[music]
>>Allan Thygesen: We've shared a few ways brands can build digital readiness into their approach using agile
marketing, a test and learn mindset - which you heard sarah talk about - and bridging organizational silos.
At the core of being ready, brands need to consider inclusion from the beginning to ensure all users
and customers, regardless of ability or experience, can fully access content products and experiences.
And that's what our next session will discuss. I'd like to welcome Head of Brand Accessibility at
Google, KR Liu, joined by the founder and president of LaVant Consulting, which is a disability-focused
strategy and communications firm Andraéa LaVant. Thank you so much.
[music and applause]
>>Andraéa: Down. Down.
>>KR: Thank you for... thank you for joining us today I'm so excited to be here with you all, with Andraéa,
to talk about the importance of accessibility marketing.
I want to ask you Andraéa, why don't you tell me about how LaVant Consulting start
>>Andraéa: First of all, I'm thrilled to be here. Cody and I are thrilled to be with you today.
[applause]
So in terms of LaVant Consulting i actually started out working in the nonprofit industry and
within that industry you get exposure to a lot of other industries: corporate, philanthropic,
government, and there was a key thing that I noticed and it was honestly that people were
afraid to address disability. It wasn't so much about a lack of desire to be inclusive
but it was just that many organizations - many companies - expressed that they just didn't know
how to approach accessibility in their work. And so I recognized that no matter what the industry was,
there was some bridging that needed to happen. And we really wanted to, and what i wanted to
do was to be able to invite, to engage and show people how to value disabled people within their
organizations and in their communities. >>KR: Absolutely, and there is assuming a business
imperative for including accessibility in your work - and creative work especially - can you talk to
why accessibility marketing matters?
>>Andraéa: Well it.. accessible marketing matters because it allows
all users regardless of diagnosis or disability or ability to fully engage and to fully access
brands’ content, their products, and their experiences. The fact is, disability impacts
everyone. At some point almost everybody is going to experience disability in one way
or another, you know, whether it's that they have it or that they know somebody that has a disability
>>KR: Absolutely. And you know there are a billion people with disabilities, one in four adults in the US,
and globally that's a billion potential users we can reach, that represents eight trillion in
spending power. And brands benefit from creating accessibility in marketing because it opens up
their work to a wider and more diverse audience. The industry often approaches
accessibility from a product perspective but not a storytelling perspective, right?
And marketers know it's important to address but - and to address the community's needs - but often
they don't know where to start, right, and they don't know how to authentically engage
and represent people with disabilities in ads and content. So where can brands start?
>>Andraéa: Well there's a phrase within our community that we use a lot - it's "nothing about us without us."
It's understanding that there is value for us, meaning disabled people, to be a part of these
conversations. It's about bringing in people with lived experiences with disabilities, and not just
giving them a seat at the table, but making sure that they have the space to share and be decision
makers. It's so important because disability means so many different things based on experience. Some
disabilities are apparent some are not; disability can be a temporary experience; it can be
permanent; it can be progressive; it's precipitated by age, meaning at some point if you age,
you grow old enough, you're going to experience a disability. And so it's about moving past
tokenism to thinking about the variety of experiences. And another thing is
paying people for their expertise. Often people seek out disabled people by saying
you know we're going to give you exposure. But exposure does not pay the bills.
[applause]
We're the experts, disabled people, and so we need to be included in all aspects of the processes,
and the burden shouldn't just be on us to educate others. So it's about working with us working with
creatives and experts, and then dedicating the resources to doing it right and providing training
and support for your internal teams. >>KR: Absolutely and you know we want this to be a drum beat
that continues, right ,we want it to resonate with brands and not a one and done thing, so
what can we do to ensure that accessibility remains a focus for brands? >>Andraéa: One phrase I
like to say is that it's not accessibility-inclusion, it's not a product,
it's a philosophy. Accessibility is a mindset. So we're not about box checking here, it's about
making a sustained commitment. Brands need to... in order to reach disabled consumers.
And they need to reflect that internally. It's also an evolving process; technology is
ever-evolving, so accessibility best practices are also evolving. And so we
need to think about that, and understanding that it's an ongoing journey, we've certainly come far,
but we have a long way to go. So we need to really infuse it, companies need to infuse that into their
work and put those things into action. Again, emphasizing that one person can't speak for
everyone so it's important to have conversations with multiple people with disabilities
to understand the diversity of our experiences and our perspectives within the community.
>>KR Absolutely. [applause]
So how do we foster more of these types of conversations?
>>Andraéa: Disabled people are in every single community, so the better we - everyone kind of gets
that understanding and bringing in these perspectives - the better the results are.
So it's about identifying where companies are, at doing an internal audit of sorts, to determine
where you're starting, examining internally and externally who are your employees? What
are their lived experiences? Where has accessibility entered into your work?
And then engaging staff. engaging peers, to identify those opportunities to build accessibility
into the work, and to the philosophy of the way that you're doing things and being
innovative about that. Which is what we've done together. >>KR Absolutely. >>Andraéa: You know?
>>KR: And it has been a journey that Google has been on for years and gathering
learnings from a variety of perspectives and lived experiences ,like you said,
and accessibility is core to Google's mission, right, it's organize the world's information and
make it universally accessible and useful, and we bring our journey to include accessibility in
everything we do, right? It's been so helpful to partner with your team, Andraéa LaVant, it really
has been amazing. And again it's an ongoing commitment at Google and we're proud of the
progress that we're making and that we are seeing, so thank you again Andraéa for being here today.
[applause]
Now i would love to end with an example of some amazing work that we have done with
accessibility marketing and action. We recently launched a short film, "A Coda Story," which shows
how assistive technologies like live captions and Google Meet help connect more people. >>Andraéa: Thanks
>>voice of narrator: I'm what's called a "coda"
[sparse piano music starts]
My parents were both born deaf.
I was not.
When people in the hearing world learn that about me, they always want to know more.
[piano music builds]
You start at your forehead, and then go out with your hand.
>> voice of narrator: I've always had one foot in the deaf world
and one in the hearing world
I translated a lot for my parents.
It made us closer.
[piano music slows down]
Now that it's been over a year since we've seen each other in person,
communication is more important than ever.
Especially with this guy.
[piano music gets faster]
- Wave hi! - Can you wave?
- Hi
>>voice of narrator: It's their first time being grandparents
so they don't want to miss a single moment.
>>voice of narrator And I don't either.
[slow piano notes play]
[jazzy music]