A experiência de consumidores com deficiência visual em lojas de fast fashion.

Abstract

Visually impaired people represent a significant portion of the Brazilian population, reaching approximately 7 million people. However, even in the face of an expressive number, these individuals face difficulties in carrying out activities in the most diverse basic areas of daily life, clothing consumption being one of them, as several times these individuals have their role as consumers compromised by the absence of holistic structures. Clothing, a basic need, acts on the construction of a personal identity, as it is also an individual form of communication. An easily accessible alternative to fashion is through fast fashion stores. However, thanks to the non-inclusive policies that currently still hover over society, it is pertinent to question: What are the experiences of visually impaired consumers in fast fashion stores? Faced with this question, this research aims to understand, through the life history technique, the perceptions and experiences of visually impaired consumers when shopping in fast fashion stores. For this, four interviews were carried out with volunteers in person or via Google Meet. The interview script was structured with questions about personal information, life experience, and the consumption in the fast fashion segment, varying between service, difficulties, stimuli, preferences, among others were also addressed. Through the analysis of the volunteers' discourse, it was possible to deduce some of the main difficulties faced by these individuals, which ranges from moving through the stores’ architectural space to attitudinal barriers, such as the lack of training of attendants when dealing with this public. This results in a compromised recognition of these individuals as consumers, since these companies do not meet their demands, or them, in a superficial and sufficient way, therefore, jeopardizing the experience of these consumers, and above all, undercutting their autonomy in the consumption experience, making it urgent the need for a closer look by the fast fashions to meet the demands of this portion of consumers.