The Blind Spot in The Beauty Industry: The Need for More Accessibility for the Visually Impaired

NOVA explores the need for more accessibility in the beauty industry through the lens of three visually impaired beauty enthusiasts.

PHOTO BY ZAHRIN LUKMAN ON UNSPLASH

Louise Plunkett, otherwise known as ‘Lou’, was 15-years-old when she was diagnosed with Stargardt, a genetic and progressive disease that causes vision loss. Joining the 340,000 people who are registered as blind or visually impaired in the UK according to the National Health Service.

Louise recalls the early days of losing her vision in school, saying: "I missed a whole section on a maths test because I couldn't see it on the board. It had an impact on my confidence and I just wanted to be like everyone else, not be ‘Louise the blind girl’.” Over the years, her vision diminished and now only has peripheral vision left, meaning that she can see shapes and outlines but is unable to discern details.

Despite the challenges, Lou has gone on to live a fulfilling life as a wife, mother and founder of ‘Impact with Lou’, a business dedicated to increasing online accessibility for the visually impaired. She has a skincare regimen that she follows every morning and evening and takes pride in her appearance. "I like to look presentable," she says. A NOVA beauty and accessibility survey revealed that 87.5% of visually impaired respondents choose to wear makeup and of these 18.8% wear it daily.

Lou falls within the 31% who wear makeup occasionally. However, it is not an easy task for her: “If I stand in front of a normal mirror, I can't see myself at all. It's just a blurred shape.” This makes something like putting on eyeshadow almost impossible, “It’s hard to see that I've got the right amount on each side and if it's in the right place,” she explains. Lou uses a small handheld mirror with a magnification of 20 times magnification, but even that doesn't help her see all the details.

In addition to struggling with makeup, not being able to see certain details of her appearance affects her self-reliance: “I couldn’t see if I had stains on my clothes, or I'd spilled something, maybe drips from toothpaste. It's those types of things which can erode your independence because you always have to rely on somebody else to be able to tell you.” Experiencing a loss of independence is a familiar feeling for 32-year-old Hazal Baybasin from London. She found herself blind overnight at the age of 28 after developing a rare brain condition that flattened her optical nerves. “I was admitted to the hospital with severe headaches, which then turned out to be clotting on the surface of the brain,” Hazal says. While she was being treated for that, her vision went from “blurry into complete darkness” within a matter of days.

HAZAL BAYBASIN USING THE ESTÉE LAUDER VIRTUAL MAKEUP ASSISTANT APP-PHOTO BY ESTÉE LAUDER

NOVA’s survey revealed that 81% of visually impaired people do not think that beauty is accessible, and Hazal can attest to this. Before losing her sight, she was passionate about beauty but found it challenging to carry on with her routine and products after her sight was gone, “I knew what the products were and I knew what they looked like, but they all felt the same and they all smelled the same.” She found it frustrating that products were not designed for people with sight loss, “I just felt really, really left out.”

Four years on, and Hazal is a trailblazer in the beauty industry helping create change. She is the face of the new Estée Lauder ‘Voice-enabled’ Makeup Assistant app which uses artificial intelligence and the front camera on a phone to provide audible feedback during makeup application. Hazal was able to try the new app before it was launched in the UK and is thrilled with the results: “Before this app, I would go and ask my mum if I have blended properly or if my lipstick is okay. Or I would just either not use makeup that day or stick to very neutral colours, now it doesn't matter. I can literally just use the app.”

Our survey revealed that 44% of respondents are already in the know about this app, and a 43% are very eager to give it a go, proving that there's a significant demand for accessibility apps!

“To see such a big, well-known brand, invest so much time and effort and money into something that is important to me and the rest of the blind and visually impaired community- it's amazing,” Hazal says. However, there is “still a long way to go” she adds, so what more can be done?

“If I stand in front of a normal mirror, I can’t see myself at all. It’s just a blurred shape.” – Louise Plunkett

Sylvia Chengo, is a 33-year-old legally blind Instagram digital creator from London who also feels that the beauty industry should be improved for VI people. She suggests that tactile markers should be added on beauty products, explaining that it would make it easier to “know what you’re holding”. She adds that although apps that read product labels exist, “having to pick up your phone or your device to start reading the label on something every time you want to figure out what it is, is not very convenient.” She makes a point about how foundation can be more accessible too, highlighting that if they all had a pump option it would improve portion control: “That's the biggest struggle that I have [regarding makeup], just figuring out how much foundation I have gotten out the bottle.”

The Nova survey asked visually impaired individuals to suggest more ways accessibility can be improved in the beauty industry: “Larger indicators of colour. Not a small dash of the colour” one response says,” “The colour contrast and fonts used on packaging are incredibly hard to read, even with magnification,” another person writes,” “braille on products” another reads.

Adding braille on products isn’t as straight forward as it seems, as Hazal discovered when she started her own beauty brand, ‘Blind Beauty’: “Braille, unfortunately, isn't universal. English braille is different to American braille, which is different to German braille. “This led her to remove international shipping for now while she works on finding a solution. However, Hazal's products are still accessible in many other aspects. For instance, she prioritises the smell and texture of her products over the appearance of their packaging.

“Just because we have this problem with our eyesight, doesn’t mean that we don’ t care about the way that we look.” – Hazal Baybasin

Sylvia is a member of an expanding group of visually impaired content creators who have increased in popularity in recent years and are working to challenge stereotypes on their disability. She is motivated by successful VI content creators like Molly Burke, who boasts nearly 2 million subscribers and has an array of beauty-related videos on her YouTube channel. Sylvia is a smaller creator and her Instagram page, just shy of 10k followers, showcases a mix of light-hearted posts with her children as well as educational content, mostly reels, where you can find lots of trending music and sounds.

Like Lou and Hazal, her message of inclusivity is inspiring. These women are shining examples of how one person can make a difference in transforming the beauty industry towards greater accessibility and inclusiveness.