Diversity in Retail: Impacts of Accessibility and Inclusion in Purchase Intent

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the effect of a store’s accessibility and the inclusion of employees with disabilities on the attempt to purchase by non-disabled consumers in a retail environment. A methodological strategy was used during the empirical phase of the research, whereby it was possible to simulate the real situations to allow adjustment of the six experimental factors that the research hypotheses established.   Data collection was based on a questionnaire administered to 267 subjects, and to treat the data, graphical analysis, evaluation of outliers, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U procedures were performed.  The results suggest that the consumers have little willingness to be served by deficient handicapped persons in situations of retail purchase, and these consumers do not seem to value an accessible environment.