The marketing and advertising industry has a significant problem when it comes to disability representation in creative output. This issue can be summarized in one word – fear. The fear of getting disability depiction wrong and facing a public backlash is so consuming that many CMOs choose to take the easy option and give disability representation a wide berth – often excluding it entirely from advertising and marketing collateral.
After all, if the same thing is happening across the industry as a whole (only 1% of prime-time TV ads feature somebody with a disability, according to a 2021 Nielsen study), then there’s nobody to single out. Responsibility is collective but also diluted.
This is a shame because, according to the 2024 Return on Disability Group report examining the spending potential of a segment that ultimately comprises 15-20% of the global population, a significant share of $18 trillion is being left on the table. This is underscored by research from the Valuable 500, which demonstrates that 54% of disabled consumers are more likely to purchase from companies that authentically represent disability.
As is often the case with fear, indecision and a lack of knowledge, good quality data can be a useful tool for negotiating this minefield by paving a path built from enhanced insights and confidence.
However, not all data is created equally, so being cognisant, purposeful and precise about the type of information and insights sought is often the cornerstone of a disability-confident marketing strategy.
Asking the tough questions
First, looking inwards can be a terrific starting point, and in recognition of this, this summer, the Valuable 500, an organization committed to enhancing disability representation across the corporate world, released its Authentic Representation Tool. ART is a highly targeted deep dive questionnaire, maturity model and scorecard for disability inclusion across both creative teams and the organization as a whole.
The tool involves 60 detailed questions on important areas such as Accessible Experiences, Accurate Representation and Authentic Narratives to help evaluate how deeply disability inclusion is embedded across an organization’s systems, practices, and people. Based on the responses, marketing professionals are provided with key recommendations and priority actions covering everything from user testing with the disability community to onboarding agency partners.
Some sample questions include, “Has your organisation set clear, measurable goals for disability representation in its marketing, content, and media?” and “Has your organisation begun putting practices in place to ensure that the stories and portrayals in your content reflect the real lived experiences of disabled people?”
Maciej Stryjek is Head of Inclusive Representation and Head of Marketing at the Valuable 500. He says that ART has been designed from the outset with marketing professionals in mind.
“If you are a chief marketing officer or a creative director of an advertising agency, you only have a limited amount of time to properly get to grips with some of the jargon and legal complexity associated with disability inclusion,” says Stryjek.
“We felt it was important to have something that can quickly show marketing professionals the basic lay of the land when it comes to their organization’s disability inclusion. There are other tools on the market but they are targeted more towards DEI teams. They sometimes use jargon and lack a practical lens on what Chief Marketing Officers and advertising agencies deal with on a day-to-day basis. We wanted to break down some of this complexity, take it out of a purely DEI bubble and explain it to those who ultimately control the marketing budget.”
Who’s showing what?
Self-reflection is useful, but at some point, brands will need to evaluate the ads they are producing objectively and, just as importantly, benchmark inclusion efforts against how their competitors are performing in the space.
Two years ago, former Google colleagues Asha Shivaji and Jason R. Klein founded SeeMe Index, an AI platform that audits the authenticity and frequency with which brands represent diverse identities in their advertising. The technology measures six core dimensions—skin tone, age, gender expression, body size, sexual orientation and disability. These objective benchmarks are then compared with industry competitors.
Klein is COO of the technology platform, which has a solid footprint in the beauty industry with brands such as L’Oreal and Estee Lauder amongst its client base. He says that benchmarking has to be granular, objective and comparative to generate genuine insight.
“Benchmarking is one of the most critical components of what we do. If you want to say something is good or not, you have to be able to put it in the context of who you’re trying to steal market share from, who else is in the market and how they’re showing it,” Klein says.
“Our motto is, measure what you treasure. So, if you say that you want to show up for any one of these underrepresented groups, that they are important to you for your brand growth, you need to benchmark against your competitors, and utilize that data.”
Moving forward, brands will increasingly need to grapple with fresh frontiers and challenges in authentic disability portrayal, such as how to appropriately reflect neurodiversity and hidden disabilities. The good news is that this is simply a natural continuation of an overall process that involves shaking off the disability fear factor and embracing those rich, original and unique narratives that often sit just below the surface.