Often times when thinking of a disabled population, we think of a small group of outliers, however when it comes to marketing materials for public viewing, a surprising number of people are at least “situationally disabled”. We don’t think of people that wear glasses normally as disabled, but when looking at low contrast colors or small fonts, visually impaired people are effectively disabled in the context of ability to successfully read materials without special considerations. Readjusting the definition for this context, it becomes clear that a significant percentage of the population likely will struggle in one way or another to see, and therefore absorb marketing messages.
Clearly, this number of “situationally disabled” people increases greatly when the context is widened from those that are vision impaired to those with cognitive, hearing, or dexterity considerations, making a strong argument for advertisers to include the needs of these numerous individuals in the conception and design processes. Most of these adjustments or considerations for disabled or impaired individuals are helpful to the average viewer as well, and follow good design principles that should be standard practice in general. Advertisers cannot afford to put out materials excluding these individuals as they collectively make up a truly significant portion of the population.
The below information displays the extent of this point and breaks down a few considerations that should be taken into account for an array of audiences that are often not accounted for when marketing materials are created.
Vision
Percentage of people in the US that wear glasses, contacts, or use some kind of visual aid is 61%. Disregard for the needs of visually impaired individuals results in less efficient conversion rates as over half of the population will struggle to view materials or not be able to digest them at all.
With a surprising lack of regard in general for this sizeable population, those that go a step further to include visually impaired individuals in their target audience stand out from the crowd – a consideration that usually is met with gratitude from a viewer that often times feels left out.
Cognitive Impairment
ADHD is often thought of as a children’s issue, however about 5% of adults have ADHD. There are several special considerations when interacting with an individual with ADHD, and because marketing materials are tools for communicating to the public, one must extend those considerations into design and layout choices to avoid excluding this population. Large blocks of text, overly busy designs or layouts, or excessive navigation options are all sensory overloads to this audience – the usual result being that the individual ignores the material or incorrectly absorbs the information. Additionally, it is interesting to note that these same poor design and layout practices heavily impact traditional audiences negatively. Many describe looking at information displayed in this manner as an experience that makes one feel like they have ADHD when they do not.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Although an exact population count of people with Autism currently does not exist, it is estimated that about 1.5 million people in the U.S. have an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Making sure at least some element of messaging is factual or stated plainly is important to a population that struggles to read between the lines. Logical information hierarchy and consistency is extra important for an audience with Autism as well as color choice, layout, and naming conventions for buttons and calls to action. Many flashy and trendy mouse over effects, animations, or sudden autoplay functions can be overwhelming and repel those with Autism and should be avoided to include this audience in marketing materials.
Dyslexia
Ten percent (10%) of the population are dyslexic; 4% severely so. There are a variety of design issues that can contribute negatively such as inconsistent layouts, copy that forces the reader to remember information from other sections, difficult to read fonts, excessive information in a single space, or information that has not been broken up into smaller bits via headings, bulleted lists etc.
Hearing
Across all age groups, in the United States, approximately 1,000,000 people (0.38% of the population, or 3.8 per 1,000) over 5 years of age are “functionally deaf;” more than half are over 65 years of age. Being compatible with this audience means including necessary tools such as closed captions and alternatives to phone communication as well as providing options to work with interpreters when needed.
Dexterity Issues
Tremors: The importance of considering dexterity issues when creating buttons on websites or precise actions in order for users to navigate is paramount when looking at just a few of the causes of dexterity disfunction and the surprising number of people that struggle with some form of tremor. These people, that in every other manner remain potential customers, have special considerations in layout and compatibility with special user tools that advertisers should take into account if they would like to target this sizeable audience. It is estimated that 400,000 people with MS, 1.7 million with Traumatic Brain Injury, and 50 million with neurological disorders or stroke will all struggle with dexterity issues. This does not include the myriad of other causes of limited dexterity such as side effects from certain medicines, withdrawal symptoms, or anxiety. These individuals do not come from one cross section of the population and lack of consideration for limited dexterity will detract from the potential of advertising to audiences across the board.