Navigating the aisles: Assessing dementia-friendliness of a supermarket as part of a university seminar

Written by Dr Vitor Zimmerer, Artemis Bekiari, Hafsa Qureshi, Lidia Slominski, James Taylor-Anton and narrated by the authors.

In this blog, the authors share their experience of assessing the dementia-friendliness of a local supermarket as part of a university seminar. They discuss the importance of creating dementia-friendly environments to improve the autonomy and comfort of people with dementia. The students evaluated the supermarket using a checklist provided by the National Dementia Action Alliance and identified several areas for improvement. Issues included confusing signage, illogical placement of products, lack of clear checkout information, absence of quiet spaces and seating, and potential sources of confusion like transparent doors. The authors highlight the need for increased awareness and changes in supermarket design to better cater to the needs of people with dementia. They also discuss international examples and technical solutions that have been implemented to create dementia-friendly retail spaces. Overall, the exercise provided the students with practical experience in ethical people-centered design and highlighted the importance of accessibility and inclusivity for all customers.

Find the original text, and narration here on our website.

https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/guest-blog-navigating-the-aisles-assessing-dementia-friendliness-of-supermarkets/

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Dr Vitor Zimmerer is a Lecturer is the Department of Language and Cognition, University College London. Vitor studied linguistics at Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf, and has a PhD in Human Communication Sciences from the University of Sheffield. He is very interested in the effects of neurological damage and atypical development on language and study a range of populations including dementia and aphasia, also how language can be used as a marker of cognitive change.

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This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support.