Customer Service Tips for Specific Disabilities

Customers Who Use Wheelchairs

• Sit at eye level for longer or important conversations.
• Keep paths clear in buildings and outside. Notice if someone is having difficulty getting to a space or location.

Customers Who are Blind or Have Low Vision

• Always identify yourself and your role in the business.
• Always try to get a customer’s attention verbally. Don’t approach the customer from behind or speak from behind the person. Face the customer when you speak.
• Never touch or grab a cane.
  (Unless an emergency situation.)
• Let the customer know when you are leaving the room or service area.

Customers Who Have Speech Related Disabilities

• Allow the customer time to speak-don’t show impatience. Pay attention to what your body language and facial expressions are conveying.
• Remember the customer may have difficulty speaking–not understanding.  Don’t change your vocabulary or manner of speaking.
• Don’t complete the person’s words or sentences.

Customers Who Are Deaf or Have Hearing Loss

• Don’t automatically speak loudly to customers wearing hearing aids or have cochlear implants.  These devices are tuned for normal range of speech volume.
• Keep your face and mouth visible when a customer is lip reading.  Don’t over enunciate or talk too slowly–that can actually make lip-reading more difficult.
• Be open to a variety of forms of communication.  People with hearing disorders may use text messages or apps to communicate.

Customers with Cognitive Disabilities

• Avoid making assumptions about intelligence and functioning based upon appearance.
• A customer might need extra time to process information and ask for explanations more than once.
• Use clear language and examples.  Break information into “chunks”.  Avoid giving a lot of information at once.
• The customer may need simple, written notes for follow-up or a demonstration on how to use a product.

Customers Who Use Service Animals

ADA Definition:  A dog that is individually trained to perform a task or work for an individual with a disability.  Task or work should assist the person’s functioning and independence.

• Must be allowed to go wherever the customer can go.
• Required to be under the customer’s control.
• Staff should not pet, offer treats  or distract a service dog.  Those actions may distract the dog from its tasks.

Staff may ask two questions to determine is a dog is a service animal.

• Is your dog a service animal?
• What task has it been trained to perform for you?

Staff may not:

• Ask about the customer’s type of disability.
• Require documentation of training, registration, or licensure.

Staff may remove a service dog that is not under the handler’s control: barking, wandering, growling, snarling, or biting, but the customer has the right to return without the animal, if it is removed.