Designers Deal Advice on Reaching Visual and Hearing Impaired

Studio Analogous, a woman-owned firm with a diverse staff and special focus on inclusion, has created their first set of “Designing for Everyone” cards, containing advice for how art directors and designers can create inclusive analog and digital communications that more effectively reach the sizable percentage of vision or hearing impaired customers who they are currently missing. The cards provide inclusive design recommendations for color blindness (color palettes), poor vision (screen magnifiers), blindness (Braille alphabet) and hearing impairment (sign language).

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The bottom line potential of inclusive design is substantial for brands. For example, an estimated 8% of men experience color blindness and struggle to understand traditional ads and marketing materials designed for the masses. The cards show how brands can more effectively reach this sizable consumer segment with inclusive communications materials and web interfaces that avoid certain color combinations, use both color and symbols, utilize a reduced color palette and include both textures and patterns (along with color) for data visualization.

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Founder/creative director Fanny Krivoy and strategy director Joshua Goldberg provide examples of how two brands have benefited: Virgin.com increased online sales by 60% after adding accessibility features to its website, and  UK retailer Tesco had two websites, one for the general public and one that was accessible. In a short amount of time, the vast majority of customers preferred the accessible site and store closed down their original “general” site.

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The message, they say, is simple: being an inclusion-ready brand is not only the right thing to do, it’s the profitable one as well.