Why Accessible Marketing is the Future, According to an Inclusive Design Expert

四分之一的人生活in the United States.

这意味着，如果您的营销内容不包括残障人士，您可能会失去转换61的潜力millionpeople into customers.

I had the opportunity to sit down with克里斯蒂娜·马隆（Christina Mallon）, the Global Head of Inclusive Design and Accessibility atWunderman Thompson（世界上最大的广告代理商），了解品牌如何创建更具包容性的产品和活动来吸引服务不足的受众。

Christina has worked with major brands, including Microsoft and Tommy Hilfiger, to help them develop accessible products and content for their marketing campaigns. She's worked on digital marketing campaigns for Tommy Adaptive, and helped build the first-ever Alexa skill for people with disabilities. Her work has received national attention and has been featured on PBS, Fast Company, Forbes, Yahoo!, and more.

不用说，我很幸运能与克里斯蒂娜坐下来学习营销人员在建立网络体验和内容时如何考虑可访问性。

在这里，我们将探讨克里斯蒂娜（Christina）的可访问性定义，不可访问的营销示例以及如何为2020年及以后创建更具包容性和可访问的营销内容。

How do you define accessibility?

克里斯蒂娜（Christina）分享了World Health Organization defines a disabilityas a function of the mismatch between a person's abilities and the demands of the environment. "The best example I have of this can be found at airports," she shared.

As you're de-boarding a plane and heading to baggage claim, many times the baggage claim is in a different wing of the airport. These airports offer both stairs and escalators to help people get to their luggage.

"But why are the only options for getting to the baggage claim stairs and escalators? " she asked.

克里斯蒂娜在描述她的例子时说：“楼梯和自动扶梯是两个identicalsolutions to the same problem." People in wheelchairs are required to take a different route to baggage claim because they are unable to take the stairs or escalator solution that was designed.

克里斯蒂娜说：“这种日常发生是一个设计问题。”

And as marketers and designers who build digital products and content, we have an opportunity to design something that is accessible for all.

最终，可访问性是一个属性，包容性设计是一种方法。

Marketers can make their content accessible by using inclusive design practices. We'll dive into those, but first — let's take a look at pieces of content that currently不是accessible.

无法访问的内容的示例

为了更好地理解包容性设计的外观，克里斯蒂娜（Christina）分享了一些可访问性失败的例子，或者没有满足残疾人的期望的品牌。

1.亚马逊：一个不支持需要通过语音购买的人的桌面网站。

Christina first mentioned Amazon, telling me: "When I was in the UK for business I went on my computer and tried to make a purchase on Amazon. The issue I ran into was that I was unable to use my accessibility voice device on their desktop site." Noticeably frustrated, she said, "they asked me to leave the desktop site and open amazon on my phone because the phone had built-in accessibility features."

"They don't care about me. They just want me to use the mobile device instead of making their web experience accessible." Because of this, Christina makes a majority of her purchases on Jet.com. She told me that physical stores are difficult for someone with mobility challenges and Amazon does not meet her expectations. So, her brand loyalty and purchases go elsewhere.

这是对产品和营销团队的提醒，以确保所有人都可以访问他们的桌面和移动体验。

2. LEGO: A promotional video for the blind that includes no audio.

不可访问的内容的另一个示例来自乐高。心爱的砖块推出了一系列新系列的盲文砖，以帮助盲人学习如何拼写。

这个新产品令人难以置信，甚至被哥伦比亚广播公司晨报bob官网官方网站and other publications. However, one publication covered the product launch with this video:

"Now" Christina said, "This is a product for blind people and a marketer created a beautiful promotional video. The video has great shots of the product being used by students. It has nice copy animations that explain the use of the product. And an upbeat song to help tell the product story."

"However, there is one issue."

I could tell it was a big issue.

克里斯蒂娜分享道：“没有口头音频。”

Someone who is blind would not be able to consume this promotional video and understand the product that was built for them.

While the video may meet the creative standards of the brand and the requirements for social media videos, it isn't created with the target audience in-mind.

这是创造者的监督，并提醒品牌始终注意消费者。

在讨论视频之后，克里斯蒂娜告诉我“确保您的客户体验在端到端都包含在内，includingthe product and the promotion."

用于创建更多可访问内容的技巧和工具

一旦我对可访问性有了更好的了解和避免什么的示例，我问克里斯蒂娜（Christina）营销人员如何创建可访问的内容 - 我问她：“是否有清单或供营销人员参考的标准列表？”

Immediately, Christina replied, "Inclusive design is more than a checklist."

Instead of going through a checklist of how to make content accessible, Christina shared three principles of inclusive design that can be used by marketers when creating web experiences and content.

"When creating a piece of content or designing a web experience, be mindful of these primary principles."

1.识别排除

Be aware that there are consumers who are vision, hearing, and mobility impaired. Build a piece of content and share your work with them prior to launch. Receive feedback upfront from those audience segments before releasing your campaign to the public.

"I try to have someone who is vision, hearing, and cognitive impaired look at every piece of content before presenting my work to a client," she shared. "I have been able to find people with disabilities, online, who are interested in working with us."

If marketers don't have an opportunity to work alongside people with a disability, they can always test their work against four main questions:

• Dexterity Experience: what kind of movement must a user perform to interact with my site or content?
• 愿景经验: What shapes, colors, text, and graphics must a user understand to consume my content?
• Hearing Experience: What sound does my content produce that are required for a user to consume my content?
• 思维经验：用户必须花多少时间来真正解释和理解它？

Once a marketer runs their content through these questions, they will have a better understanding of what improvements can be made to simplify the work and make it more accessible.

2. Solve for One, Extend to Many

As marketers, we have the ability to solve customer problems through design and content. By creating content for people with disabilities in mind, our content will be accessible to everyone.

Christina told me, "design for disability, and your work will work for everyone." It's critical that accessibility is a part of your design and creation process upfront — and not an afterthought.

为了最好地表达她的观点，克里斯蒂娜（Christina）分享了一些为残疾人设计的消费产品，但已成为主流文化的一部分：

• 触摸屏：最初是专为行动不便的人而设计的，并卖给了苹果，以在全球所有移动设备上使用。
• 电动牙刷: Originally designed for people with limited motor skills to improve dental health. Now used by millions for superior cleaning.
• 关闭字幕: Originally created for people with a hearing impairment. Now used for people learning a new language or consuming content without audio.

这些针对残疾人的产品设计已经进入了所有人的日常生活中，这表明，通过为残疾人创建营销内容，可以被更大的受众采用。

开始的工具

创建易访问的内容和网络体验an ongoing process. Marketing teams may not have the resources to go back and update all pieces of content that have been created.

However, moving forward, by being mindful of accessibility, marketers can ensure that their content is being built for the largest addressable audience.

I asked Christina for recommended tools that could help marketers get started with creating accessible content. She suggested the following six:

• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker：对比颜色检查器，可为您提供实时的常规和大型文本。
• Inclusive Components: A pattern library with a focus on inclusive design. Each post explores a common interface component and comes up with a better, more robust and accessible version of it.
• 彩色甲骨文: A free color blindness simulator for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It shows you in real time what people with common color vision impairments see.
• VOX产品可访问性指南：A comprehensive checklist for designers, engineers, and project managers.
• axe Google Chrome Extension:测试工程师t any site for accessibility violations using the Chrome inspector.
• Contrast: A macOS app for quick access to WCAG color contrast ratios.

无论您是构建新网站，制作产品视频还是创建新报告营销人员都需要牢记可访问性。创建每个人都可以访问的内容和产品将帮助您达到新的受众并实现目标。

最终，使用包容性设计可以帮助您吸引更多的潜在客户并发展业务 - 此外，它展示了您的品牌致力于满足尽可能多的人的需求。