Why partner with Purple Tuesday?
We partnered with Purple Tuesday because we knew that as we were designing our business to take over the running of the National Lottery and we wanted to make sure that everything we did was going to be inclusive and accessible. When we’re thinking about our customers, our employees, when we’re thinking about the thousands of retailers who stock the National Lottery products, we wanted to make sure that every single touch point we had would be inclusive and accessible.
How did Purple Tuesday contribute to your cause? What support did you receive during this initiative?
Alwyn was set up a few years ago to bid for the fourth National Lottery license, which we were successful in. Right from the outset as we were designing our bid for how we wanted to run the National Lottery, disability inclusion and accessibility were really a key part of that, it was really at the heart of what we wanted to do. And I look at it like a lens through all the work we do, so how we run the National Lottery, how we interact with all our stakeholders, like the thousands of retailers who stock the National Lottery products, the hundreds of suppliers that we are going to work with. We worked really closely with Purple Tuesday to say “Well how do we embed that type of lens?” it’s not just a few experts in one team thinking about it, it's actually part of everybody’s responsibility. And it's really exciting seeing how people are taking ownership of that and thinking about designing a product, designing a marketing campaign, right through to how accessible our content is or our website or apps, everyone is now thinking about accessible design and content.
What were the outcomes, and what advantages were gained?
We know that people with disabilities make up 22% of the population in the UK. Those are people who really can and should be interacting with the National Lottery if they want to be part of that experience. There’s a huge opportunity here for people here, whether they are playing online, whether they’re going into retail, to make sure that the experience is as accessible and as inclusive as possible. The outcome at this stage is that everything that we are designing to be ready to run the National Lottery is really through that lens of accessibility and inclusion. Whether that is the audit that we have done with Purple Tuesday for our offices, whether that is the design of our new website and app, or whether that’s the early stages of any creative campaigns, all of these are being done with accessibility and inclusion in mind.
What message would you give other organisations who want to become disability inclusive?
Id say the main message is just try and get started, whether its small things or big things, it’s a very long journey, we’re going to be on it for the full 10 years of the license, and recognising that you’ll make mistakes along the way and that’s okay, its really about starting the journey. Also, that you have lived experience everywhere around you, so making sure that you’re consulting people, whether that’s within your organisation or some of the key suppliers or stakeholders you might have. There will be people with lived experience of disability, So just asking the right questions and getting advice that’s the way as well.
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