Context
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) recently engaged stakeholders to understand developments in advertising accessibility and the challenges faced by disabled audiences. One of the key themes that emerged from those discussions was the importance of considering accessibility at the start of the creative process, rather than attempting to retrofit accessibility provisions once an ad has been created.
Key points to note and next actions
- Accessibility provisions help a wider range of people understand advertising content. They can make ads more accessible to people with hearing or visual impairments and may include audio description, closed captions and signing (each of which are briefly described in the article).
- Material information is information that the average consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision about a product, service or offer.
- The article provides useful hypothetical examples of how to consider this principle is to look at how it might apply in practice.
- One of the strongest themes that emerged from the stakeholder engagement discussions was the importance of ‘accessibility by design’.
- Some stakeholders expressed the view that accessibility in advertising should be mandated