Building Disabilities Into Your Personas

If your company currently targets small businesses you probably already know that they don’t refer to themselves as small. For example a small construction company would say “we are a construction company”?. They just happen to be small. No one goes into business to be treated like they are small. Small companies would prefer you treat them the same way you would treat IBM or Microsoft. Once companies learn this lesson they generally incorporate this into personas they create for products and services that target small business customers. Shouldn’t this seem logic apply to customers with disabilities?

Creating personas that incorporate disabilities is a lot like creating personas for a small business customer. People with disabilities aren’t unlike any other person you might want to target. They have likes, dislikes, things that make them happy and patterns of behavior and really shouldn’t be treated differently than any other potential customer.

Jason is the 33 year old director of sales for a small Midwestern software company that specializes in voice over IP solutions. Jason does well in his position earning an average of 250K a year. Although he spends most of his day on the phone working to acquire new clients, Jason is relatively comfortable with technology. He is very proficient with e-mail both in Outlook on his desktop and on his blackberry while on the go. He has recently discovered the joys of instant messaging. When he isn’t at work he enjoys spending time sailing his boat with his wife and 12 year old son. Jason’s family is technically saavy as well. Their broadband connection at home allows them to have instant access to information.

Sounds like the beginning of a pretty normal persona right? Now add this.

3 years ago while out with his wife and son a freak accident cause Jason to lose part of his vision.

Does this make Jason any less valuable as a target? No, but it does change how he might access your product or service. So if he is still valuable, doesn’t it make sense to account for this and other potential barriers to access in your personas? Just like a small business doesn’t go into business to be treated small, people with disabilities don’t visit your site to be treated like they have a disability. So go ahead and create your persona, once you are happy with it – add a disability and figure out how this would change the persona’s access to the site you are working on.