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High street charter

For many people, retail therapy has become an essential part of their lives, but for a lot of guide dog owners and other vision-impaired people, the high street can be daunting and confusing.

An image of a male guide dog owner in a grocery shop being offered assistance by staff.
An image of a yellow labrador guide dog peering into a shop window.

In this Access for All’ campaign, we have teamed up with the British Retail Consortium to draw attention to the challenges guide dog owners face on a daily basis in and around the high street and to offer practical advice to high street businesses on welcoming people with vision-impairment.

Shops, banks, building societies, post offices, restaurants and other food and drink outlets are invited to sign up to The Guide Dogs High Street Charter to demonstrate their commitment to accessible services.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act, treating a disabled person less favourably because they are disabled has been unlawful since December 1996. Service providers have had to consider making reasonable adjustments to the way they deliver services so that disabled people can use them. Although there are many examples of good practice, unfortunately guide dog owners still encounter problems on our high streets.

This is why we are working together with the industry to ensure that good practice extends to all businesses across the country, so that guide dog owners can enjoy the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

The Guide Dogs High Street Charter is an important tool for communicating with businesses. It not only offers practical advice on offering a warm welcome to guide dog owners, but also outlines the guide dog owner's responsibilities.

To support our Access for All campaign, Guide Dogs has produced "guide dogs and other assistance dogs welcome" window stickers and a video clip outlining the access issues guide dog owners face is also available to view on this website.

For further information click on the links below:

You can download the High Street Charter:

High Street Charter Word (41KB) (coming soon)

High Street Charter PDF (337KB) (coming soon)

(In order to read the High Street Charter PDF you will need Adobe's Acrobat reader software. This can be downloaded free from the Adobe website.)

To pledge your support or for further information please email guidedogs@guidedogs.org.uk or call Guide Dogs on 0118 983 8242.


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