Sarah, who is blind, would love to choose her own clothes as she is fashion conscious. She requires help when shopping for clothes but finds it is fraught with many difficulties. Her family is unsupportive and when they do go shopping with her tend to choose the first outfit she tries on.

Choices, colours and other fashion options are not explained properly to her. Sarah finds the shop assistants are of little help as they too fail to acknowledge their prejudices and assume as she cannot see what she is wearing it does not matter. She feels that as long as they make a sale her point of view is unimportant.

If she takes friends shopping with her they tend to choose what they like rather than acceding to Sarah’s tastes and don’t describe the clothes properly.

Sarah is supportive of accessibility legislation as she believes that shop assistants require mandatory training in supporting her and other disabled people to make their own choices when shopping for clothing or other making other purchases.

This is my access story, it is one of many. I'm sharing it because I want a law that puts accessibility at the heart of an inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand.

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