Accessibility: Are We Nearly There Yet?

Accessible design was back in the spotlight this year, especially with the Paralympics hitting Paris over the summer. It was also a hot topic at Cannes Lions with Circus Grey Lima’s ‘Sightwalks’ campaign taking the Design Grand Prix. 

But beyond these moments from 2024, has accessible and inclusive design had the attention and support it needs industry-wide? Have brands and businesses truly centralised the importance and societal benefits of being more disability-inclusive? And can we expect progress or challenges in 2025?

LBB’s Ben Conway posed these questions to some of the industry’s top accessibility experts.

Craig Dobie

Cofounder and creative director at Applied Design

The hard truth is no, we are nowhere even close to being there yet (sadly).

For years there has been a painted green line on the pavement of City Road from Old Street tube station to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, guiding people with low vision to their appointments. The yellow tactile paving known as Tenji blocks, common across Tokyo, draw similar guiding lines across much of the city with the texture communicating simple information like when you have reached an intersection. 

Lima’s ‘Sightwalks’ add a new level of useful coded information to tactile paving, such as what kind of establishment you are standing in front of. I am hopeful that ‘Sightwalks’ winning the Grand Prix in Design at this year’s Cannes Lions shines a bright light on what can, and should, be done to make cities accessible for a greater number of people. 

At the same time, the rarity of this kind of award-winning innovation shows us how much of our world still requires people with low vision to find a different way to navigate their everyday lives. Serving as a reminder of just how far there still is to go.

Christina Mallon

Head of inclusive design at Microsoft

My favourite accessibility efforts from brands this year are the following: 

The launch of Lego figures wearing the official sunflower lanyard. The concept of integrating a sunflower lantern with Lego is a creative and meaningful way to raise awareness about invisible disabilities. The sunflower symbol is widely recognised as a discreet sign that someone may have a hidden disability and might need extra support or understanding. By incorporating this symbol into Lego sets, it not only promotes inclusivity but also educates children and adults alike about the importance of empathy and awareness.

Lego partnered with their employees with disabilities on this initiative to ensure that it reflected the community correctly. This type of partnership is recommended to ensure that the community can actually benefit from the initiative. Integrating the disabled experience into the play experience is necessary if we want the next generation to be more inclusive than previous generations. I'm looking forward to purchasing this for my daughter for Christmas. 

Anthropologie’s adaptive clothing launch is also a game-changer. As a fashionista with dual arm paralysis, I struggle to find fashionable adaptive clothing that is easy to don and doff. They partnered with disabled influencers and fashion designers to create an initial assortment of eight of the brand’s popular pieces, modified to include adaptive features like magnetic zipper closures, zipper openings along pant inseams, and tabs and snaps for customisable length adjustments. The product is available both online and in-store, allowing the disabled community to purchase in whichever way is most accessible for them. They promoted the brand through social media posts that were accessible to everyone, including blind individuals who use screen readers. 

Ensuring that every customer touchpoint is inclusive made this campaign stand out. 

Above: Anthropologie’s adaptive clothing (photos: Anthropologie)

Regarding which areas need the most attention, increasing disabled talent both in front of and behind the camera is essential. More than 15% of the world’s population identifies as having a disability, yet only 4% of video content features a disability theme. Consequently, people with disabilities are 34x more likely to feel they are not represented in media, and more than half say they are inaccurately represented. Consumers want to see themselves reflected in brands, so it is imperative for a brands’ bottom lines to increase disability representation in their brand experiences.

Brands are starting to use content created by generative AI. So in 2025, it is imperative that brand leaders use text, image, and video generators that can produce disability-inclusive content that reflects the diverse experiences of people with disabilities. 

At Microsoft, my team worked with AI researchers to understand fairness-related risks affecting people with disabilities. We began by diving deep into what it means to represent people with disabilities fairly and identifying how AI systems’ responses can reflect ableism. Turning those findings into a clearly systematised concept helps with developing methods to measure the risks, revise systems as needed, and then monitor the generative AI technology to ensure a better experience for people with disabilities. 

Josh Loebner

Global head of inclusive design at VML

Within the ad industry and beyond, 2025 will be the year that accessibility dynamically grows from policies and compliance to creative differentiation and imagination. We’re already seeing shifts from pragmatic accessibility to personalised, and much of this momentum is propelled through AI. 

One example is WPP piloting AI-powered audio descriptions to create more bespoke and scalable storytelling in video advertising. This additional layer of audio enhances video for blind and visually disabled viewers by providing sublime descriptions of what’s taking place on screen and calls to action. Accessibility leadership is expanding in the industry with brands such as Unilever establishing an Accessibility Center of Excellence as a central hub, and more teams and individuals across agencies and clients training and being certified in digital accessibility. 

In 2025, Cannes Lions are opening awards to disability and accessibility including the Glass Lion and within the Design Lions a subcategory award of Excellence in Image Description. These and other initiatives highlight positive actions, but continued discrimination in the form of ableism, minimal representation of disability within ads, and lower employment of disabled talent at agencies and brands also suggests a need for continued commitments pushing ahead.

Katharina Mayer

Head of LifeStyle Lab Europe at Samsung

We still have a long way to go to make our world truly accessible. Our research shows UK adults with disabilities often feel excluded by brands, as half believe brands don’t cater to their needs or understand key accessibility features. We want to help re-write this narrative.

By overlooking accessibility, brands risk missing out on the £274 billion Purple Pound - the spending power of UK consumers with disabilities – as well as the opportunity to build brand affinity and loyalty with consumers.

At Samsung, we believe inclusivity is the foundation of good design. Our updated DEI principles – Stay Curious, Challenge Assumptions, Celebrate Diversity, and Be the Change – ensure that we consider varied needs and experiences right from the start. By 2025, we hope more brands prioritise accessible design, from store layouts and websites to product features like auto-open door and voice feedback. Small changes can make a big difference.

Dan Northcote-Smith

Creative innovation director at T&Pm

This year has been a crash course in accessibility for me. I’ve been working on an accessible game for RNIB while also creating Channel 4 Paralympic idents for Toyota. These experiences have taught me that, with planning and creativity, accessibility can enhance your work rather than limit it.

For the idents, we shifted from traditional audio description to ‘audio led’ sound design. Instead of layering voice-over explanations, the sound mix and voice-over worked together to tell the story. For sighted viewers, the change is seamless, but it makes the content far more inclusive. We also included British Sign Language versions for viewers who sign. 

On both projects we worked closely with lived experience experts – an essential step in an industry where the majority of creatives don’t experience disability firsthand. Involving these voices early isn’t just a quality check; it’s a way to shape ideas that resonate more authentically.

I also sit on the neurodiversity and disability council at T&Pm and we are implementing various internal policies to make office life easier for everyone. For example, for long email newsletters we’re looking to add audio versions for those who find long reads difficult. Or making sure internal training is subtitled for everyone who needs it. 

Accessible design isn’t just about compliance; it broadens the appeal of your work and connects with more diverse audiences. It’s a creative opportunity, not a burden, and it should never be left as a last-minute box to tick. 

From now on, I will be looking to make sure I include accessibility from the outset and I’d urge other creatives to do too. Whether it’s embracing inclusive design principles, working with experts, or leveraging emerging tools like AI to help with subtitling, there are countless ways to get started.

Accessibility is not just the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing to do too. 

Tom Hume

Associate creative director at Re – M&C Saatchi Consulting

Accessibility is finally in the spotlight. That’s progress. But, in an economic climate of rising costs and services, brands are chasing efficiencies to balance the books. Self-checkouts, chatbots, QR codes — solutions are sold as smarter, cheaper and faster. For many, these are anything but solutions.

Self-checkouts time out on users who can’t move fast enough. Chatbots struggle with complex queries. QR-only menus assume everyone has a smartphone — and can comfortably use it. Instead of breaking down barriers, we’re creating new ones. In the UK, 24% of people live with a disability. Too often, they’re excluded by designs built on assumptions. And it’s happening where it matters most: the front lines of customer service. Where brand loyalty is built or broken. 

Accessible brands don’t just win customers – they earn advocates. As automation becomes widespread, human-centred design remains a vital responsibility for all. Efficiency matters, but not at the cost of accessibility.

Alex Liebold

SVP, creative director at Mythic

There’s an interesting tension between solving problems for the widest possible audience and ensuring that designs are aesthetically pleasing. For a time, this led to a trend of ‘blanding’ in corporate identity design. However, this triggered significant creative backlash, and now brands are starting to re-inject more personality, even if it sometimes comes at the cost of accessibility.

At Mythic, we believe that making our work accessible doesn’t mean sacrificing compelling and beautiful design. In fact, we have found that incorporating accessible design into our process from the beginning makes it much easier to address colour and typography needs upfront, rather than revising approved work later. Our work with Ally and MetLife have actually turned out stronger because we planned around compliance goals from the start. We also enhance our brand guidelines with high-contrast colour and type combinations, allowing our design team to focus on creating great work instead of fixing issues afterward.

Looking ahead, it would be great to see responsive brand systems that allow for and promote accessibility awareness. For example, browser or app toggles for typography and colour adjustments that meet accessibility needs while still aligning with the brand, rather than relying on default system swaps. 

The industry as a whole has a long way to go, but we are optimistic that being knowledgeable and committed brand stewards will continue to push accessible design across the board.