“To the left, to the left”: Why disability inclusion and accessibility must be embedded into your marketing strategy at the outset

Last week I attended the inaugural TechShare Pro Disability and Accessible Advertising Summit at HSBC’s headquarters in London. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet up with people in real life (when so much happens online these days!) to hear how brands are making strides when it comes to increasing disability representation in their ads and marketing campaigns and addressing accessibility issues. And it was great to be able to discuss the value of disability inclusion-focused market research too!

The event got me thinking about my three “must do” considerations for marketers to be able to untap the value that building a truly inclusive and accessible brand brings . . .(and brought one of Beyonce's classics to mind!)

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Disability representation matters

Whilst a lot of brands and agencies understand the importance of inclusion and diversity and are making a conscious choice to ensure that members of minority ethnic groups and the LGBTQ+ community are represented and/or engaged as influencers in their ads and campaigns, a noticeable lack of disabled actors/voices/influencers remains. This is despite the fact that 17 per cent of the world’s population is disabled, that disability is the UK’s largest minority group, and that it’s a community that anyone can join at any time. ?When brands exclude disabled people, they’re not being inclusive – simple as that!

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Authenticity is critical

However, the token inclusion of a disabled actor in an ad campaign (perhaps so that a diversity box can be ticked!) is not OK. Marketers need to understand disability inclusion on a deeper level. The mantra “nothing without us” should be part of every CMO, brand manager, insight lead, copywriter and creative’s manifesto. It means engaging disabled people – whether they’re colleagues, customers, people who aren’t yet customers – at the outset, before the brief is written. This is where inclusive market research and insight gathering comes in. Tapping into a pool of disabled people throughout the creative process, from providing input into the brief, to reviewing the agency responses, from critiquing the creative/design, scripts and social content before a campaign goes live, to providing feedback once it’s launched . . .authentic disability representation is not just about having disabled talent in the final ad.

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Accessibility is paramount

During the Summit we heard from brands and agencies about successful ad campaigns with authentic disability representation, including the Cadbury’s Fingers ad from 2022, which was made in partnership with the National Deaf Children’s Society, and Primark’s adaptive underwear campaign, for which Dr Shani Dhanda , broadcaster and disability influencer, was a consultant. But without accessibility baked in from the outset, any potential brand gains will be lost. Why? Because representation without accessibility is like eating butter without the toast - something's missing. For example, if a compelling TV ad has no audio description, people with sight loss won’t have a clue what’s going on! It won't be an inclusive ad, even if it includes disabled people on screen. Speaking on a panel, Robin Christopherson MBE , head of digital inclusion at AbilityNet, the pioneering charity which ran the Summit, advised marketers to “make the dialogue carry the action” – something which can easily be achieved if marketers and agencies consider accessibility up front when they’re scripting ads. Indeed, this “shift left” approach (as it was described by a panellist) can be used when designing any customer or colleague touch point. To be truly inclusive, marketing and communications must be accessible. And that accessibility needs to be the first thought not an afterthought.

With the spending power of disabled people and their families a whopping ￡274 billion per year, it’s a lot of cash to be left on the table if your ads, your social media content, your website, your stores, your online purchasing journeys, aren’t accessible. To succeed, you need to embed inclusion and accessibility into your marketing strategy, not treat them as bolt ons. So what are you waiting for?

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If you’d like to chat about how to make your marketing and ad campaigns inclusive and accessible by design, please get in touch.

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