why don't brands care about disabled people?
Dear Black Sheep
10/12/2020
Disabled people are the largest minority group in the world - and yet most brands completely ignore them. We spoke to disability activists Claudia Walder and Tom Shakespeare to find out how marketers can take disability off mute.
Disabled people are being overlooked in the push for diversity and inclusion. 22% of the UK have a disability, and yet only 2% of ads feature disabled people (Channel 4 study, 2018). Just last month, the FA released their new diversity code - and forgot to include any mention of disabled people.
If we want to build an industry full of the best talent making the best work, we need to better understand the 13m Brits living with disability. So this year, ahead of the UN’s International Day for People with Disabilities, we spoke to disability activists Tom Shakespeare and Claudia Walder to find out how marketers can help put disability on the agenda.
Claudia Walder is a fashion stylist and founder of Able, a magazine that looks to build a community for those affected by disability, as well as tackling the stigmas and misconceptions around the issue head on. She was featured on the cover of Vogue’s September 2020 issue and was listed as a Dazed 100 name.
Tom Shakespeare is a sociologist, broadcaster and one of Britain’s leading experts on the politics of disability. His books include Disability: Rights and Wrongs and Sexual Politics of Disability: Untold Desires. He was recently one of the authors behind a disability-inclusive COVID-19 response paper analysing the government’s treatment of disability during the pandemic.
Dear Black Sheep is an independent group within BBH that was set up to burst adland’s bubbles.
Six things marketers can do to take disability off mute
1. Understand that many disabled people don’t see themselves as ‘disabled’
Although 15% of the world’s population has some kind of disability, just a fraction of those people actually identify as such. Tom commented, “It’s a very stigmatising term. It’s also about how salient it is to someone’s life. Being black might be more important to someone than being disabled, particularly if it’s a hidden disability.”
Despite the fact that 13m people in the UK are classified as disabled, 43% of British adults say they don't personally know any disabled people (Scope). Perhaps that’s because disability comes in so many different shapes and sizes - whether visible or invisible. Maybe it's because our perceptions of what disability is are so narrow. Tom explained: “People either pity us, are afraid of us or put us on a pedestal”.
Trying to understand how a disabled person chooses to identify first and foremost is important - you shouldn’t be afraid of asking. But you should be thinking about disabled people as ordinary – they do whatever everyone else does.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask about language
A major reason that disability is “on mute” is that people are scared of causing offence by using the wrong terms.
There has been a movement to reclaim the word ‘disabled’, and ‘disabled people’ is preferred in the UK. However, this differs from country to country: you’ll notice the UN-sanctioned day is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Claudia also discussed the complexities around what terminology to use to describe different types of disabilities. “The term able-bodied doesn’t cover the whole spectrum, because not all disabilities are physical.”
Language is complex, but the solution is easy: ask people how they like to refer to themselves and their disability. This might seem a little awkward, but it is far more awkward (and damaging) to shy away from the topic completely for fear of causing offence.
3. Educate yourself on the impact Covid-19 has had on disabled people
Back in March, did you hear anyone say: “Don’t worry about the virus, apparently it only affects people with underlying health conditions”? People with underlying health conditions heard that as well.
Covid-19 took a huge toll on the disabled community: 65% of British disabled adults believe that disabled rights have been eroded by Covid-19.
Tom argued that disabled people were simply forgotten about.
Until recently, none of the national government announcements had a sign language translator (despite the fact there are over 151k BSL users in the UK).
What about masks? For many of the estimated nine million people in the UK who are deaf or hard of hearing – equivalent to one in seven people – lip-reading is a vital communication skill. But not being able to see people’s mouths made this impossible.
Tom raised the point that the logistics of social distancing were out of the question for most visually impaired people and support animals that work with them (dogs don’t know about social distancing).
And as for the constantly changing regulations, if you felt baffled, imagine what kind of confusion and anxiety this would have led to for people with intellectual disabilities.
Whilst Covid-19 hasn’t actually been the ‘great equaliser’ it was sold as, it has exposed vast inequality. We need to add the perspectives of disabled people to any Covid-19 messaging or restrictions in our places of work.
4. Bring it up at work
We can all take concrete actions to be more inclusive of people with disabilities, on an individual as well as a corporate level. WFH has been a welcome ‘quick fix’ for some people with disabilities but the arrival of a vaccine means that this may not be a national reality for much longer. So, how can we make things more accessible once we return to the office?
Ask job applicants and colleagues what 'reasonable accommodation' (if ny) they need to flourish
Be aware of access – this includes not leaving bicycles, scooters, or cars across the pavement
Remember disabled people have different ways to communicate – including sign language, through screen readers, and from a distance. Ask yourself: how would a blind person find out about, and apply to, your job opening?
When a company is working with disabled people, do your research to avoid common errors, and make an effort to create a smooth process for the disabled person – “the idea of access needs is something people aren’t yet aware of”.
Embrace some ‘blue sky thinking’. The practical everyday stuff is a great place to start but, if we know that ‘disability exclusion’ is costing OECD countries 7% of their GDP then we need to think about reshaping business strategies in the long term to accommodate this
5. Get real about accessibility
Surviving lockdown in our isolated bubbles made it clear that our approach to accessibility is actually pretty restrictive.
Pre-2020 venues often made the argument that making their premises more accessible was not worth the investment. Now that we’ve seen the possibilities of holding virtual events with limited costs, there’s no excuse.
So, moving forward, can we put more consideration into how we tailor events and experiences for people who may need to access them in different ways. If we can’t live-stream everything, can we replicate experiences online in a way that minimises feeling excluded?
Beyond events and leisure, we also need to address how people with disabilities access necessities. Everyone should be able to visit a GP surgery with ease and no one should be stressed about stocking up on household essentials. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go when it comes to universal accessibility.
6. Broaden your perceptions: disabled people aren’t all Stephen Hawking, Paralympians or white men
When you Google “famous people”, 64% of the top 100 images are of actors, 20% singers. When you Google “famous disabled people”, 51% of the images are of sports stars, mainly Paralympians. The second biggest group with 19% of all images was Stephen Hawking.
As Claudia put it, our society is most comfortable with “disabled people who have overcome their limitations [such as] disabled people who achieve athletic feats of endurance, or people with autism who are seen as having a ‘superpower’. There isn’t much complexity given to disabled people - disability is the thing they are defined by, rather than other elements of their personality.”
This simplistic view of disability is even more damaging for marginalised groups. Returning to the Google Image search, the bulk of the results for “famous disabled people'' were of white men. Claudia remarked that “a lot of people don’t feel comfortable disclosing their disabled identity because they’re already facing barriers with their race or gender identity or sexuality. Society feels you can only be trans, you can’t be trans and disabled.”
How can we ensure that our approach to disabled inclusion isn’t exclusive? We need to engage with the community to uncover less celebrated voices and use our platform as marketers to champion these differing perspectives and experiences.
----
The full video of our conversation with the brilliant Tom and Claudia can be found here. We hope you find it as enlightening as we did.