Advertising's Trillion-Dollar Accessibility Gap: Only 1 in 10 TV Ads Use Accessibility Features, New XR Report Finds
Beyond audiences with disabilities, watching TV with captioning on is becoming a mainstream trend—recent studies show that over 50% of adults, and more than 75% of millennials and Gen Z, regularly have closed captioning enabled, even when content is in their native language. Research indicates that adding captions improves ad performance, contributing to an 8% lift in recall and an 18% increase in brand linkage.
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.
'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 like XR 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,' said Paul Gallagher, Global Brand Accessibility Leader, Procter & Gamble.
Key findings from the 2025 report include:
Accessible advertising can expand reach: Only 9% of TV ads in 2024 included closed captions, and just 1% included audio description — despite over 1.3 billion people globally living with a disability and a significant portion of viewers often watching with captions.
Brand adoption lags behind broadcaster readiness: While broadcaster readiness ranges from 30–100%, brand adoption of accessibility features still lags below 30% in most markets—revealing a clear gap between platform capability and brand usage.
CTV ads are still far behind: Adoption of accessibility features on connected TV remains negligible, with less than 1% of streaming ads including captions or audio description.
Audio description is still in its infancy: Only 4 markets featured in the report saw audio description adoption rise above 1% in 2024.
Accessibility maturity remains low in most markets: 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.
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.
'Making ads more accessible isn't just the right thing to do, it's a smart business decision. Brand leaders know that if your content can't be seen, heard or navigated, you're shutting out entire market segments,' said Donna Bungard, CPWA, Director, Accessibility, Indeed. 'Inclusive design expands your reach, plain and simple. And what's exciting is that features like captions, often built with accessibility in mind, are resonating far beyond their original intent. From folks watching in busy waiting rooms or noisy restaurants to younger audiences who default to captions on small screens, accessibility is good for everyone.'
'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,' said John Batter, CEO at XR. '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."
XR has enabled closed captioning and audio description for hundreds of thousands of creative video assets, helping advertisers embed accessibility features across campaigns running on linear and streaming platforms.
The full 2025 Global Accessibility Maturity Index & Trends Report is available here.
About XR
XR is the global leader in creative operations, giving brands, agencies, studios and publishers complete control of the creative lifecycle. Its AI-powered platform centralizes creative management and streamlines workflows—connecting assets, rights data, omnichannel ad distribution, intelligence and production payments into a single solution that drives growth, boosts efficiency and maximizes creative investments. Thousands of customers trust XR to manage and deliver content flawlessly to more than 50,000 media endpoints in 140 countries, and to oversee more than $1.5 billion in annual production payments to talent, crew and vendors. XR is headquartered in North America, with offices in Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit www.xr.global.
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