Advertising

Including disabled people in advertising helps show disability is a normal part of life

The Government produces a considerable amount of advertising in the UK through multiple channels including press, outdoor, TV, radio and digital media. It makes sense to represent disability in government advertising, since:

disabled people are a significant part of your audience
disability can provide a striking or memorable way of getting a message across
representation will attract the attention of disabled people and help you meet government objectives about communicating with disabled people and their families
advertising that depicts disabled people positively can help you meet government objectives about challenging low expectations of disabled people.

Representation

Remember that most disability is not visible. This is an issue to consider in representation, to make sure there isn't overrepresentation of, for example, people who use wheelchairs. Print and poster advertising tend to overuse this example. Television, film and radio offers greater scope to include forms of disability that are not visible.

Conflicting messages

Images of Disability research has found a conflict exists for many communications experts between wanting to do the right thing and being concerned that including disabled people will overcomplicate the campaign message and compromise their communication objectives.

Certainly using disabled people in adverts can bring both added meaning and at other times be distracting.

For example, a Department for Work and Pensions advert for teachers with a wheelchair user was easily understood as meaning that disabled people were wanted as teachers. However, a drink drive campaign focused on the risk of injury could be compromised by including a disabled person as the driver or even in the background because the message of the campaign is about driving injuries.

Best practice

If you have a disabled person in a pivotal role, you need to decide whether the disability is central to the idea or beside the point creatively.

If you are communicating a message without reference to the disability featured in the advert, you should probably take extra care that the disability itself (or the way the disabled actor plays the part) doesn't trigger the viewer or listener to assume a connection.

Be clear

Problems arise if the creative idea is unclear. If people don't understand, they will decide for themselves why advertising features disability and this could lead them to make incorrect assumptions about the message.

Be natural

Aim to generally include disabled people in a natural way, where they are part of the story without their disability being the focus of it. Avoid being tokenistic – make sure there is a point to the disabled character rather than simply being there to represent disability.

For example, a 2001 Teletext TV advert featured a football fan in a wheelchair. The character celebrates a goal by taking a beer from the fridge and cheering. The camera makes good dramatic use of the momentum of the wheelchair but there is no attempt to use the disability to bring additional meaning to the message - it is incidental.

Be positive

Depicting disabled people in responsible jobs or senior positions can change negative or limiting assumptions and expectations. Avoid representing disabled people as victims. However you should also avoid representing disabled people as heroes.

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Page last reviewed: 04 November 2010