Atomic 212°’s Chief Strategy Officer, Asier Carazo and Bupa's GM of Marketing, Naomi Driver once shared a common fear that permeates much of the industry: How does a brand advance the cause for the 20 per cent of Australians with a disability – without being unintentionally tokenistic or offensive?

Driver says those concerns often stop her marketing peers from doing anything – she would know given it was also once her experience. Driver shares some personal anecdotes that are funny now but mortifying at the time: She once told Mike Rolls, who lives with a double amputation, she liked “keeping people on their toes … then realised I’d put my foot in my mouth”.

Rolls “is a mate” and enjoyed making her feel uncomfortable for a few seconds. But Driver said it made her think even harder about the language used across Bupa’s creative and digital assets – and Bupa's Paralympics program around last year's event (with ads featuring Rolls, who’s humour helped shape the script) is a benchmark for what brands can and should do, according to Inclusively Made’s CEO, Paul Nunnari.

Like Driver, Asier Carazo’s fears have also flipped. He cites Atomic 212° colleague, Senior Account Exec Angus McLeod as an advocate for the missing piece in media industry planning. McLeod lost his hearing after an accident and often experiences media that hasn’t taken into account people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

“Working side by side with Angus is just understanding the reality of millions of Australians,” says Carazo. “Twenty per cent of Australians live with some form of disability. Are we even thinking about them when we put forward the media plan? Are we challenging publishers to include accessibility features on the ads? Are we challenging creative agencies to think about accessibility as a forethought, not as an afterthought?”

Roy Morgan, the go-to source for media pros, started reporting on Australians living with disability within its database in the last quarter. That’s a win, adds Carazo, “but what I would love to see is greater genuine curiosity around understanding the reality of this country … As marketers, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on research and testing, but then you're not allocating any money to understanding how your audiences are able to consume media.”

Inclusively Made has a framework for brands that do want to make inclusivity BAU. The key: “Don't let perfection get in the way of progress … just get the ball rolling,” says CEO Paul Nunnari. “It's not always going to be perfect, but at least having the conversation, seeing what are those low hanging fruits that can be achieved with minimal risk outputs is a really good place to start.”

While Bupa’s Paralympics approach is the benchmark, per Nunnari, it can be as simple as having a wheelchair user in the background of an ad, having a coffee with a mate. “It doesn’t need to be highlighted, it doesn’t need to be inspirational. It’s just two blokes getting together having a coffee, right? It's the norm.”

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Atomic 212°, Bupa and Inclusively Made: How to flip the script on disability representation to create inclusive media for all Australians