Elizabeth Gratz and David Kassnoff collaborated on this article for the Jandoli Institute’s Hybrid Journalism Project.

Advertisers and marketers can do a better job connecting with consumers with disabilities, according to an ongoing research project led by Elizabeth T. Gratz, Ph.D., an assistant professor of marketing at St. Bonaventure University. In doing so, they have opportunities to tap a $21 billion market segment.

“Businesses are starting to focus more on consumers with disabilities, in addition to other under-represented groups,” Gratz said. “What’s needed is an increase in dialogue with members of disability groups, such as asking how businesses can better meet their needs and how they want to be represented in advertising.”

Gratz said when advertisers include disabled individuals, they often include those with visible disabilities, frequently portraying individuals in wheelchairs. But, she added, the disability community isn’t homogeneous, and many disabilities aren’t visible. Gratz’s research described these hidden disabilities as those included in the U.S. Census Bureau’s categories, noting that “the disability community may be classified by the type of limiting attribute: cognition, hearing, independent living, mobility, self-care, and vision.”  

While size estimates of the disability community vary, between 12.6% (U.S. Census Bureau) to 26.7% (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) of the U.S. population have a disability. These estimates indicate the disabled community rivals other studied subgroups within the U.S. For example, 18.5% of the U.S. population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, 13.4% as Black, 5.9% as Asian (U.S. Census Bureau 2021), 5.6% as LGBT (Jones 2021), and .9% as Muslim (Religious Landscape Study 2018).”

Businesses could benefit from better understanding consumers with disabilities. One example, Gratz said, is how frequently disabled consumers are included in advertising, and how they are portrayed. Market research firm Nielsen estimates that despite making up 26% of the U.S. population, only 1% of advertisements include someone with a disability.

Of these advertisements, most (86%) use an achievement appeal to communicate with viewers. This advertising technique frames the disabled individual as inspirational and courageous, overcoming their negative circumstance. While it is not inherently a bad thing to depict individuals with disabilities as successful, Gratz noted, the disability community often perceives these advertisements as “inspiration porn,” as they essentially objectify the individual for the benefit of non-disabled people.

Who are marketers talking to?

Reaching consumers with disabilities, Gratz said, challenges marketers to re-interpret cultural segments and how to address them. Connecting with disabled consumers requires marketers to “shift away from traditional representations and talk with the community,” she said. Example: identity-first descriptors such as “disabled man” may be preferred over “man with a disability,” but for other individuals, person-first language may be preferred. “Asking community members how they would prefer to be represented in advertising, for example, could be very beneficial,” she said.

Gratz observed that the disability community is overrepresented in advertising for certain product categories, such as health care and pharmaceuticals. Ads for vaccines, for example, have shown people with prosthetics and hearing aids to illustrate subsequent effects of not receiving vaccinations.

Elsewhere, the ad industry acknowledges it hasn’t effectively portrayed people with disabilities. In August 2021, Ad Age reported on a Nielsen study of nearly 450,000 primetime TV ads that found people with disabilities appear in one percent of TV ads Nielsen research also observed:

• Most of the time, disability is absent from advertising, except when promoting products that treat disabilities.
• Few ads show disabled people in everyday life, such as working, parenting, household chores or enjoying activities.
• Only three percent of ad spend in primetime went to ads inclusive of disability.

This leaves money on the table, in many marketers’ eyes; Nielsen noted that consumers with disabilities represent an untapped $21 billion market potential.

Beyond age and location

Gratz said marketers today skew their campaigns toward older individuals and those needing health care services. Expanding campaigns’ representation of others with disabilities would be helpful. She noted that Target Corporation is a leader in representing and responding to disabled consumers.

“Target does a good job including people with disabilities in ads for its clothing lines, going as far to highlight fabrics and easy-fit garments,” she said. “They also created in-store hours with reduced sound for people with sensitivity issues, and shopping carts for older kids and teens with special needs.”

If the size and buying power of the disability community wasn’t persuasive enough, Gratz would remind businesses of the “curb cut effect,” when marketers enact changes that benefit people with and without disabilities. Sidewalks with sloping edges, and wider store aisles, she said, benefit consumers using strollers as well as people with wheelchairs and walkers. “Making changes in product and store design often benefits more consumers than you’d anticipate,” she said.

What’s next? It’s time to revisit the 1990 Americans with Disability Act (ADA), Gratz noted, to accommodate today’s consumers with disabilities. Google emphasizes “disability-inclusive marketing” as a component of its diversity and inclusion marketing strategy, but Gratz said, “Online retailers should revisit how users with visual impairments may need to use a screen reader or another assistive device to use their websites,” she said. “The ADA doesn’t explicitly address online shopping, since the signing of the ADA predates the first online purchase by four years, and e-commerce as we know it certainly did not yet exist.” This leads to unclear legal requirements and increasing numbers of accessibility lawsuits targeting e-commerce websites.

She added that on the marketing side, marketers need to think beyond the traditional “four P’s of marketing” — product, price, place, and promotion. Giving people with disabilities a greater voice in how campaigns speak to their constituency is a good next step. Her ongoing research project includes a series of surveys intended to capture and share those insights.

“This is about more than increased portrayal of people with disabilities in advertisements,” she said. “Are ad agencies hiring creative people with disabilities?” A 2023 UK survey of nearly 19,000 advertising and marketing professionals determined that 11% of respondents have a disability including 8% in the C-Suite (senior executives). “Marketers have the capability to increase that representation.”

Elizabeth Gratz is an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Interim Marketing Department Chair at St. Bonaventure University, David Kassnoff is a retired faculty member of St. Bonaventure’s Jandoli School of Communications.

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Visit our Hybrid Journalism Page to learn more about the project and view other articles. To learn more about this article, click below to watch a conversation with the authors, hosted by Cassidey Kavathas.

Categories: hybrid journalism, Jandoli Institute