More than 13 million people in the UK – a fifth of the population – are disabled, and a Purple Tuesday poll of people who consider themselves to be disabled has revealed that more than half of respondents are struggling to make purchases of a product or a service due to their disability, including the purchase of travel products.

Disabled young people (aged 16-24) fare the worst – more than three-quarters of them say they have found it difficult to purchase things online or in person due to their disability, with only 5% stating that travel businesses are the most accessible to purchase from.

More than half (56%) agreed that improving staff understanding about different disabilities would encourage them to spend their disposable income, estimated to be GBP 249 billion (USD 306.17 billion) a year. Separate research has shown that 75% of disabled people have had to leave a store or website, unable to go through with their purchase because of their disability.

Mike Adams OBE, chief executive of Purple, the disability organisation behind Purple Tuesday said: “While many UK businesses and organisations are stepping up to the mark and making the changes needed to improve disabled customers’ experiences, far too many are not. This is a huge mistake, not least because by turning their backs on disabled shoppers, they are losing out on millions of pounds of revenue every year.”

Disabled consumers told pollsters that inaccessible and unusable locations, poor customer service and a lack of understanding about disabilities were the main reasons they struggled to spend their money.