What if I told you that the biggest untapped market for brands is not China, India, or Tier 2 cities – it’s a market worth $18.3 trillion, with 1.6 billion consumers globally. Any guesses which market this is?
If you guessed the disability market, you’re right! APAC is estimated to have 750 million people with disabilities, which is set to grow in the next decades – one fourth of the APAC population will be over 60, per UN estimates.
Many people picture disability only as something visible, such as wheelchair use or low vision. Yet disability spans a much wider spectrum, including people with arthritis, older adults with declining sight or hearing, and those with temporary mobility limitations after an injury.
Treating disability solely as a CSR or DEI issue is a strategic mistake for businesses. Designing brands with people with disabilities in mind creates a positive spillover effect, benefiting not only this group but everyday consumers as well—this article explains how.
What brands can do
There are three key ways for brands to tap into this market:
Product Design
Designing products that people with disabilities can use benefits everyone.
- Microsoft has designed a range of Adaptive Accessories that enable people with disabilities to interact with their devices – and this enables a wider range of senior citizens and those with arthritis to use devices too.
- P&G developed an Easy Open lid for Olay that can be opened by those with motor disabilities – simultaneously tapping into the ageing market segment.
Brand Experiences
Delighting consumers with a range of brand experiences. Tech companies have been at the forefront of this from day one, placing intuitive design at the heart of their products.
- Apple has pioneered this field, pushing the boundaries of accessibility with vision, hearing, and tactile accessibility features built into all devices. We have seen this be used by the wider population – for example, AssistiveTouch is used by many as an interface shortcut.
- A range of voice command technology (used by Siri and Alexa) were originally developed for the blind but are used by daily commuters to interact with devices while driving.
- Captions in movies were originally mandated by accessibility regulations for the deaf but have become mainstream – about 80% of Netflix users use subtitles.
Representation
Evidence has demonstrated that representation of minorities benefits brands – increasing spends, and building brand love across a base beyond the minority represented.
Again, Apple has led the path with disability representation emojis.
How should brands do this?
Some of the most powerful innovation ideas have emerged from designing for edge-case consumers, and brands with strong design teams have embraced this approach.
For example, Colgate and Quantum worked together to innovate pack design for the growing elderly segment. We conducted in-home ethnographies with edge case consumers – people with upper body mobility restrictions, to observe how they adapted and built workarounds for a range of products in the kitchen, bathrooms, and for personal grooming. This helped make oral care product design accessible to a wider audience base, including those with arthritis.
The pay off
Don’t be misled – brands engaging people with disabilities is not a fuzzy charity gesture. Inclusive brand design and experiences generate billions in revenue, as it fosters a culture of clean design and joyful experience for all consumers.
Rich Donovan built the Return on Disability equity index that was offered by Barclays between 2012 and 2015, which invested in companies that scored highly in designing for disabilities. The index outperformed the S&P 500 index in the same period – presumably because this approach created an organizational culture focused on customer excellence. Donovan has detailed this out in Unleash Different – an excellent book. Proof that designing for disability helps the bottom line!
