A disability campaigner from York has won an equality case against Marks and Spencer at Monks Cross.
When Flick Williams and her 91-year-old Mother visited the shop, she discovered she could not reach the newly refurbished food cabinets from her wheelchair.
She told YorkMix that the new chiller cabinets had doors which were all steamed up, and opening them as someone in a wheel chair was almost impossible.
She couldn’t reach in to get hold of the products.
After an initial complaint, the store offered to provide someone to help her do her shopping, suggesting she called in advance.
But Ms Williams said that wasn’t putting her on an equal footing with other customers and she started legal proceedings.
She said she, like everyone else, might want to “shop spontaneously” and ringing up to arrange help wasn’t on.
A case was started under the Equality Act 2010 but was settled out of court.
Flick Williams says she got a bit of compensation but that wasn’t important.
“It wasn’t about the money, it was about making them recognise the difficulties they had caused for disabled and older customers and to get them to make changes.”
M&S says it’s committed to accessibility for all and has made significant changes.
