$8tn market goes begging as TV ads shun the disabled

As adland gathers in Cannes for another round of back-slapping, brands have been warned they are missing out on $8 trillion in spending power by excluding the 1.3 billion people globally with disabilites, with nine out of ten TV ads failing to include closed captions or audio descriptions.

So says the 2025 Global Accessibility Maturity Index & Trends Report from XR. Now in its second year, the global report evaluates market maturity of accessible TV advertising across three core dimensions – brand adoption, broadcaster enablement and market-level enablers such as regulation and policy guidance.

XR’s analysis includes 650,000 creative video assets and nearly 12 million ad deliveries across over 100 countries, providing a comprehensive assessment of the state of accessibility in TV advertising.

The study also introduces new metrics such as Enablement Level, offering a more complete picture of how well markets are equipped to support accessible advertising.

It reveals that beyond audiences with disabilities, watching TV with captioning on is becoming a mainstream trend. Recent studies show that over half of adults, and more than 75% of Millennials and Gen Z, regularly have closed captioning enabled, even when content is in their native language.

It cites Verizon Media research that indicates adding captions improves ad performance, contributing to an 8% lift in recall and an 18% increase in brand linkage.

While broadcaster readiness ranges from 30% to 100%, brand adoption of accessibility features still lags below 30% in most markets, representing a clear gap between platform capability and brand usage.

Meanwhile, adoption of accessibility features on connected TV remains negligible, with less than 1% of streaming ads including captions or audio description and only 4 markets featured in the report saw audio description adoption rise above 1% in 2024.

In fact, the global average Accessibility Maturity Index across 15 markets featured in the report is 2.3, placing most countries in the “emerging” or “developing” stage.

Procter & Gamble global brand accessibility leader Paul Gallagher said: “At P&G, we know that superior reach and communication lead to a superior shopping and product usage experience. That is why, together with the industry, we work with partners who champion accessibility standards and help expand reach. We’re working to make sure everyone can access our ads, so we can better reach all our consumers.”

XR chief executive John Batter added: “Our report reveals a significant gap between viewer preferences and execution – but the brands, broadcasters and publishers that close it will gain an edge in reach, loyalty and performance across every channel, from linear to CTV.

“Millions of impressions are lost when people can’t understand video content. Accessible advertising ensures every impression can connect, whether audiences have disabilities, are watching in public or simply prefer to keep captioning turned on.”