Get started with accessible ads
Get started on your next campaign by taking these simple steps.
It's easy to improve once you get started and often the key is to get started, prioritising progress over perfection.
Photo by Masego Morulane for Getty Images
01
Include accessibility in the brief
Including accessibility in the brief helps to communicate to partners the importance of accessibility in the campaign. It will enable your teams and partners to have relevant discussions about accessibility and make plans to deliver it.
02
Engage your creative and production teams
It's essential to have conversations with your partners to make plans for delivering accessible assets. In these conversations, aim to identify additional skills needed in the team, key milestones and deliverables.
03
Bring in expert partners and people with lived experience
When you identify the additional perspectives and skills needed in the team to deliver accessible ads, engage those partners to aid you in the process.
04
Ensure the proper files are delivered to media partners
While there are many similarities between media channels, the exact tech specifications may vary. Work with your media partners to identify the specific files required and ensure they are delivered.
Start with captions
If you do nothing else, add captions.
They can be toggled on and off by the consumer, so you don't need to change your key visual; and those without captions on won't see them.
It's simple to request captions in your campaign brief and you may find your creative partners are already making them as part of their existing process.
Whether it's for TV or digital, captions are delivered in a similar way, with each having a slightly different file format. When you're running a campaign across TV and digital, it isn't difficult for your creative partners to adjust captions made for one placement to work for the other.
Adding captions is low cost, but can enable you to reach the large audience of people who are deaf or have hearing loss as well as the many people who prefer to consume content with captions.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska for Pexels
When you're already within a campaign process
It's easier and more cost efficient to include accessibility from the beginning of your campaign process, but if you want to add it in while amid the process or after the assets are finished, it's not too late.
Photo by Ellyy for Shutterstock
Audio Description
Audio description can be added later when the script has space for an additional voiceover. A partner can review your ad to determine what's feasible and produce this voiceover. It's an additional file to supply to your media partners, so you don't need to change your existing assets.
Photo by Chansom Pantip for Shutterstock
Alt Text
Alt text can be added after a post is published. On most digital platforms, you can update the copy that accompanies your published post to include this alt text labeled as '[Image Description]'. For those platforms that support alt text which is only available to screen readers, it's an additional field that can be updated later.
You won't need to change your assets or anything else already existing - this is a simple addition. You also don't need a special file format as the text will be copied and pasted into the form field on the digital platform's website.
Sign Language
Signed assets can be developed later and those will be separate files. Remember that sign languages are languages in their own right with their own grammar and syntax. They also very geographically and the local language should always be used. Your local provider of sign language services can assess how signing can be provided alongside your existing visual.
In markets like the UK, any new TV visual will need to go through the regulatory clearance process, which requires additional time and costs.
Photo by Fajrul Islam for Getty Images