Agencies have a key role in helping clients improve their approaches to accessibility and make the most of the opportunity, according to AMV BBDO business director Henrietta Corley.
“It’s about breaking it down to the way we talk to our clients a lot of the time. It’s asking how do you break this down so you’re not having to do everything all at once?,” she said, speaking on a panel at Advertising Week Europe in London yesterday (14 May).
Corley spoke alongside Procter & Gamble Northern Europe senior director Matt Thomas, who explained how steps can be made towards progress on the brand side.
He explained that a key area the business has been working on is closed captioning.
“It’s now an opt out option in Clearcast, whereas previously it was opt in. There’s still a huge opportunity, with some brands, believe it or not, opting out.”
He also highlighted that P&G had been working alongside Meta to use generative AI to make sure that it had closed captions across all its ads, making them “accessible to everyone with visual impairments”.
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However, Corley highlighted that “the maturity of different brands varies considerably”, adding that when speaking with clients the key is often to highlight the commercial value associated with accessible approaches to business.
“It’s about communicating what an opportunity accessibility is to brands. Yes it’s good for commercial but it’s also about showing up in different ways and making sure that we are showing these different stories and different narratives that nobody else has heard,” she continued.
Corley went on to say she also believes agencies should show that they are committed to working with clients that prioritise accessibility.
“It’s about having like-minded clients in your agency as well as having that accessibility line yourself.”
“So it’s being able to say yes, we’re willing to make every piece of content accessible that we put out as communities as well that we put out as an agency, and making sure that we’re authentically representing the right people,” she continued.
Also on the panel was Valuable 500 CEO Katy Tilkowska, who added: “My takeaway would be that you should frame all the conversations you’re having as a really exciting opportunity, not a tickbox exercise. Accessibility is not a ‘nice to have’ in the domain of compliance.”
