People with Disabilities are Next Consumer Niche

Companies see a market ripe for all-terrain wheelchairs, computers with
'Sticky Keys'

Disabled people say, 'We have money and want to spend'

By: Joshua Harris Prager
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Handicapitalism

It's a brand-new term that describes what's behind a dawning realization in
business: People with disabilities shouldn't be viewed as charity cases or
regulatory burdens, but rather as profitable marketing targets. Now,
mainstream companies, from financial services to cell phone makers, are going
beyond what's mandated by law and rapidly tailoring products to attract them. 

A new training video for Norwest Mortgage Inc., a unit of Wells Fargo & Co.
in Des Moines, IA, details a number of products it offers, including
vehicle-conversion loans and home-modification loans especially for the
disabled. The video, a call to arms for its sales force, offers a stark
rationale: "Fact: People with disabilities have money!" 

In 1995, according to the latest available census figures, there were about
48.5 millions people 15 and older with disabilities in the US with annual
discretionary income totaling $175 billion. With last month's passing of the
Work Incentives Improvement Act, a bill expected to funnel tens of thousands
of disabled people into the work force, their purchasing power will only grow. 

Already, businesses are becoming more direct in their appeals. "We've been
called gimp, cripple, and our new favorite, retard," begins an ad heralding
the recent launch of wemedia.com, an Internet portal that posts
wheelchair-accessible real-estate listings and links to employment services
that specialize in placing job seekers with disabilities. "You can start
calling us Mr. and Mrs. $1 trillion in consolidated buying power."  

"If this were charity, I wouldn't bother," says Cary Fields, president and
chief executive officer of wemedia, whose corporate partners include
HotJobs.com Ltd., a job-search site. "These people are here," he adds. "If
you want their money, go deal with them."  

More companies are raising their profiles among people with disabilities.
Johnson & Johnson sponsored a few sessions at last year's annual convention
of the Society for Disability Studies. Earlier this year, the company
launched Independence Technology, a unit that will produce and market
products for people with disabilities. Johnson & Johnson has invested more
than $100 million in the company, whose first product is the IBOT
Transporter, an all-terrain wheelchair. 

Daimler Chrysler AG's Dodge brand and Barnes & Noble Inc. have agreed to
sponsor AdaptZ.com, another one-stop shop for the disability community,
launched last month. And, in the past year, more than 100 companies including
Nike Inc., Pfizer Inc. and portal site Snap.com have aired commercials
featuring people with disabilities, according to Advertising Age magazine. 

Some of the activity has been spurred by federal regulations. In November
1998, Olli Kallasvuo, chief financial officer of Finnish cellphone company
Nokia Corp. sent a letter to employees about the Telecommunications Act of
1996 which mandated that companies in the US ramp up access to technology for
people with disabilities. "Passage of this law presents a tremendous
opportunity for Nokia," he wrote. "Enhancing our accessible product line ...
offers Nokia the opportunity to reach a developing global market of almost
750 million people with disabilities."  

For people with hearing problems, Nokia sells phones that flash or vibrate.
It also offers a "loopset," a wire with a microphone in it that hangs around
a person's neck and plugs into a hearing aid. 

More companies are forming in-house disability teams. Last year, for example,
Microsoft Corp. created its Accessibility and Disabilities Group, with more
than 40 researchers, marketers and product developers. The group has
engineered such products as a mouse that is less sensitive to tremors. For
people who can't press several keys at once, Microsoft makes "sticky keys"
configured to hit control, alt and delete keys, say, with a single keystroke. 

Accessibility enhancements can be as simple as varying colors. People with
vision problems, for instance, are aided by contrasts. "The cost of white
plastic is the same as gray plastic," says Jim Tobias, president of Inclusive
technologies, consultants on technology and disability, in Matawan, NJ. "And
a few more million people will be able to use it."  

Several years ago, Bell Atlantic Corp. launched an in-house market research
project on people with disabilities. The company determined that the market
was ripe for such assistive devices as light-flashing caller-IDs and voice
mail that alerts people to take their medicine. 

Last year, Bob Baublitz, Bell Atlantic's first manager of marketing to the
disability community, led the launch of an accessible Web site touting Bell
Atlantic's disability-friendly products. Earlier this year, Bell Atlantic
advertised its services in three disability-oriented magazines. 

Bell Atlantic won't disclose its sales figures but says the products are
selling well. "They're just scooping them up," says Marilyn Benoit, manager
of Bell Atlantic's center for customers with disabilities. "This was a very
good business decision."  

Indeed, handicapitalism (a term that Johnnie Tuitel, a lecturer with a
disability is seeking to trademark) has nothing to do with regulatory change
of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990. That law,
which mandated that companies treat people with disabilities in an evenhanded
way and make "reasonable accommodations," prompted companies to install
wheelchair ramps for workers and hire interpreters for deaf employees, among
other things. 

Still pinpointing what is considered legally "reasonable" remains tricky.
Last month, the National Federation of the Blind sued America Online Inc.,
alleging that it violated the federal disabilities law by being inaccessible
to blind users. The Baltimore group complaint charged that AOL's software
doesn't work with the computer programs that dictate text and otherwise help
blind people operate applications and Web sites. 

"It would be more productive to everyone if we could deal with this as a
technology issue and not a legal issue," says Tricia Primrose, an AOL
spokeswoman. She says that the next version of AOL's software will be
screen-reader-compatible and so accessible to people with visual impairments.  

Other advocates for the disability community say they prefer products and
services to be spurred by profit potential, not by compliance. And targeting
people with disabilities for purely altruistic reasons "isn't going to get
the return on investment,: says Cheryl Duke, president of W.C. Duke
Associates Inc., a disability consulting firm in Woodford, VA. "If you do it
because it's a moneymaking project, it will continue."  

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Cultivating a new community

Number of people with disabilities, by type of disability, in millions:

    Mobility               16.3
    Limited hand use       13.6
    Cognitive               9.0
    Hearing                 7.4
    Visual                  6.5
    Speech and language     2.0


Percent of people living in households with annual incomes of at least
$50,000, by disability: 

    Hearing                15%
    Speech and language    12%
    Visual                  9%
    Limited hand use        9%
    Cognitive               8%
    Mobility                7%

Source: Inclusive Technologies


Inclusive Technologies - http://www.inclusive.com/
Norwest Mortgage - http://www.wellsfargo.com/mortgage/
wemedia - http://wemedia.com/
Society for Disability Studies - http://www.uic.edu/orgs/sds/index.html
Johnson & Johnson IBOT - http://www.indetech.com/
AdaptZ - http://www.adaptz.com/
Nokia - http://www.nokia.com/main.html
Microsoft Accessibility and Disabilities Group - http://www.microsoft.com/enable/default.htm
Bell Atlantic - AccessAbility - http://www.bellatlantic.com/foryourhome/NH/accessability/index.html
W.C. Duke Associates Inc. - http://www.wcduke.com/