Be accessible and inclusive to tap new growth
Gayatri Shenai
Partner, New York
Consider this growing demographic tidal wave: by 2030, all baby boomers (about 73 million people born between 1946 and 1964) in the United States will be at least age 65. That translates to one in every five people in the United States being of retirement age. In 2000, by comparison, there were just 35 million people older than 65.¹ Similar trends hold true for many other countries as well.
This represents a massive need among people who are today already increasingly dependent on the internet and technology, and it underscores a broader point: companies should look for how to adapt to serve this growing population. The good news is that some companies, particularly in consumer sectors and retail finance, have already taken concrete steps to make their digital properties more accessible and relevant to people who have difficulties accessing standard technologies. That includes creating larger type sizes, improving text contrast to make it easier to read, offering audio options, using chatbots to speak with customers, and incorporating voice-recognition technologies. Of course, as advanced AI capabilities come online, we can expect accessibility capabilities to both proliferate and be easier to use.
For companies looking to tap into this growing market through improved accessibility, 2023 can become an important proving ground to test and implement accessibility technologies and methodologies. This does not need to require significant investment in many cases. In fact, the biggest change is in mindset to incorporate accessibility functions and experiences into existing design and development processes as a must-have.
¹ “2020 census will help policymakers prepare for the incoming wave of aging boomers,” US Census Bureau, December 10, 2019.