Consumer Reports refuses to test disability products
Consumer Reports has been reporting on the quality of products for many years. The public has come to respect the magazine as an unbiased place to go when you are going to purchase a product or service. One thing you will find missing from the magazine and website is a write-up of any products used by the disabled from nursing homes to wheelchairs. One would think that the magazine would be very interested in helping a growing minority in the country. However, after repeated requests from advocacy groups it is obvious that Consumer Reports is purposely refusing to do anything for the disabled. One advocacy group, NextStep has created a website that has a letter that is all set to be sent to Consumer Reports so that the disabled community at large can ask for help. The letter can be found here. (Source: RSDSA)
It is confusing why this venerable magazine is refusing to help the disabled. As americans age, more and more end up disabled and having to use walkers and wheelchairs as well as nursing assistance. Not all products and services are as good as they are advertised, and many of the disabled products don’t advertise on TV or radio. So how does t he public find out about new products and who tests them out to make sure they work as advertised? That is where Consumer Reports comes in, with engineers and journalists they are able to write up articles on the products we need so we can all make good decisilons. It doesn’t make any sense that we all buy bad products and slowly learn which ones are good because there is no clearing house of information. SCRN does have information on some products, but we do not have the staff to test all of the products that are out there.
Just as we need to keep in touch with out congressmen so new bills don’t take away our rights and services, having a trustworthly group telling us what to buy safely is a real help. This means that we all need to sign and send te letter created by NextStep so they know there are millions of us out there that would buy their magazine or access their website if there was a reason to. This isn’t just a good thing for them to do for the country, it is a good idea business wise. Many businesses lose sales because they do not make it easy for the disabled to come in and buy their products. Consumer Reports is doing the same thing where they don’t know all the potential customers that are out there but don’t pay for their services. So we can both win, the magazine gets lots of new paying customers so the can do more testing and we get to finally know what products are out there and which ones actually work properly.
The magazine needs to know that we are there to help them too. If they do not have disabled workers on staff that can do testing, we are sure there are many out here in net land that would be more than happy to help test new wheelchairs or ramps that just hit the market. The people that need the product most are the ones testing and the magazine can put together how testing was done and create an article for us to read. There are lots of people that would like the disabled to dry up and blow away, but we are here to stay and our numbers are growing. The companies that succeed are those that help groups like the disabled who are more than happy to help those who are willing to product awesome products that help us in our daily lives.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Loading ...
User Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.