Being inclusive and accessible is not just about the need to meet statutory obligations. With the accessibility market contributing £1.75 billion to Scotland, making improvements that target these customers, can unlock huge benefits and grow your business. Discover the volume and spending power of visitors to Scotland who have accessibility requirements with our accessible and inclusive market statistics.
Inclusive Business Improvements
9 minute read• Last updated: 10 December 2025
Follow these simple and manageable steps and make your business more inclusive and accessible. Improving the accessibility of your business has clear benefits, both for you and your customers, but knowing where to start, or what steps to take next, can sometimes be daunting.
Regardless of the size or type of business you operate, there are always improvements you can make, and they don’t always need to be costly or take a long time to put in place to make a big difference.
What is the process?
Review your business
Look at your current service and consider how inclusive and accessible your business is currently and where improvements can be made. We can provide checklists to make this process easier for you and help identify areas for improvement.
Improve your customer service, facilities and accessibility information
Build on your current inclusive practices and accessible facilities, starting with improvements that are simpler to introduce now. Make sure that your online accessibility information is up-to-date and easily available for customers.
Plan any larger changes you can make
Start to think about what improvements you want to achieve in the longer term. What actions need to take place and how will you prioritise improvements for the maximum impact?
Evaluate your progress
Gather feedback from customers, staff and partners. Which changes are working well, and which need to be tweaked?
Step 1: Review your business
Grant Arms Hotel, Grantown-on-Spey
© VisitScotland / Allan Myles
This is an opportunity to review your current inclusion and accessibility practices and facilities, identify opportunities to make simple improvements and put a plan in place for longer-term changes.
As well as making changes to physical facilities or staff processes, it’s really important to focus on your information and your marketing. You might have lots of great accessible features in place, but if you aren’t telling people about them, you won’t get any accessible customers.
To help you review your business we’ve created a set of free checklists which include many general and sector specific low cost and no cost suggestions on how to improve your inclusivity and accessibility.
- Checklist 1 Suggestions for Customer Service Improvements
- Checklist 2 Accessibility Information Improvements
- Checklist 3 Accessible Facilities and Equipment Improvements
As you review each area of your business, make a list of the improvements you want to make. You can record your planned improvements using our Business Plan – Improvements templates. Keep track of the actions required, the costs and timeframes involved, and who is responsible for seeing the improvement through to completion.
Step 2: Improve your business
The Green House, Ettrickbridge
© VisitScotland / Luigi Di Pasquale
Once you’ve reviewed your business, prioritise and plan the actions that you’ve identified. Focus on what is achievable for your business based on the resources you have right now.
For each of the improvements from your review:
- determine the timescales and budgets required
- prioritise the areas you plan on improving immediately
- decide who is responsible for implementing changes
- create a delivery plan to monitor progress
- keep staff informed and involved in the process
Remember you don’t want to take on too much at once, so find a way to prioritise your improvements such as looking at what is low effort but high impact.
‘Quick wins’ to improve your accessibility
Step 3: Plan (longer-term actions)
Transport Museum, Glasgow
© VisitScotland / Chris Watt
Planning longer-term improvements may often require more thought and investment of resources.
Consider those improvements which require greater investment (perhaps involving facilities and equipment). You may wish to prioritise these by considering those items which benefit the greatest number of your customers. You could get your Accessibility champion to come up with ideas for:
- targeting a customer group that is underserved currently in your area
- incorporating elements of inclusivity best practice from other businesses into your longer-term plans
Areas to consider in the longer term
Incorporating inclusive design
When carrying out any new build, or refurbishment, ensure that any designers, architects or planners are fully briefed on your aims to ensure that proposed designs are inclusive. This will help them understand the standards you are working to.
VisitScotland has specific guidance on inclusive design with 18 guides covering a range of key business areas, such as exterior routes and approaches, entrances, corridors, sleeping areas, bathrooms and changing areas, cafes and restaurants and more.
Request copies of our inclusive design guides from our Business Enquiry and Support team.
Working in partnership with others
You could join up with other local accessible businesses to help market and promote each other and make planning easier for the customer. Having a network of like-minded businesses can also raise your awareness of developments in your region and share best practice. You may also wish to consider working with local councils and others to achieve change in the public realm, eg ramped access to a beach.
Staff recruitment and retention
Employing people of different abilities can be a huge benefit to your business, bringing valuable skills and insights to help enrich the customer experience and enhance the reputation and success of your business.
Find out more on being an inclusive employer on Inclusion Scotland’s Employers Hub.
Discover the benefits of providing an inclusive work environment with our guidance on Fair Work rights.
Step 4: Evaluate
Burrell Collection, Glasgow
© VisitScotland / Kate Abbey
Seek customer feedback directly from customers
Proactively requesting customer feedback can help track your progress and inform future plans. Here are some suggested questions you can add to any current customer survey you undertake:
Example customer survey questions
- Did anyone in your party have any additional support or accessibility requirements? If your answer is yes then:
a) How well did we cater for your specific requirements or needs? Please rate: 1=poor 2=average 3=ok 4= good in parts 5=excellent overall
b) How could we improve our customer service or accessibility facilities for a future visit?
Seek customer feedback via your staff
All of your frontline staff, who are in regular contact with your visitors, should be encouraged to offer feedback relating to accessibility.
Ask staff whether they have:
- received any positive or negative feedback about the accessibility of your business from customers
- observed any difficulties that disabled customers and others may have had within your business
Find guidance on managing and encouraging customer feedback.
Undertake community engagement
Being more involved with your local community can help you discover the impact your accessibility changes have made, as well as offer insights into further improvements that could open your business to more customers.
For example can you:
- work closely with, and listen to, your local community and any groups that represent people with accessibility requirements
- donate time to help and support local charities and community projects
Find details for local disabled people’s charities that you can build partnerships with at www.disabilityscot.org.uk.
Edinburgh Zoo
© Scottish National Zoological Society
Ask your staff about their own workplace experiences
Check regularly with staff and volunteers that your business is meeting with their accessibility requirements. You could undertake a staff survey to gather feedback anonymously.
Example staff survey questions
- Do you feel a sense of belonging and inclusion in the workplace?
- Do you have the necessary tools and equipment to perform your job effectively?
- Are you able to easily navigate the workplace and access all facilities?
- Are there any physical barriers or environmental factors that hinder your work?
- How would you rate the overall support provided to disabled employees?
- What suggestions do you have for improving the workplace experience for disabled employees?
Setting up a staff group
Having a permanent staff group with lived experience can help inform your plans. Check out this short film on the benefits from Merlin Entertainment.
Keep improving
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