Inclusive Design, Website Accessibility

Inclusive Design and Website Accessibility

Writing for Adweek is a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and insights on inclusive design, advertising and disability to a larger audience. Below is the article “Agencies Need to Implement Accessibility Measures When Designing Websites” in its entirety. Is your website accessible?

Virtually every brand has a website, but many fall short when it comes to disability inclusion and accessibility.

While a handful of agencies and advertisers are leading the charge for online accessibility, there’s still confusion, misunderstanding and sometimes ambivalence that could easily shift with disability insights and best practices for developers, content creators and clients when building or updating websites.

The web was designed to give everyone access to information, but not everyone who goes online has the same abilities. To make a more user-friendly internet for everyone, including people with disabilities, Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance and web content accessibility guidelines, or the WCAG 2.1, have been developed.

Currently federal, state and local governments, public universities, schools, hospitals, airports and airlines are mandated to have accessible websites. Even if your clients aren’t on this list, having an accessible website still makes sense.

Adding a level of complexity are the thousands of ADA compliance lawsuits filed against everyone from mom and pop businesses to Fortune 500 companies if their websites aren’t accessible. Some brands have made compliance updates, while others fight to keep their websites segregated.

For example, Domino’s petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling mandating ADA compliance updates to their website and app. None of the 2020 presidential websites are ADA compliant, and many Cannes Lion winners—even some with campaigns focusing on disability—don’t have accessible websites.Simple and proactive website accessibility fixes will pivot brands from appearing in court to appealing to new users.

Furthermore, far too many tourism websites dedicate content to pet-friendly lodging, attractions and restaurants. While I’m a dog lover, I also know that people with disabilities and their families and friends want info about accessible tourism.

Some brands, though, are ahead of the online accessibility curve, such as grocery chain Albertsons. Grocery Store News reported on the brand’s improved websites and apps, which allow blind and visually impaired people to more easily interact online.

Simple and proactive website accessibility fixes will pivot brands from appearing in court to appealing to new users. To get started, here’s a 10-point introductory list that will allow a website to be more perceivable, operable, understandable and robust for all users.

Color contrast

Adjust color contrast for content clarity for people with visual impairments such as color blindness and/or low vision.

Fonts

Create live text for ease of scaling text size and font style for readability for people with dyslexia and other neurodiversity or visual impairments.

Responsive design

Ensure sizing and functionality across desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices.

Photography

Allow for representation of disability inclusivity in photos and provide legibility, proper alt tag descriptions and descriptions of in-photo text on the website.

Video

Provide audio descriptions and closed-captioning and allow for representation of disability and transcripts.

Hyperlinks

Allow links to provide enough of a description for those using an assistive screen reader so they understand where the link goes.

Buttons

Use buttons and clickable elements with color, style, text descriptions and hover states that can allow for ease of clickability when using a mouse or keyboard.

Menu

Provide logical UX best practices that can easily guide people to disability information.

Terminology

Ensure content uses disability-friendly words and phrasing.

Technical development

Use code for HTML tags, header hierarchy, title tagging and alt text and other coding best practices.

If an advertiser or brand has a physical location that meets accessibility requirements, such as ramps, braille signage, grab bars in bathrooms or other amenities, it makes sense that their website be accessible, too. And for purely digital brands, website accessibility means the chance for more users to engage and convert.

So, what’s the next step? A Google search for website accessibility will bring up dozens of options for downloadable software, automated monitoring and AI-driven compliance tools to audit websites, but I believe compliance software is only one part of the solution. Educating creative teams on accessibility and inclusion, welcoming customers with disabilities into the website development process and considering agency talent recruitment of people with disabilities as developers, content creators and other positions will ensure voices are heard throughout the process.

Lastly, don’t have your creative teams and clients check off the website accessibility compliance boxes. Instead, recognize the value, loyalty and passion that people with disabilities will bring when agencies and advertisers establish a creative commitment across the digital landscape and beyond.

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Fast Food

Advertising and Disability Representation for Burger King Brazil

Burger King’s tagline Be Your Way has a meaning that goes well beyond the food combinations and customizations available, to how the home of the Whopper welcomes diversity and inclusion. Now Burger King’s newest TV commercial for the Brazilian-market features some of that country’s disability firsts.  

For the first time on Brazilian TV, an audio description was incorporated into a commercial in a  primary broadcast. Spoken in Portugese, the audio description opens with “At Burger King, Eduardo, a blind Caucasian male, wears a cardboard crown.” An audio description is a voice over that describes what is seen in the video to help blind and visually impared viewers gain a better understanding of what is on screen. Typically this is accessed via Secondary Audio Programming, or SAP, but Burger King incorporated the audio description as a creative component, further differentiating the ad. 

Eduardo’s casual camaraderie takes center stage in the commercial as he excitedly describes the flame-grilled flavors, feel of the buns and he throws in a casual expletive tied to the great taste. 

In an Adweek article, marketing and sales director for Burger King Brazil, Ariel Grunkraut, shared that “we constantly strive to make everyone feel that they belong, feel they are free to be who they are, with respect for individualities.” Ad agency David SP, based in Sao Paulo spearheaded the campaign. 

This Burger King ad portrays a person with a disability in a positive light, and it moves the needle forward for representation of people with disabilities in advertising. But, there are some potentially negative considerations to bring up. First, Eduardo, is featured by himself in the ad, and while that puts disability front and center, some might suggest based on disability studies and mass communication theory that this continues an already estranged othering and segregation of people with disabilities. Second, because Eduardo is by himself and the camera and script intently follow him eating, some may see this portrayal as inspiration porn, or objectifying the disability. To offset these points, the creative team could have considered a group of people in the commercial with Eduardo leading the conversation among diners around the table. Third, since there is no indication that this ad is part of a larger campaign featuring people with disabilities the ad feels a bit more like a one-off gimmick than a longstanding commitment. Fourth, and this goes beyond the ad, but Rafael Donato, David Sao Paolo’s vice president of creative who spearheaded the ad shared that “although blind, Eduardo doesn’t see his disability as a handicap. Quite the opposite.” I wish Mr. Donato had chosen a different phrase other than “doesn’t see his disability.”   

All that said, Burger King’s disability representation in this advertisement has garnered significant positive publicity, and for the most part, I’m in support with some future considerations for upcoming BK ads or for other creative teams to consider in developing positive portrayals of disability in advertising. 

Hearing Eduardo’s talk about the flavors and feel of the Whopper connected with me because I’m blind and have low vision and I rely on people describing menu options. My hope is that this commercial will lead to similar disability representation in other Burger King advertising across the globe. 

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Uncategorized

Advertising, Disability and Cannes Lions: Celebrations and Opportunities

The below Adweek article written by Minda Smiley, staff writer for Adweek covering agencies, poses questions and considerations about the many ads that featured disability in 2018 that went on to compete for a Cannes Lion, one of the premier awards in advertising. In the article I share insights regarding website accessibility, or lack thereof, of the major brand websites that correspond with the disability-centric advertising.

Perhaps the biggest discernible trend at this year’s Cannes Lions is accessibility. Take a look at the short list for this year’s Innovation award and you’ll see that nearly half (12, to be exact) of the 25 campaigns in the category address the issue in some capacity.

The nominees span the globe, each attempting to solve a problem or address a particular need for people with disabilities, a community that is large and diverse. According to the World Health Organization, more than a billion people—about 15 percent of the world’s population—have some form of disability.

One of the most notable campaigns on the list is McCann New York’s “Changing the Game” for Microsoft, which made a splash during this year’s Super Bowl. The effort features the stories of young gamers who use the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which was designed to meet the needs of people with limited mobility, to play their favorite video games.

Others are smaller efforts with no major brand name attached to them but still pack a punch. Take See Sound, a smart-home device created by Area 23, an FCB Health Network company and Wavio, a company that specializes in sound recognition. Created for those who are hard of hearing, the device uses machine learning to identify sounds around the home (such as a fire alarm) and alerts the user via a mobile app.

Some are less tech-savvy but revolutionary in an industry that often neglects this segment of the population. For instance, Tommy Hilfiger’s Adaptive clothing line, which was created by and for people with disabilities, uses closed captioning and audio descriptions in its marketing for those who are hearing and visually impaired. Created by Wunderman Thompson’s Possible, the agency’s work for the brand is up for a Titanium this year at Cannes.

Why exactly we’re seeing a spike in campaigns this year aimed squarely at the disabled community is up for debate. Josh Loebner, disability advocate and director of strategy at Knoxville agency Designsensory, thinks it’s partly because both advertisers and agencies are taking a cue from pop culture, where more and more disability narratives are cropping up.

“Major characters in TV shows, such as Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones to The New York Times’ regular series exploring disability through essays, art and opinion to Ali Stroker’s shining Tony Award moment to people with disabilities creating content across social media, podcasts, YouTube and other platforms, together elevate disability visibility and voice,” Loebner said.

Others believe that as the industry continues to grapple with issues surrounding gender inequality, sexual harassment, diversity and LGBTQ rights, it only makes sense that those living with disabilities are finally getting the attention they deserve.

“First it was women, then it kind of blended into diversity,” said Danielle Hawley, who helped lead the Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive work as chief creative officer of the Americas at Possible. “The natural trajectory was for it to get to the nth degree of inclusivity.”

Modern technology is also playing a role, as brands and agencies increasingly leverage it to solve problems disabled people have historically faced. For example, the creators of “Deaf 911,” an app for the hearing impaired that connects users with 911 operators through speech-to-text and text-to-speech technology, admit that it was only made possible thanks to recent technological innovation.

“If we needed to build it 20 years ago, it would have been cost prohibitive,” said Ellery Familia, vice president and director of digital solutions at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, the agency behind the app. “Now we can tap into technology that has matured.”

There’s also the reality that companies are finally waking up to the fact that disabled people are also consumers with extensive purchasing power. According to Rob Reilly, global creative chairman at McCann Worldgroup, Ikea Israel’s ThisAbles, a line of products that make it easier for disabled people to use the retailer’s furniture, stemmed from an employee with cerebral palsy at the agency’s Tel Aviv office who wanted to be able to buy products from mainstream stores.

“If you do something that will benefit them, they will buy your product,” Reilly said.

Despite some progress, the industry still has a long way to go when it comes to incorporating this community into the actual campaigns and the teams that work on them. While one-off innovations and tools that address the needs of a particular disability are certainly helpful, they only scratch the surface of what can be done.

“We are still somewhat at a foundational point of simply getting creative directors, digital developers and agency management to just consider including people with disabilities as part of a narrative,” Loebner said. And while some of the accessibility work seen at Cannes this week might be award winning, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s guaranteed to meet the needs of the audience it’s targeting.

“Few of the ads that are in consideration for a Cannes Lion have corresponding websites that meet Americans with Disabilities Act compliance,” Loebner said. “So, potentially someone with a disability that connects with an ad campaign may come across barriers online.”

As is the case every year, there’s also always skepticism around which campaigns were genuinely created to spur change and which ones are out for awards. Tim Hawkey, chief creative officer at Area 23, said that while products like the Xbox Adaptive Controller are “clearly projects that have taken several years of software engineering, patent application and significant investment,” others in this category ring hollow.

“My cynical side observes that the majority of these campaigns are coming out in April and May, and the world does have to be cautious of award bait,” Hawkey said. “Is disability the cause du jour?”


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advertising, Canada, disability

Canadian Tire’s Hoop Dreams

When something goes viral it seems like everyone on the internet knows about it overnight, but sometimes going viral takes a little more time. This Canadian Tire TV commercial titled Wheels first aired during the Rio Olympics back in the summer and only recently has been taking social media by storm with more than 138 million views at the time of this posting. Continue reading

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advertising, Employment, talent recruitment

Terrible, Mediocre & Not Great Describe Advertising & Disability

Terrible, mediocre and not great are words no creative director wants to hear in response to their big idea, and these are also words no CEO, HR manager or any other ad industry executive or employee should be comfortable with when people with disabilities describe an agency working environment. But that’s just what happened in recently shared findings from and industry employment survey conducted by the American Association of Advertising Agencies. For employees with disabilities 17 percent of those surveyed agree the industry is terrible at providing equal opportunities to people with disabilities (compared to white males), and 29 percent felt it’s not great and 28 percent said it’s mediocre.

Continue reading

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Commercial, Down Syndrome, Industry Awards

How Could The Ad of the Year Be Such a Loser?

The luster of Paralympics gold is waning in the minds of advertisers and agencies (not that it shined brightly among marketers in the first place), but advertising and disability continues to win big…sort of. This year, at the 10th Annual ADCOLOR Awards, which is the advertising industry’s premier event recognizing work that promotes diversity and multiculturalism, the Ad Of The Year went to “How Do You See Me.” Produced by ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the ad was for CoorDown, Italy’s national organization for people with Down syndrome, but the well-intentioned ad has actually generated heated conversations and negative commentary among many vocal advocates in the disability community. Continue reading

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Australia

Ads In Australia Can Be Inclusive For More Than A Day

Two advertising campaigns show, for better and worse the opportunities and pitfalls of diversity and disability inclusion.

What was touted as one of the of the most diversity-friendly commercials to date, to promote enjoying lamb on Australia Day, was in fact one of the worst examples of progressive inclusion in media. Continue reading

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Changing The Face of Beauty

Disability: From Ugly To Beautiful

What if you were fined for just being out and about and walking down the sidewalk…because you were considered ugly? I’m not talking about the Fashion Police that could jokingly fine you if  you’re caught wearing a combination of plaid and paisley. From the late 1800’s to the mid 1970’s, several larger cities across America had so-called Ugly Laws, that would fine people, most often those with disabilities, up to $50 for just being out in public. These laws not only tried to enforce people from being outside and in public places , but also created a stigma among family members, caretakers and the people with disabilities themselves, that they were lesser than, not deserving of, or in any way part of normal society. Continue reading

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advertising, Amputee Advertising, disability

How amputees became the disabled darlings of Madison Avenue

Recently Campaign Live, an advertising industry media outlet, published several articles tied to increasing visibility of advertising and disability. Journalist I-Hsien Sherwood wrote groundbreaking editorial tied to advertising and disability. Prior to this article, whenever advertising and disability was covered by major industry media outlets like Adweek or AdAge, typically the focus of the story centered around one ad and the person or persons with a disability featured therein. Sherwood takes a more global perspective and posits the reasons for the rise in amputees being featured in advertising. In the article I was able to share commentary on the current state of disability in advertising. Continue reading

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