Is your brand accessible?
In this week’s episode we unpack what it means to be an accessible brand and why it’s so important for customers and for business.
Good morning my name is Kiri I’m the Business Growth Strategist at Tiny Hunter. We spent the day last week at Semi Permanent immersing ourselves in creativity and being inspired by people doing cool stuff in the world. But one speaker really stood out to me and to be honest, I just haven’t stopped thinking about her and everything she spoke about since. Her name is Sinéad Burke and if you haven’t heard of her or seen her speak I recommend going and looking her up. She is brilliant. She is a disability advocate and is working with global brands advising them on how to be more accessible.
One really interesting stat I learned from her is that 15% of the world’s population is living with a disability. That is more than one billion people. And for brands, that is a lot of potential customers. Now we know accessibility has a hugely positive impact on people but it can also have a significant impact on businesses. A brand is more likely to be successful when more people can access it.
So what does accessibility mean? It really just means that anybody can access and enjoy your brand. They can have the same amount of information the same experience regardless of their circumstances. It’s about finding those barriers to entry and breaking them down. Take websites for example, they are a huge touch point for brands and so many of them are not accessible.
A great example of a brand who turned this around was ASOS. They did a body of research with their customers and discovered that 20% of their website was inaccessible for millions of potential customers. They took the steps needed to not only ensure their website was completely accessible but they introduced earring models with cochlear implants in you know, in order to broaden their representation. And this was received so well by their customers. The thing is accessible design is just good design. It works for everyone. Who doesn’t want to experience a website where the content is clear and straightforward and smooth. Accessible design can be complex and we need to be working with people with disabilities rather than for them. But the biggest takeout that I got from Sinéad’s talk was that the goal is progress and not perfection. Brands don’t have to be perfect. In fact, perfection doesn’t exist but the more we can see brands factor in accessibility as part of the strategy, rather than just an afterthought that’s progress. Design is a huge privilege but it comes with a lot of responsibility and it’s up to brands to take that responsibility seriously.
That’s it from me, it’s time for brekkie.
Written by: Kiri White
Published: June 7, 2023