Boots and No7 celebrate Purple Tuesday as founding partner and Health and Beauty Sector Sponsor for the third year in a row, aiming to highlight needs of disabled customers; Boots launches initiative to make its own-brand product packaging more accessible

• Boots has started a project to make its own brand product packaging as accessible as it can be.

Today, Boots and No7 Beauty Company are proudly supporting Purple Tuesday to highlight the needs of disabled customers and patients.

Purple Tuesday was established by Purple, a disability organisation which supports businesses to improve the disabled customer experience.

Boots is a founding partner of Purple Tuesday and the Health and Beauty Sector Sponsor for the third year in a row. Being part of Purple Tuesday has supported its efforts to create a more inclusive shopping environment for disabled customers and patients.

In stores, Boots has introduced Hidden Disability Sunflower and Dementia Friend schemes alongside inclusivity training for team members. Assistive technology has been introduced on boots.com to enable visitors to adapt the site to meet their needs.

This year, Boots has also kickstarted a new initiative to review the packaging of its own-brand products to ensure they are as accessible as they can be.

To do this, we’re working with inclusive design specialists from Purple Tuesday alongside a panel of disabled product users from the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) to understand barriers to accessibility and identify opportunities to make our wider offering more inclusive.

Ben Horner, HR Director at Boots and No7 Beauty Company, said: “I want to say a huge thank you to our team members who have participated in training and supported the initiatives we’ve implemented to date. But there’s always more we can do, which is why I am so excited to see the results of our work to improve the accessibility of our own brand packaging.”

Una Kent, Vice President ESG and DEI International at Walgreens Boots Alliance, said: “It’s so important to us that all our customers find it easy to shop with us and use our products. Being part of Purple Tuesday has supported our efforts to create a more inclusive shopping environment for our disabled customers and patients. I would encourage other organisations to get involved in this brilliant initiative.”