For that potential to be realised, advertising must be inclusive - and that means that everyone must be included. We face a challenge: to create a truly accessible advertising ecosystem, which is inclusive by putting equality of access at its heart. This is a social and moral imperative, central to growth and trust. We have produced this guidance in association with our partners Responsible Marketing Advisory, Flock Associates and members of the Ad Accessibility Alliance to share learnings, ideas and initiatives from other brands that have already started their accessibility journey.
Accessible marketing is the use of inclusive design practices which make it possible for people with disabilities to fully experience a brand, receive and understand communication from it and take advantage of opportunities to engage with the brand, its services or its products.
Accessible advertising addresses each campaigns' ability to be experienced by people with disabilities. This may involve accommodating various access needs:
In simple terms, this means making content available to as wide a group as possible by integrating their needs and requirements to a campaign.
Audio Description: Having a descriptive track narration to complement the advert
Dialogue: Using more descriptive dialogue, so the narrative and key elements can be understood without the use of visuals
Alt Text: Providing written copy to accompany images, to be read aloud by a screen reader
Subtitles: Providing subtitles (also known as captions), so ads and content can be understood without the use of audio
Signing: Using signers or sign interpreters in ads or as an overlaid visual
Contrast: Ensuring the colours used meet a high enough contrast ratio to allow text to be easily read
Readability: Having appropriate clarity of language when text is displayed
Fonts: Using dyslexia-friendly fonts
Images: Avoiding flashing and fast-moving images
Design: Simplifying design and navigation
Interactivity: Having interactive elements that are easily clickable or tappable
Navigation: Enabling the use of keyboard navigation on websites
This guide focuses on the importance of integrating accessibility throughout your campaign development process and how you can do so starting today, using subtitles and audio description. We highlight some key, practical actions you can take to advertising more accessible for people who experience a form of auditory or visual disability using Flock Associates's Accountability, Collaboration & Trading (ACT) framework.
Other important topics and audiences to be considered include cognitive and motor accessibility, but we won't be covering this in the guide yet. Furthermore, this guide does not yet cover digital accessibility (such as for websites), nor does it cover the end-to-end customer experience.
As we can continue to build and improve upon the content on this site, not all of its content will match our ambition for its accessibility. However, we are continually working to improve this. If you encourage any difficulty accessing any content on this site, we encourage you to contact us.
Photo by Cliff Booth for Pexels
We are collaborators (not experts) and have leveraged the opinions, voices and experiences of others to share learnings, inform, inspire and signpost to helpful resources and tools to start a conversation and action with advertisers and agencies.
Throughout we have used terminology recommended by the United Nations; however, we recognise preferred language differs from region to region, and we suggest exploring your region’s nuances when choosing the language you use in your organisation. Where material from a particular source has been quoted, we have kept their wording verbatim.