3 | essentialaccessibility.com
Money Talks: The Disability-Driven
Spending Power
4 Customers with Disabilities Mean Business" U.S. Department of Justice
5 Towards an Accessible Future: Ontario Innovators in Accessibility and Universal Design, MaRS
6 Creating Value Through Disability, The Return on Disability Group
The fact is, over 77 million North Americans have disabilities, and their
buying power is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. As a comparison,
this is more than quadruple the buying power of tweens.
4
Did you know that almost half of all people with disabilities make the buying
decisions for their households?
5
In addition to this core market, people
with disabilities have family and friends, all of whom may be influenced by
disability-related concerns in their spending decisions. Together, this adds
up to a full 53% of the global consumer marketplace.
6
The Martin Prosperity Institute reports that as our society continues
to become more inclusive and accessible, people with disabilities are
becoming better educated and earning higher incomes.
7
This is leading
to even more spending cash. That's good news for business.
Unquestionably, the Internet has led to numerous opportunities for
people with disabilities – when they are able to access it, that is. Consider
where people with disabilities, their families and their friends could be
giving their business if their online needs were better met.
7 Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario, Martin Prosperity Institute
The word "handicapped" arose because poverty-stricken people with
disabilities would frequently beg on the streets with "cap in hand."
Myth, of course, no matter what you've heard, it's a mistake
to assume that people with disabilities have little disposable
income and aren't worth courting as a market.
Myth
Fact
Today's consumers with disabilities fully
participate in society. They are employers
and employees, homeowners and car owners,
spouses and parents, students and retirees.
They are working, commuting, banking,
shopping, vacationing, attending school,
paying their bills and accessing a complete
range of services in their communities.
