The world has not been designed for blind and partially sighted people who often have no choice but to ask other people for assistance, robbing them of their privacy, dignity and right to own their own information.

And, like in all areas of design, this is even more evident in products specifically used by women.

Accessible design is essential for equality and inclusion - especially accessible design for women, so to highlight this and show just how much it matters we chose to focus on one poignant example - the pregnancy test.

Over 5 million pregnancy tests are sold in the UK each year, but not one is accessible for blind women who need the help of another person to read them their results, meaning their most private information is made public and they are never the first to know about their own bodies.

Having to disclose their private sexual information to another person is not only embarrassing but opens themselves up to comment or judgement. It could even put them at risk. And this is all after having found a person to ask in the first place - with many blind women having to ask relative strangers.

This is a highly emotional and potentially life-changing moment made more difficult - and in some cases traumatic - due to the lack of accessible design.

Every woman should have the right to take a pregnancy test privately and independently, and be in control of their own information, no matter how they see.

An awareness campaign wasn’t enough. To drive real change we needed to do something that the healthcare industry couldn’t ignore. So, to show the world that accessible design mattered- and prove it was possible - we created a prototype of the world’s first accessible pregnancy test.

Working in the same way as existing tests, we replaced screens with a mechanical output combined with a large tactile result area using raised nodules, allowing women to feel their results. The control was also tactile and moved to the underside for extra clarity. The top was brightly coloured for those with limited vision, and the chassis was redesigned to be easier to navigate by touch.

Then to help people understand the emotional impact of inaccessibility we supported the test with a film and provocative press radio and OOH campaign that dramatized the lack of privacy afforded to blind women when taking a test.

We knew we needed to target two audiences, those who could make change happen - businesses and designers, and those who could encourage those businesses to act - the public.

This meant PR was essential to our campaign, we needed to create an inherently sharable story - like creating the world's first accessible pregnancy test - that could spark conversations and get the support of the public to apply the needed public pressure to those who could change things.

The accessible pregnancy test itself needed to reflect the blind women it served, so we used ethnographic research to get a deep understanding of both the issue and their needs. This shaped our focus on privacy as the key design priority and campaign message - something that was fundamentally important to blind and partially sighted women and something that all women could resonate with.

We engaged mainstream media - who covered the story extensively despite a crowded Covid news-cycle - with separate press releases and spokespeople depending on the audience.

With a limited budget – predominately donated media – we also had to be strategic with our targeting of OOH, prioritizing locations with contextual relevance, specifically toilet door media.

To reach our audience of businesses and designers, we then concentrated high impact formats in stations with the largest percentage of design-based companies in proximity. Creating the feeling of a mass campaign, and driving the attention of those who could do most to help.

And, to demonstrate RNIB’s credibility as a partner and consultant in the accessible design process, we shared all of our research and results on our microsite, to show exactly how it could be done, and inspire designers to step up.

Our campaign sparked conversations globally. We gained over 106 pieces of earned media - including primetime interview segments - with a 2.67 billion reader/viewership and we had a reach of 23.47 million on social media.

Together exposing the inequality that blind women face, by bringing the issue to the masses and inspiring future designers by landing the importance of inclusive design.

And most importantly, applying the needed public pressure to grab the attention of ClearBlue – the UK’s largest pregnancy test manufacturer – who are now in talks with RNIB about making an accessible test a reality.