S2E4: How to Boost Market Accessibility for People with Disabilities, with guest Lauren Grewal

Upwards of 83 million people in the U.S. have a disability, but firms still struggle to make their goods and services accessible to everyone. Part of the challenge is that non-disabled people view accessibility accommodations as tradeoffs against other interests, such as environmental stewardship and convenience, and they are loath to make those sacrifices.  

In this episode of the Knowledge in Practice Podcast, Tuck professor Lauren Grewal discusses her paper on this topic: “Hidden Barriers to Marketplace Disability Accessibility: An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Perceived Trade-Offs,” which was published in the Journal of Consumer Research in 2024. In it, she finds that if firms clearly communicate the rationale for and benefits of their accessibility efforts, non-disabled people will be more likely to accept and appreciate them.