People who experience blindness and visual impairments purchase products just like those who have sight, but advertisers have often overlooked this group in the past. Now, more advertisers are designing inclusive strategies that prioritize accessibility for people with different sensory experiences.
Michigan State University experts Juan Mundel and Ed Timke can comment on making advertisements more accessible to blind and visually impaired audiences.
Mundel, an associate professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, co-authored “Translating Visuals into Words: An Analysis of Audio Descriptions in Ads for Blind and Visually Impaired Consumers,” an award-winning study that focuses on audio descriptions designed for blind and visually impaired consumers. The article was awarded the 2024 Paul Kurnit Award by Advertising & Society Quarterly for significantly contributing to the field of advertising and society.
Timke is an assistant professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and studies disability innovation and entrepreneurship, specializing in how communication and design practices in advertising advance accessibility and inclusion for people of all abilities. He is also an editor of Advertising & Society Quarterly, the journal in which Mundel’s study was published.
What are the key findings of the study?
Mundel: Many of the ads from the study use audio description practices that demand that the narrator remain objective and neutral. While that may go along with audio description best practices, it kind of goes against traditional advertising strategy wherein advertising uses emotion to be able to sell you the products. In our study, we found that when audio description takes place, the description of emotion depicted in the visuals is left behind. This means consumers with visual impairments are left to construct their own interpretation of what happened visually in the ad by only getting a snippet that is very objective and neutral in the audio description
We also found that the ads were very word-heavy. That overload of information might not be what is best for blind and visually impaired consumers during their decision making. There are also advertisements with incomplete descriptions, descriptions that are devoid of emotion, and advertisements that generally are not necessarily conceived with this group of consumers in mind. And these are all findings that advertisers can act on to improve the consumer experience and be more inclusive.
Audio descriptions in advertisements should be created with a clear purpose in mind. Purposive audio descriptions are different from traditional ones because they are designed from the start to include everyone. They use universal design—meaning they are built to be accessible for all people—and the audio description is meant to be an essential part of the ad, not something added afterward.
Just like how advertisers make different versions of an ad for a campaign, creative teams should make sure their work includes everyone. People in the advertising industry can also partner with individuals who are blind or have low vision to test the audio descriptions and ask for feedback. These conversations can help make sure the audio includes the right details to share what the product is, what the experience feels like, and what message the ad is trying to send.
Why is it important for advertisers to consider blind and visually impaired consumers when designing advertisements?
Timke: This study talks about something that isn’t talked about a lot. Audio descriptions aren’t necessarily new, but it’s something that a lot of people don’t know about. This is a way to provide richness in experiencing media that isn’t provided otherwise.
People who are blind and have visual impairments are eager to buy products and engage with advertising messages. People with disabilities comprise a large market of approximately $500 million annually, and we are leaving out consumers. Advertising is not just selling products, it’s often seen as the art of capitalist society, or the art of consumerism, so why not let everybody be included in the creativity of advertising?
Mundel: When consumers purchase something, they experience risk associated with the purchase. They may lose money or the product may not perform. To be able to minimize that risk, we use different cues in ads to help us decide whether or not that product is good for you as a consumer.
Advertising is there to depict the sensory cues that you cannot get from touching the product yourself or interacting with the product. When brands rely too heavily on those visual cues to tell the story to consumers, people with visual disabilities don’t have enough information about the product.
Our results show that despite long-winded audio description about the ad, brands also under-describe the product. For example, a P&G's Febreze advertisement visually shows three different types of Febreze products with distinct packaging, but the audio description only mentions the brand, and not the products shown on the screen. In another ad, a same sex couple was described as “two moms” - leaving out important details about the characters in the ad. We are arguing that to make this more inclusive, brands should go into the design process by making sure that we are serving the needs of all the diverse segments collaborating with blind and visually impaired consumers during development and testing to confirm the descriptions clearly convey the product, target audience, and intended message.
What role do advertisers play in changing how society views and treats consumers with disabilities?
Mundel: Advertising doesn’t serve its purpose when it makes you feel that the product is not for you. It’s also creating othering and marginalization because you feel that you need to go out of your way to be able to get the information. Audio description is a tool not only for advertisers to reach blind and visually impaired consumers, but also to create awareness among the general population about the experience that they need as consumers (Here is a good example). It creates an opportunity for society to speak to each other in terms of representation and inclusion.
Timke: Advertisers can help society view disabilities as a positive rather than anegative. Disabilities are not a deficit. They are an asset, just like any form of difference. It’s something that is exciting and makes life and the world interesting,
Read Timke’s faculty voice on disability inclusion in advertising.
