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Expanding Markets
Inclusion Solutions for Business
By Kelly Burgess
"You would not believe the response I've gotten from these simple products," Okamoto says. "My customers are so appreciative, and I've come to the realization that they shouldn't have to feel so grateful for the times they're accommodated; this should be something they can expect everywhere they go. It should just be the norm."
Carmen Jones knows about accessibility as both a customer and a businesswoman. Left paraplegic by an auto accident when she was in college, Jones is a seasoned marketing professional who in 1998 founded Solutions Marketing Group (SMG) to help mainstream companies actively market to people with disabilities.
SMG does traditional marketing, but they place it in the context of the needs of the particular segment they're targeting. "The disability market is very large and diverse, and there isn't one body or association that everyone coalesces around," Jones says. "Another interesting dynamic is that people are at varying stages of acceptance. Some people don't even recognize they have a disability. We take that into account as well."
SMG's marketing and consulting services go far beyond just physical accessibility, although that's an important first step. "I start by trying to recognize what our clients have done to date and what each department has encountered," Jones says. "We actually build a strategy that's a lot more substantive than just including disability messaging in an ad campaign. We try to offer a really inside out approach where the company builds its infrastructure for the disability market, and then we focus on need rather than on labels. Accessibility issues are important, but only as one issue. What I care about is knowing there is a customer service staff that can meet the [disabled] client's needs once they're in the door."