Brands have the tools to make disability-inclusive content – it’s time to use them

With an estimated population of 1.85 billion, people with disabilities (PWD) constitute an emerging market the size of China plus the European Union. Their friends and family add another 3.4 billion potential consumers who act on their emotional connection to PWD. Together, they control over $13tn in annual disposable income (RoD Group). This is not a market that brands can ignore.

So, as a disabled person who has recently entered the advertising industry, I’m encouraged to see that some brands and agencies are making the most of new technologies to properly address diversity and inclusion. By ‘properly’ I mean that representation isn’t reduced to an act of tokenism, patronization or exploitation, but instead illuminates real challenges with real stories – and elevates them to the public spaces where they need to be seen.