The Disability Rights Commission, which commissioned the NOP survey, said the results were unacceptable. Many disabled people were getting a second-class service and encountering major problems on Britain's biggest high streets.
The commission is welcoming new laws which come into force on Friday, under which all shops, cafes and businesses must provide access to disabled people. The DRC's Open 4 All campaign aims to raise awareness of the law.
Lunch
Mystery disabled and able-bodied shoppers around the country were asked to assess a day's visit to their city centre, which included shopping for an item of clothing, making a trip to the cinema and having lunch.
The Leeds survey was carried out by one disabled and one able-bodied assessor and their experiences were compared.
There are 128,500 disabled people in Leeds with an annual spending power of £715m to spread between 25,141 VAT registered businesses.
A spokeswoman for the DRC said: "In Leeds, the NOP survey for the DRC revealed that visiting the cinema was the worst experience of the day. The assessor reported 'I did not know how I was going to get out if there was a fire'.
"The best experience of the day was buying a pair of jeans – the assessor noted nothing was too much trouble."
Problems with getting in and around the city added an extra two hours to the trip compared with the non-disabled mystery shopper's experience.
Overall, the disabled assessor was disappointed by the Leeds shopping experience reporting that they were "expecting it to be very pleasant, but it was not."
From Friday, every business, large or small – from the local shop to restaurants, health clubs, dentists and supermarkets – will need to become more user-friendly for around 10 million disabled people in Britain.
The legislation, introduced under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, will affect over two million British businesses.
Bert Massie, Chairman of the DRC said: "Disabled people in Leeds will have real consumer rights for the first time and no longer have to put up with a second-class service."
Now businesses will finally have to address the problems their buildings cause for disabled people.
Failure to act could result in legal action and it is expected that many compensation cases will be brought before the courts.
Nationwide, the survey revealed:
• Nearly a quarter of all the 88 major high street outlets surveyed were rated as poor or very poor;
• One fifth of the disabled shoppers said they would not go back to the high street they visited;
• One third of public toilets were difficult or impossible to access.
alison.bellamy@ypn.co.uk