “Becoming An Unseen Disabilities Ally” online course, staff receive a physical badge to wear which helps identify them to customers and colleagues who might need support.

The online training is being rolled out for participating retailers in Festival Place throughout the summer and will launch to the public on Monday, September 2.

More than 40 retailers have already enrolled on the course including Starbucks, Next, Lush, Tesco, HMV, Hotel Chocolat, The Body Shop and Goldsmiths.

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Simon said: “I’m thrilled Festival Place have embraced the Unseen Aware movement. They are constantly striving to offer a more inclusive customer experience, and I’m delighted to be able to roll out Unseen Aware to their retailers and staff. The feedback from the staff who have completed the initial training has been excellent, and I can’t wait for the launch.”

FP business performance manager Rachel Carter added: “We’re delighted to be the first shopping centre to pioneer this movement. We’re always looking for ways to improve our customer experience and believe Unseen Aware will really benefit lots of our visitors and staff."

For more information and to see the full list of participating retailers visit festivalplace.co.uk