Helpful Tips to Reach Customers With Disabilities
Statistics show that the number of people who live with some form of disability exceeds one billion–that’s about 15% of the global population. With the number of disabled people growing, the disability market could become a significant revenue source for businesses.
If you want your business to reach customers with disabilities, here are some marketing strategies to implement.
Include Disabled Individuals in Your Workforce
Hiring people with disabilities helps create a better image for your company because it makes your audience aware that you support inclusivity and equal employment opportunities. If customers with disabilities see that your company employs disabled people, they could also feel more comfortable doing business with you.
If you include disabled individuals in your marketing team, you can work together to design a marketing plan that can effectively respond to the needs of the disability market. People with disabilities can also help define buyer personas and share valuable insights on what marketing strategies would be the most engaging.
Feature People With Disabilities in Your Advertisements and Other Marketing Paraphernalia
Feature disabled individuals in your advertisements instead of casting actors or models to act as people with disabilities. Doing this enables your advertising campaigns to deliver a powerful message and a more authentic representation of the disability community.
Form Partnerships With Influencers With Disabilities
The number of disabled influencers is continuously rising, and with their highly engaged audience, they can help your brand reach a niche market. Consider working with disabled influencers, so they can help you promote your products or services on their social media. As brand ambassadors, not only can disabled influencers help boost brand awareness but they also show your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Make Your Website Accessible
A website is accessible if people with disabilities can smoothly navigate the web pages and browse the content. Below are some strategies that can help increase website accessibility.
- Add alt text to images, charts, or infographics to enable screen readers to read and describe the image on the page to a person with visual impairment.
- Instead of using “click here” to lead to a link, use text that describes the page that the link leads to. For example, you’re offering different subscription plans for a product or service. If the link leads to your website’s subscription page, write/say: “To learn more about the subscription plans we offer, read 'subscription.’”
- Provide web users with the option to enlarge the size of the fonts while keeping the page layout intact. Also, avoid using thin and hard-to-read fonts.
- Use color contrast with care to make the content of your website readable.
- Ensure that elements of your website, like forms, anchor texts, and drop-down menus are accessible using a keyboard.
You can use online tools or hire a third party to check if your website is accessible. Testing website accessibility is recommended so that you can identify what components to fix or adjust.
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