In this session, we will explore how accessibility can serve as a gateway to creativity and lead to better, more impactful creative work.

1. 1
Accessibility as Creativity
Dr. Josh Loebner, Global Head of Inclusive
Design and Lead of the Inclusive
Experience Practice

2. Becoming a Creative A11y
accessibility
a11y

3. Listen to an A11y
I weighed 1 kilogram when I was born.
Doctors told my parents I won’t survive.
My mom was my first a11y.

4. Nice to Meet You: Disability & Me
JOSH LOEBNER
GLOBAL HEAD OF INCLUSIVE DESIGN
LEAD, INCLUSIVE EXPERIENCE PRACTICE

6. Accessibility as Humanity

7. This is a journey of hope, love and
belonging.

8. A11y Rising
Worldwide search interest for accessibility has grown exponentially,
with the trend line showing a more than 100% increase.

9. 1B
of the world’s population
identifies as being
disabled
$13T
the annual disposable spend
of people with disabilities
globally and their families
#1
fastest growing
marginalized
community
DISABILITY AUDIENCE SIZING AND IMPACT
3.3B
people are either disabled or
are close family or friends
with someone who is

10. Accessibility as Humanity Means
Accessibility Across all Touchpoints
Advertising Consumers
Advertising
Consumption
Creative
Brief
Production Campaign
Creation
Creative
Team
Advertising Education
University
Programs
Syllabi &
Courses
Software
Skills
Students &
Faculty
Disability Inclusion
Advertising Creation
This has the power
to be framed within
any university
course or industry,
not just advertising.

11. Inclusive Design Training and Hiring

12. A11y Starts With People
• Enhance advertising programs at universities with
more disability education
• Recruit, retain and promote employees with
disabilities
• Create inclusive design and accessibility leads and
departments
• Optimize accessibility in work environments
• Train non-disabled staff to be advocates and allies
• Co-create with disability communities
• Invite disabled leaders to be on award juries
• Enhance advertising conferences and events to be
more inclusive

13. Accessibility Compliance vs
Accessibility Creativity

14. I Hate Most Website
Accessibility Pages
Accessibility, while important, is only one
component of welcoming disabled
consumers. Accessibility builds a solid
foundational framework.
Inclusion adds layers of representation and
recognition that individuals and groups within
disability communities.
I like this one!

15. COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE
FROM
INCLUSIVITY
COMPLETENESS OF INCLUSIVE EXPERIENCE
L0. CONSIDERATION
Non-accessible experiences and communications are legal
and reputation risks; inclusive experiences created by
happenstance
L1. COMPLIANCE
The bare minimum is done to ensure legal
compliance with accessibility guidelines across
experience and communications
L2. FUNCTIONALITY
Inclusive experiences and communications
deliver better overall functionality and
performance for all users
L3. INNOVATION
Inclusivity is foundational input to
product, service, and
communications development,
creating opportunities that
wouldn’t be possible without it
A11y Maturity Curve
Move beyond altruism and generosity to KPI and ROI
through an inclusion maturity curve and other metrics.

16. Accessibility & inclusive
design are going mainstream
across brands

17. Mass inclusive
Mass Inclusive Design
Seventy-two percent of global respondents
to a WT survey believe that we don’t need
to fix disabilities; we need to fix the world
for disabled people.
Accessible products and services are
hitting the mainstream as brands target
mass distribution.

18. A11y Organizations
Disability organizations are raising
awareness and actions among businesses
and brands on a global scale.

19. Creative A11y
• Progress over perfection, starting
somewhere is better than waiting until
everything is perfect
• Accessible creative should be scalable
• Accessible creative can be end-to-end,
omnichannel online and offline accessibility
that is layered and nuanced
• Accessibility shouldn’t just be the remit of
technical teams or quality assurance
managers, but creative directors and others
should be allies
• Move beyond accessibility as compliance to
accessibility as creativity
• Advocate for creative awards to recognize
accessibility

20. Elevate Don’t Relegate
Move accessibility and inclusion beyond diversity briefs to
achieve scalable and powerful results.

21. Celebrate
Disabled IDEAS

22. Radical visibility • Highly intersectional • All inclusive
Ethnic Backgrounds
Geographic Location
Gender
Age
Ability / Disability
Language(s) / Dialects
Religious Backgrounds
Race
Social Class
Sexual Orientation
Education
Current Location
What inclusivity means for us

23. Inclusive
I D E A S
Diverse Equitable Accessible Sustainable
Disabled IDEAS are good ideas.

24. Build Ecosystems of Accessibility

25. Everybody does
these…
…there are few
who go beyond
INCLUSION MATURITY
It’s not only about accessible web
ACCESSIBILITY REPRESENTATION LANGUAGE PORTRAYALS
DISPLAY
SOCIAL
WEB
APPS
ECOMMERCE
MEDIA
PRINT
OOH
IN-STORE
INTERNAL COMMS

26. Accessing a Full
Marketing Funnel
DIGITAL
AWARENESS
CONSIDERATION
CONVERSION
ADVOCACY
LOYALTY
WEB
SOCIAL CONTENT
DIGITAL MEDIA
SOCIAL
PR
BRANDED CONTENT (VIDEO)
ORGANIC SOCIAL
PAID SEARCH
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
RETARGETING
EMAIL + AUTOMATION
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Accessibility and disability inclusion isn’t
simply about training for an individual
content asset.
Recognize that each piece of content or
creative asset is connected to others
and has the potential to guide or derail
disabled (and non-disabled) consumers–
along the customer journey, in a
marketing funnel and throughout
omnichannel communications.

27. Disabled IDEAS can Guide
Momentum in the Creative Process
MarComm Consumers
MarComm Consumption
Creative
Brief
Production
Campaign
Creation
Creative
Team
MarComm Creation
I
D
E
A
S
I
D
E
A
S
I
D
E
A
S
I
D
E
A
S

28. 28
Thank you!
Q&A