Better understanding human behavior helps guide decision-making, design useful products and services, and ensure the impact of investments. However, many studies still exclude essential audiences: people with disabilities, seniors, neurodivergent individuals, or those facing technological or language barriers.
Disability directly affects 15% (1) of the population and significantly influences consumption choices. Their participation is essential and valuable: it prevents design errors, highlights overlooked needs, and enhances product and service performance.
How can marketing, UX, HR, and opinion research become more inclusive? Here are 12 concrete actions to improve your practices in 2025.
1. Recruit a diverse panel
Why?
Creating conditions for a varied representation of disabilities and accessibility needs prevents unintentionally disqualifying people with disabilities from the target audience.
How?
Diversify recruitment channels: traditional recruiters, inclusive recruiters, associations, social networks, thematic influencers (travel, beauty, DIY, etc.), professionals in education, rehabilitation, disability tech, healthtech, "entreprises adaptées" in France, peer-support networks, patient experts, researchers, etc.
Ensure online panels and community platforms meet digital accessibility standards (2). If non-compliant, identify the excluded individuals and invite them through other channels.
Verify that selected individuals are genuinely motivated to participate, without being influenced by intermediaries.
2. Design accessible recruitment and survey questionnaires
Why?
Poorly designed questionnaires can exclude participants or hinder the spontaneity of their responses (e.g., vision or reading difficulties, concentration or memory issues, navigating with screen readers, keyboards, zooming interfaces, etc.).
How?
Apply the criteria of the Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) and General Reference for Improving Accessibility in France (RGAA)(3).
Ensure study and community platform providers guarantee regulatory compliance of their solution.
Offer a phone participation alternative.
Add questions to registration forms to identify disability situations (e.g., those from The Washington Group on Disability Statistics (4)).
3. Train on disability awareness and accessibility
Why?
he participation of people with disabilities in studies faces various obstacles: prejudices, stereotypes, inaccessibility of locations, and participation means. Adopting an inclusive posture requires expanding knowledge and breaking taboos.
How?
Organize training sessions, conferences, and demos on solutions to understand and keep up with evolving usage, technologies, and social representations.
Choose a training provider familiar with your field, its specificities, and constraints.
Request case studies tailored to your research methodologies and the targeted audiences.
4. Adapt participation pathways
Why?
Ensuring appropriate and calm interview conditions allows panelists to fully express themselves and prevents unintentionally disqualifying individuals with accessibility needs.
Inadequate conditions—stress, rushing, confusion, fatigue—damage both the well-being of participants (physical and mental health, logistical burden) and the richness of insights gathered. It's your job to adapt, not theirs.
How?
Collaborate with experts for a mini audit of the prototype/pathway to be tested, and a critical review of the protocol and materials.
Offer multiple communication modes (written briefs, video, consent in 2 formats, email/phone/WhatsApp) and participation options (phone, video, subtitles, online, mobile, in-person, or at home). For example, observing users of technical aids in their usual environment can be more insightful than trying to recreate the scenario in a lab.
Clarify whether you can offer support to participants. Always be truthful.
Anticipate additional time for recruitment, briefing, and interviews when using an object requiring more time in real life (e.g., reduced dexterity, low digital literacy, or navigating a crowded environment).
7. Empathize, not pity
Why?
It’s your job to create trust and neutrality, just as you would with any other participant. Approaching disability respectfully means not presuming anything about the person.
How?
Address participants directly, not their companions (especially if it’s an interpreter or child!).
Avoid reducing the person to their disability or presuming their abilities. Always ask before offering help!
Avoid self-centered empathy (5): "If I were you, I don't know if I could cope, you're an inspiration."
Avoid pity terms: "poor you," "you're so brave," "God gives his toughest battles to his best soldiers," "fragile," "vulnerable," "deficiency," "suffering," "victim," etc., even if the participant uses them.
8. Spot generalization and enthusiasm biases
Why?
Every disability situation is unique. It’s crucial not to generalize one person’s statement to the entire population.
It’s also important to remember that people with disabilities face many barriers, frustrations, coping strategies, and compromises. Some may prioritize supporting your inclusive design efforts, even if it means downplaying their own feelings or overstating their purchase/intention.
9. Compensate participants fairly
How?
Adapt the compensation based on the total time spent on the study, including travel, if necessary.
Ensure payment methods are accessible.
Demand proof of compensation if you've used an intermediary for recruitment (yes, I often see this: charged to the client but not mentioned to participants, who wrongly think the intermediary is also volunteering).
10. Report results inclusively
Why?
Designing accessible deliverables helps stakeholders fully grasp the study’s findings without stigmatization.
How?
Use Word, PowerPoint, or Acrobat’s accessibility assistant to create your report (6)(7)(8).
Provide summaries, subtitled videos, written transcriptions of audio content, and add descriptions to images when they provide meaningful information.
Equip yourself with a microphone in large rooms, and allow subtitles during video calls. Opt for a noise-canceling headset if you're in an open space or near noisy areas.
11. Review and share your experience
Why?
Accessibility is a continuous improvement process with detours and shifts. It’s also a responsibility to be shared.
How?
Review: What have we learned, what have we improved, and is it enough for reliable insights? What more can we do?
Regularly audit (digital, physical spaces, communication materials) and track accessible resources, services, and actions while measuring progress.
Share lessons, resources, tools, good contacts, and community practices.
12. Extend to the researcher experience
Why?
Research staff are generally not disabled, and the sector struggles with "maintaining employment" when disability arises during someone's life (cancer, long COVID, diabetes, accident, chronic pain, PTSD, etc.).
By adopting universal accessibility, companies develop and purchase more ergonomic and efficient solutions.
Checklist of 12 actions to remember
1. Recruit a diverse panel
Multiply channels, demand accessibility of platforms, avoid complacency bias.
2. Design accessible questionnaires
Apply WCAG and RGAA in France (General Reference Framework for Improving Digital Accessibility), offer alternatives (telephone, support), include questions on disability.
3. Train yourself in disability and accessibility
Organize training and demos tailored to your business, request personalized case studies.
4. Removing barriers to participation pathways
Adapt formats (written, oral, video, etc.), clarify available support, allow more time.
5. Test the protocol in advance with the people concerned
Audit the participant journey, conduct pilot tests, adjust supports and process.
6. Maintain a high level of standards
Combine rigor and accessibility, without compromising on the quality of insights.
7. Prioritize empathy, avoid pity
Address the person directly, avoid assumptions and ableist language.
8. Avoid generalization and enthusiasm biases
Contextualize feedback, cross-reference perspectives, question feelings.
It’s your turn!
Inclusion in education isn't an option or a nice-to-have.
Integrating the needs of people with disabilities into the design process from the outset accelerates innovation and ensures lasting added value for businesses, consumers, and their families.
Want to make your research more inclusive? We support senior management, research, UX, HR, CSR, and innovation departments in this process. Contact us for a quick assessment or tailored training!
Sources and Resources
More than 15% of the global population lives with a form of permanent, temporary, contextual, or changing disability. Source : WHO 2021
Web accessibility (overview) on Wikipedia
WCAG : Web content accessibility guidelines. General Reference for Improving Accessibility in France (RGAA). French State Resources
The Washington Group on Disability Statistics. In english
"Self-centered empathy." Source in French: Les invalidés, Nouvelles réflexions philosophiques sur le handicap by Bertrand Quentin, 2019 Erés - Connaissances de la diversité.
ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria. On Wikipedia