Dani Izzie rewrote the story of her disability. Now she’s helping brands be more inclusive.
January 16, 2024 | By Matt Miller, Sr. Copywriter
Too often, the conversation around people living with a disability can be one-dimensional. Instead of a narrative about “overcoming” or “thriving, in spite of,” Dani Izzie, the founder of Access Social, sees her lived experience differently. Her disability is simply another positive part of her identity.
“The whole world tells you having a disability is bad,” Izzie says. “So, it feels kind of freeing and rebellious to look at it in the opposite way.”
In the 15 years since sustaining a spinal cord injury, Izzie has gone on what she calls an “incredible journey” with her disability, leading her to the empowered place she’s in today. Throughout the years, she’s learned how to challenge her own point of view, take risks, and capture opportunities.
“I seized the moment just by leaning into my disability identity. That’s something that a lot of people might not want to do because all of the negative stigmas that come with a disability,” she says. “But what I was able to do was create something really positive—to build a business from the expertise I gained in the industry and my experience as someone with a disability.”
In 2022, after years leading digital marketing for a high-performance wheelchair wheel company, Izzie bet on herself and launched her own business. Access Social is a full-service social media agency that focuses on inclusive marketing and advertising services for brands looking to reach disability communities. The company covers everything from strategy to content creation and influencer marketing.
She’s also become an influential voice in the disability community. In 2021, the documentary Dani’s Twins followed Izzie’s pregnancy and motherhood journey and showed what it means to live with a disability and be a parent.
Below, Izzie shares her advice for how to challenge a narrative, how brands can create more accessible campaigns, and how they can authentically connect with the disability community.
To start off, can you share a little bit about your background and your career journey to where you’re at today?
I have a disability, and it’s a big factor for me. I really do consider it a part of my identity in a positive way. There certainly was a time in my life when it wasn’t positive. When I sustained a spinal cord injury 15 years ago, it was horrible. But over time, I’ve adjusted and it’s really been an incredible journey. I never really started my career until after I acquired a disability, which is interesting because it’s definitely impacted my path.
I started working for a company that manufactures high-performance wheelchair wheels for athletes and everyday wheelchair users. [The company] was extremely accommodating and understood my situation. I started off as a social media manager, and that’s where I really started to hone a skill to reach and speak to this particular audience. That job kept evolving, and I ended up being their digital marketing lead. I realized I have a very specific and specialized skill. And there was enough demand there that I decided to create a company called Access Social.
Can you tell us about Access Social and the work you’re doing with your business?
There’s a healthy demand for inclusive marketing and advertising services. And there’s a healthy demand within the industries that serve people with disabilities. We’ve also seen brands starting to branch out, and they want to reach this market because it’s huge: 1 in 4 people in the U.S. have disabilities. And when I tell people that, they don’t believe it. But I think it makes you realize how broad the definition of disability really is. We are a full-service social media agency, which means everything from strategy to content creation and influencer marketing. Part of all the services I’m offering, the cornerstone is that the accessibility gets baked into every single process, even the strategy. It’s not just how people are accessing the content, but accessibility can also mean: Is the messaging accessible?
So what is the best advice you’ve been given or learned throughout this career journey?
I think sometimes I was given the wrong advice. I was told to make sure that I received a steady income, to stay put and be careful. That held me back for a lot of years until I took my own advice that I should do exactly what I want to do, to chase my own dreams and desires. I think it’s important when you see doors opening to seize an opportunity. I seized the moment just by leaning into my disability identity. That’s something that a lot of people might not want to do because all of the negative stigmas that come with a disability. But what I was able to do here was create something really positive—to build a business from the expertise I gained in the industry and my experience as someone with a disability.
In 2021, the documentary Dani’s Twins followed Izzie’s pregnancy and motherhood journey and showed what it means to live with a disability and be a parent.
You had talked earlier about how your view of yourself as a person with a disability has changed over time. And that also sounds like what we’re talking about here in shifting that perspective.
I think that’s very important. The whole world tells you having a disability is bad. So, it feels kind of freeing and rebellious to look at it in the opposite way. I’m figuring out how I can make the best of this and also impact others. My own journey with a disability became empowered once I started mingling with the disability community. I saw all these other people who were embracing who they were. They didn’t see their disability as a weakness or a limitation. If anything, it made them stronger and gave them a unique set of skills, values, and perspective.
I love what you said about how it’s rebellious to think differently. What you’re getting into there is challenging the narrative in media and advertising. And you’ve done such incredible work in this space. How can brands flip that script around accessibility and create more inclusive campaigns?
When it comes to disability-inclusive advertising, the accessibility components are so important, in terms of people being able to access your products or services. But there’s also the messaging, which I think is difficult for people who are not disabled to get right without consultants or people on their team with the lived experience. Like I said, 1 in 4 people live with disabilities, and all of those people have different perspectives on it. That’s why it’s crucial to have messaging so you’re not isolating anybody. It takes nuance. And I would say for people with disabilities, trust is big. Community is huge. Sometimes trust is only gained through community. So, working with the disability community on a project or a campaign is typically the wisest way to go.
How can brands avoid performative marketing? And how can they build trust with this audience in an authentic way?
It’s really important to get a variety of voices from the disability community during the research-and-development phase. Historically we often only see one approach, which is brands saying, “Oh disabled people are so inspirational.” It’s actually really reductive to only take that one narrative all the time. While that narrative speaks to people who don’t have disabilities, it doesn’t speak to people with disabilities. Giving people with disabilities autonomy is really important. It’s this idea of nonchalance. Let the person with the disability just exist as a person first. You don’t always have to focus on the disability. It could just be an ad [with] a diverse group of people.
What responsibility do brands have to be leaders on this topic and to create these inclusive campaigns?
Inclusion is really important because there’s so much that the brand can do to really change the game for people with disabilities. Mass consumers see this, and it becomes the norm. It will help push the needle on disability representation and the inequities that people with disabilities face. People with disabilities want to buy things and be seen and be included in media and represented, so it makes business sense, and also ethically it’s the right thing to do. Accessibility is good for everybody.
What does progress in this space look like? What work still needs to be done?
Well, a lot of these big brands are creating roles and leadership positions dedicated to accessibility. I think that’s really impactful because those people in those positions really do care. They are going to bring in more people with a lived experience. There’s a lot of work to be done there, but it’s great to have the larger corporate companies leading the way.