We believe disability inclusion means taking action to make change happen. Small acts done multiples of times by hundreds of companies can and will change the way we do business.
That’s why we’ve been working with our Valuable 500 members to provide more inclusive products and services for customers with disabilities.
According to The Return on Disability Report, the disability market is larger than China and growing – 1.85 billion people, with $1.9 trillion in annual disposable income. The Return on Disability Report.
Consumer insights experts also monitor and include the friends and family of disabled individuals, which adds another 3.4 billion potential consumers. Together, these groups have over $13 trillion in annual disposable income.
It’s a huge market. And yet, most businesses are not actively marketing to people with disabilities. Why?
In May, we published the findings of our annual member survey, the Valuable Truth 2022. This research found that fewer than half of companies are clear on the needs of disabled consumers.
In 2022, our challenge was to help large organisations better understand consumer needs and to actively listen to people with lived experience at every stage of the process, from development and design to marketing and distribution.
Read on to find out how Valuable 500 companies took action to better include disabled customers in 2022.
Innovating with disabled people.
The best way to ensure success when launching a product or service to the disability community is to work with disabled people from the start. Listening to the voices of people with disabilities is the only way to truly understand their needs, and how to meet them in the most effective way possible.
Google recently worked with blind and low vision users to create its innovative new ‘Guided Frame’ feature for Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.
The feature includes precise audio feedback as well as haptic feedback (vibrations) to help people snap the perfect picture without needing to see the image displayed on screen.
Google also partnered with blind content creator, YouTuber and speaker, Molly Burke, to launch the new feature in a film showcasing how it works.
Showcasing adaptive products.
Even when adaptive products are on the market, they can be hard to find and expensive to purchase. That’s why creating more spaces where people with disabilities can find adaptive and accessible products at reasonable prices is so important.
Zalando has launched its first-ever adaptive fashion range in 25 markets worldwide, consisting of more than 140 styles across its private labels.
The styles include seated clothes fit for wheelchair users, sensory-friendly styles for skin sensitivities or neuro-divergences, styles with easy closures and styles suitable for prosthetics or bandages.
To help disabled people discover, browse and shop the adaptive fashion assortment, Zalando has launched an adaptive fashion hub, dedicated adaptive collection pages and a flag for identifying adaptive styles.
What’s more, Zalando started the design process for its adaptive offering by conducting extensive qualitative and quantitative customer research to better understand the experience and needs of disabled customers.
We see a gap in the fashion market — finding fashionable adaptive clothing still represents a challenge for disabled people. By launching adaptive fashion on Zalando, we hope to contribute to solving this challenge. We want to learn from the disabled community and inspire our partners, so that together we can continue making fashion even more inclusive.
Adding disability-friendly filters.
It can also be difficult for people with disabilities to find suitable products and experiences on existing websites and apps, due to a lack of appropriate search filters. This means disabled people often have to spend significantly longer than non-disabled people looking for services that meet their needs.
Airbnb has improved its offering to customers with disabilities by launching a new ‘Adapted’ homes category on its app. The new category will showcase spaces confirmed to include accessibility features, such as step-free paths to the guest entrance, bedrooms and bathrooms. It will save time for users who would previously have had to scroll through listings individually to assess their suitability.
To build the feature, Airbnb partnered with Matterport to conduct 3D scans of all homes listed on the platform to verify features such as threshold heights and doorway widths.
As we strive to become a more inclusive platform, it is really important for us that we have listings that meet the needs of the [disability] community who have different accessibility needs.”
Creating accessible customer experiences.
Even when products and services are themselves inclusive of disabled people, parts of the wider customer journey may not be. That’s why it’s important that businesses consider all aspects of the customer experience are accessible.
This year L’Oréal launched accessible packaging to improve customer experiences with the brand. It developed a universal tool that allows consumers to hear audio product information via their smartphone by scanning a QR code on packaging.
This is a huge advance in making packaging more accessible for people with visual impairments, and replaces the common use of Braille, which is challenging to learn and limiting in terms of the information it can contain.
Now we have a universal tool that can evolve. QR code and smartphone vocalisation. Together they can provide information all consumers have a right to.
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) became the UK’s first beverage company to launch on-pack technology for visually impaired shoppers, by rolling out NaviLens QR codes across its Christmas can multipacks.
NaviLens codes on the cardboard casing help shoppers that are partially sighted and have difficulty using traditional signage the opportunity to navigate their way around a shop to find their chosen purchases. Shoppers can scan the codes on their mobile phone camera, and the product information is contextualised in the NaviLens app. They do not need to know precisely where the codes are placed, as the codes can be detected at wide angles and from distances of up to four meters even when unfocused.
It is hoped the technology will make a huge difference to as many as two million people in the UK who are currently visually impaired.
Technology such as NaviLens is a game changer and allows blind and partially sighted people to access key information on packaging independently. This pilot with Coca-Cola highlights how big brands can put accessibility at the forefront of design and packaging decisions and be a real catalyst for change.
Adding accessibility features.
Creating or updating accessibility features on existing products and services is also vital to the inclusion of disabled consumers. Accessibility features in particular allow people with disabilities to interact on digital platforms more easily.
Microsoft partnered with the disability community to build new accessibility features as part of the Windows 11 2022 update.
These accessible-by-design features include System-Wide Live Captions to automatically generate captions from any form of audio content on Windows 11, voice access that allows users to control their PCs and write text using only their voice, and Natural Voices for Narrator, which mirrors natural speech more closely.
Microsoft also announced a new Adaptive Accessories line, which lets users configure, 3D print, and customise their own mouse, keyboard inputs, and shortcuts, to create an ideal set up that works for them.
Find out more about the Windows 11 Accessibility Features.
Sharing knowledge to drive change.
In order to drive system change for consumers with disabilities, it’s imperative that businesses share learnings and best practice across sectors and markets. At the Valuable 500, we encourage our members to promote the work they are doing to end disability exclusion and make innovative technology available to others.
For International Day of Persons with Disabilities Enel announced that Universal Design, its first-ever inclusive electric car charging bay, would become open-sourced so that it is accessible to everyone.
Universal Design was developed in collaboration with ANGLAT (the national association for promoting social inclusion) to ensure access to charging facilities for all mobility requirements. The parking bays are equipped with additional space for wheelchairs, plus the charging cable is lighter, making it easier to handle for anybody in a wheelchair.
