July is Disability Pride month. While less well-known than its LGBTQ+ counterpart, it offers a much-needed opportunity to raise awareness, start positive conversations and celebrate the diversity and differences of the disabled community.
Many organisations are already embracing diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies, but for some reason accessibility is surprisingly low on the list of priorities.
When you consider that globally, the disability market is worth over £274 billion per year in disposable income, it’s a mystery as to why only 10% of companies have a targeted plan to access it.
Consider further that 24% of the population has a disability and it becomes even more unclear why so few marketing campaigns are accessible to or geared towards people with disabilities.
Bascule managing director Chris Jay looks at the ways brands can benefit from implementing disability-inclusive marketing strategies.
While every business strives to capture new market audiences, most are hesitant when it comes to accessible marketing, despite the fact that companies which embrace DEI are 70% more likely to capture a new market base.
Fortunately, accessible marketing need not be complicated or budget breaking, and investment in creating more inclusive campaigns will certainly pay off in dividends.
Changing minds
The first step of any journey towards becoming a more accessible business should always begin with developing awareness. Why? Because without understanding, empathy and knowledge of disability, our efforts are at risk of becoming a tick-box exercise.
If your marketing team (and all other teams for that matter), are trained to be disability aware, then that shift in perception will mean that a more inclusive mindset will be embedded within every element of the overall strategy. It will also create awareness around the potential of addressing the disability market and make staff aware of the many benefits of why you are becoming more inclusive.
Loyalty
Reaching out to people with disabilities through accessible marketing never goes unnoticed.
Understanding that efforts have been made to address specific needs will resonate well with these customers and allow them to become word-of-mouth advocates and loyal consumers of your brand.
Of course, it goes without saying that all marketing and advertising aimed towards people with a disability should only be rolled out if the product or service you are selling is itself accessible. It would be futile and negative to your brand to create an accessible marketing strategy for a product that excludes people with disabilities.
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Consider access to your materials
One important aspect about inclusive marketing is remembering that there are a diverse range of disabilities. This of course, means that there will be a range of different ways people interpret your messaging, and therefore various assistive technologies to consider.
Spending time thinking about the different ways that people will access your content will be valuable.
Representation
While 24% of people live with disabilities, they are only represented in 1% of advertisements. Using images in your marketing materials that authentically and positively represent people with disabilities will gain the attention of a huge potential market base.
Furthermore, it will gain brand loyalty as 59% of consumers are more trusting of brands they are represented by. Try to create or source images that are not tokenistic, stereotypical or patronising.
Also, avoid the obvious. When considering inclusive imagery, the first thing people think of using is a wheelchair user, but in actual fact, less than 8% of people with disabilities use one.
Accessible website
One of the most important things to get right when practising accessible marketing is your website. If you are uncertain as to how accessible your website is, then undertake an accessibility audit.
For example, using various scanning tools that allow you to ascertain whether there are issues with colours, missing alt text, and other inaccessible forms, to gaining a more comprehensive review of your website, apps and digital services, by third party experts.
Moving forward
As you develop a more accessible marketing strategy, you should regularly assess and evaluate your progress. You can do this by using automated feedback and responses from people with disabilities themselves.
Use web analysis tools to assess whether people with disabilities are actually engaging, and if they aren’t, look into why. Consider a company-wide steering group that gives staff a platform to raise issues and create discussions around disability, (preferably including people in the company with disabilities) and ask the group for feedback on how accessible your marketing materials currently are.
By understanding and addressing the needs of people with disabilities, through a holistic marketing approach, companies can access an untapped and vast market audience.
If executed correctly, and accompanied by the development of a more genuinely disability-aware culture, this can also initiate a real change throughout the whole business.
2 Comments. Leave new
What a dim photo accompanying this article. As if a violent gay woman with one arm is a relevant nod to inclusivity for disabled people in work.
Thanks for your comment Simon. It’s helpful, as remarks like this show exactly why we still have plenty of work to do in creating an inclusive society.