Removing barriers for disabled people in small businesses: compliance with the law or solidarity

Despite extensive legislation on disability rights, lack of access for disabled people is still pervasive, raising questions about whether these laws are known, understood and implemented. Some disability studies scholars claimed that access issues nowadays are managed through a «compliance regime», where accessibility is conflated with the mere adherence to technical standards which are unable to fully represent access needs. This study problematizes that assumption, suggesting that the «compliance regime» may be less ubiquitous than expected. Through qualitative interviews and site visits in an Italian city, we investigate how shopkeepers understand and relate to the laws about access in private places open to the public. We found that small organizations deal with accessibility through a variety of strategies, in many of which the urge to be compliant with the rules only plays a confused or marginal role.