In case you hadn’t heard by now the spending power of people with disabilities is really rather sizeable. There are about 11 million disabled people in the UK and it is generally estimated that they spend around £80 billion pounds per year. Maybe less, probably more. If businesses design stylish mobility products, they will benefit. If shops and restaurants provide quality access and disabled facilities, they will do the same.
Because of this, the disabled market is clearly identifiable much like the spending power units of elderly people, the LGBT community and those of us who think that being environmentally conscious means more than occasionally taking a bag for life to the shops with them. Those groups are all commonly described by a particular colour, making them the grey pound, pink pound and green pound respectively. However, disabled spending power has come to be known as the ‘disabled pound’ but, unlike the others, there isn’t currently a colour to describe it. At the moment, there are two competing colours: Blue versus Purple.
Both have their merits and weaknesses but in order for either to catch on, the other is going to have to be taken out of use. So which one should we opt for? We’re hosting a vote here. But before we do, let’s (completely non-objectively) look at the pros and cons of both blue and purple.
The Case For The Blue Pound
At Blue Badge Style we’ve always used the term ‘blue pound’ to describe the spending power of the disabled market because Blue Badges are an identifiable aspect of disability that most people are familiar with. It’s not just UK Blue Badges which are blue either. The international symbol of access – used around the world to denote accessible facilities – is always a stick man in a wheelchair on a blue background. No matter where you go on the planet, if there is a symbol for disabled facilities it is almost certainly going to be blue.
Blue is the symbolic colour of disability the world over. People just get it. When Fiona was looking for a suitable name for BBS she focussed on an image that can easily be related to disability. Do you think that calling the site “Purple Style” ever crossed her mind for even a second? Of course it didn’t; it would sound like a fashion website devoted to dressing in the style of the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince.
The Case Against The Blue Pound
The main argument against calling the disabled pound the, eminently sensible, ‘blue pound’ seems to be that the term is already taken by the Conservative party (benefit cuts not being enough for those nasty Tories, they want the less able colour too). We must admit that some people probably would think of the Conservatives if they heard someone say the blue pound. Having said that, it would only take a little promotion and context to let people understand that the blue pound is about disability. Do the Conservatives really constitute a distinct spending power in the same way?
The Case For The Purple Pound
In truth, nobody really seems to know where the purple pound originates from. Many people cite a government press release from 2012 which launched an accessibility guide and talked about “realising the potential of the purple pound”. Since then minister of state for disabled people, Mike Penning, has used the phrase so it could be possible that the term was invented by the government two years ago. However, even then the report suggested that disabled spending power was already “commonly referred to as the ‘purple pound’”. So, we’re left, none the wiser, still looking for the true origin of the purple pound.
Looking for why the term has been picked up by the government as ‘commonly used’, to be honest, the explanations range from the tenuous to the flimsy. Perhaps the weakest explanation is that purple is Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s favourite colour. The strongest argument is that several organisations with disability interests often use purple motifs. On a governmental level, Remploy uses a purple colour scheme and this is echoed from the grassroots where the Broken of Britain blog uses purple for its colours and The Spartacus Report, was printed using a purple design.
But the thing that it all consistently comes back to is the idea that the blue pound is taken. After that was established it seems to have led to a frantic search for any available colour. Kaliya Franklin, of the Broken of Britain has said that “purple seemed to be the only colour left so it was a good job we all liked it.”
The Case Against The Purple Pound
Does anybody actually use the blue pound to mean Conservative spending power? Although some people may link blue to Tory, in fact, if you Google ‘blue pound’ you’ll find it is far more commonly used as the disabled pound than it is Conservative pound and, despite now being backed by the government, it’s also more use that purple pound is.
It may also be fair to say that, if the Tories are blue then UKIP have stolen ground on the purple identity. Nigel Farage notably wore purple pound sign socks to his victory rally last month. If it’s a question of whether you’d rather be accidentally associated with the Conservatives or UKIP where would you want to stand?
We have a bit of a problem with forcing any old available colour onto the disabled pound rather than making a fist of winning the right to use the blue pound. If we’re going to identify with any colour just because the others are taken then what’s the point of using it? We’d rather not do it at all.
So Who Wins?
We first heard that ‘purple pound’ is supposedly the common term for disabled spending at the beginning of the year. Since we follow the disability press quite closely and still the idea of a purple pound was new to us, we decided to disregard it and keep on going with the blue pound. But we don’t want to be dismissive and though the purple pound doesn’t seem to have gained much traction since its inception we want to know what you think.
What’s clear is that it doesn’t make sense to go on with one group using the blue pound and another using the purple pound. We need a single term to associate with, so we’re holding a vote.
We’ve made it fairly clear here which side we’re on, but please let us know which you prefer. We’re holding a vote here to find out whether we should go on calling disabled spending power the blue pound or if you prefer the idea of the purple pound. So vote below and let us know which you think is better and why on our Facebook page!!