Whether it’s including sign language at live gigs or digital assistance at the theatre for the hearing-impaired, more and more businesses are taking steps to ensure their events and entertainment are available for all. This goes beyond simply installing ramps and accommodating bathrooms.
Last year, Procter & Gamble was awarded inclusive service provider of the year at the Disability-smart awards for creating the UK’s first audio-described adverts, where additional commentary explains what’s happening on screen, from body language and expressions to scenery, helping to build a visual picture. The consumer goods company created the first audio-described advert for Flash’s “Flash Dog” and distributed it on YouTube in September 2016. In August 2017, P&G aired its first audio-described ad on TV with Fairy Liquid.
“The inspiration,” says P&G’s inclusive design manager Sam Latif, “came from my realisation that there are two million people like me with low or no vision in the UK, who would not have enjoyed our very funny ad on Flash where there’s a dog singing and shaking off mud in a spotless kitchen, as it was extremely visual.
“We quickly realised that P&G could easily create great audio-described ads, but we needed to involve the industry to be able to broadcast them on TV. The broadcasters needed to open up the channels to enable audio description to play out to consumers with low or no vision.”
As a result, she invited key individuals from the industry to P&G to discuss how they could work together to achieve this vision. “Fortunately, everyone was keen to partner with us, and together we transformed advertising, by making it more inclusive for people who previously were unable to enjoy, and even understand, ads.”
The audio-described ads were broadcast last summer, for Fairy, Always, Pampers, Ariel, Febreze and Lenor, starting with ITV, Channel 5 and then, more recently, Channel 4. Now the company is working towards creating all of its ads with audio description.
Away from the world of television, live events are catching up to the power of audio description, sign language and subtitles. The National Theatre has announced the launch of Smart Caption glasses, which enable the user to see live captions for theatre performances projected on the lens of the glasses, to 97% accuracy. Currently, it is offering up to four captioned performances and three audio-described performances per production. Working with Accenture, StageText and VocalEyes, it hopes to offer fully captioned performances using the eyewear technology in the next few years.
Earlier this year, problems with accessibility for the hearing-impaired featured on the national news, as it was revealed a deaf woman was suing a live-music promoter for its lack of sign language provision.
National disability charity Scope is determined that disabled people should be listened to by the entertainment industry. Its head of communications, Phil Talbot, says: “Disabled people should have an equal chance to enjoy entertainment such as live music, cinema, festivals and plays. But there are too many stories of inaccessible venues, poor attitudes from staff or other audience members, and unfair ticket-buying processes. Disabled people and their families have a spending power of £250bn a year. It’s high time that businesses in the industry listened to disabled people and made entertainment open to everyone.”
For Latif, companies should be doing what they can to make their products accessible for all. “All content can and should be made accessible. It’s not expensive to do and you reach and delight more people if you invest in inclusive design. By recruiting and developing people with disabilities inside your organisation, you can better understand ways to make your products and services more inclusive. By talking to real people and observing how they watch or interact with your products and services you can learn a lot about what can be done to make your products and services even more desirable.”
As well as working with its partners to create inclusive content, P&G has been working hard internally to ensure staff have an understanding of why it’s so important that the company’s output is available to all.
“Everyone at P&G wants to be inspired and do the right thing. We have passionate people welcoming and taking part in activities that help to raise awareness and empathy about better understanding the challenges and opportunities for people with disabilities. Last year, over 15 sites took part in a Dine in the Dark event, which enabled our staff to dine and experience low vision, making them realise how challenging a simple task like eating can be if you have low vision.
“At P&G, we value diversity, including disability diversity. Our People with Disabilities network’s vision is for P&G, its products and brands to be the first choice for the 1.3 billion global consumers with disabilities and their allies, because we are recognised as the most inclusive consumer products company in the world,” she says.
“The network has also connected people to others with similar stories to themselves or a dependant with a disability, which has really created a sense of community and support, and that’s absolutely wonderful to see.”
