Inclusivity and Accessibility: Tackling iGaming’s Next Big Challenge

Author: May Thawdar Oo

Online gambling and sports betting took off at an astronomical pace long before SpaceX, and it’s safe to say that the community surrounding it is developing quicker than the Metaverse.

The online gambling market is growing at a steady pace of 11.78% in North America alone and has been coined as one of the fastest-growing markets, expected to reach a value of €136.8 billion ($153.57 billion) by 2030.

While the quick pace of growth looks promising, it also brings about a new challenge for the operators in the industry to address – inclusivity and accessibility.

This particular challenge is not unique to the online gambling community.

We’ve seen it before through different eras, starting from when the internet was created, then the social media boom, and further through the creation of smartphones.

Though addressing the same challenge, operators in each industry had to innovate and bring out new methods to ensure fair access. However, out of the clutter of items implemented to ensure inclusivity, a single element was at the core – translating inclusive language.   

Whether it’s a casino webpage or a sports betting app, language helps drive context. In other words, the content remains central to guiding user experience, actions, and the customer journey.

Thus, it is safe to assume that inclusive translation will play a significant role in the context of casinos and sportsbooks online.

Let’s run over how inclusive translation can change the landscape of iGaming and burgeon casinos and sportsbooks to include local audiences.

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First Things First – What’s Inclusive Translation?

Inclusive language functions much like a chameleon.

In simpler words, inclusive language retains the structure and meaning of the content an operator wants to convey to its audiences even when it is morphed to meet different audience attributes such as – disability, impairments, local cultural attributes, different experiences, age, gender, and linguistic diversity.

Hence, operators need to adopt a personalized approach to increase inclusivity in the online gambling industry that helps make browsing easier. It automatically increases the level of accessibility that users from different regions experience and helps expand the community at a go. 

The Principles of Inclusive Language

When localizing your website, taking into account the specific needs of the audience you are targeting plays a massive role in deciding the perfect content strategy.

Adding and reducing relevant UX + UI elements from the mix is the key to delivering a premium online gambling experience.

Following our understanding of targeting, let’s look at the pillars on which inclusive language drives inclusivity and accessibility.

Metric of Comprehension

The metric of comprehension in modern-day content strategy is referred to as readability. In other words, readability refers to how easily language can be identified and interpreted by the end users.

In the modern world of digital media, readability is one tenet that drives the development of user-friendly syntax across all industries. Resultantly, when it comes to developing inclusive language websites for iGaming developers, using user-friendly syntax is paramount.

One of the prime examples operators have taken steps to inculcate a culture of inclusivity is through multilingual websites. Not only do such websites minimize the chance of missing out on entire demographics due to a language barrier, but reading in your mother tongue is quite a personal experience in itself.

However, that’s not where the ocean of readability ends.

Another guiding force refers to how well the content is suited to the attributes of the targeted end users. In such a context, the metric of comprehension stretches itself to match requirements from different demographic user types.

Let’s take a standard case study of users who may suffer from a disability of sight. For such users, it would require developing a website optimized for Braille.

However, that’s not where that ends because, beyond the same, there’s a need to recognize age, gender, demographic profile, and cultural exposure to develop braille in a syntax that suits the end users.

The Undiscovered Tenet of Complete Optimization

One of the more relevant tenets that’s the bread and butter for the best iGaming translation agency is the tenet of optimizing your web content.

When we talk of optimization, we refer to it as an entity that’s as undiscovered as the ocean. One of the prime elements guiding inclusive language development is, most certainly, optimization.

Currently, iGaming content marketing is taking on a targeted format and exploring vernacular mediums. Vernacular optimization immediately grants casino operators access to language-specific and niche demographic markets to deploy an inclusive experience and onboard more players.

But what if we said that’s just the tip of the iceberg?

Vernacular optimization in today’s day and age refers to linguistic optimization in singular languages to yield results that are highly targeted toward local customers.

Taking this tenet at its face value, we quickly understand that targeting the audience to be included needs an approach that’s heavily targeted to reaching the right audience.

Using such a targeted system based on using languages, characters, colors, and other industry standards requires deep research into the audience demographics you want to tap into. Factoring in race, religion, ethnicity, age, income group, cultural profile, etc., is crucial for success.

Let’s take a case study of a person with a disability of color blindness. For the user who doesn’t interpret colors as they are, the color scheme of the UI/UX must be reinvented. The typical red used for attracting attention must be switched for a user with deuteranopia (red and green color blindness). 

Alternatively, for users suffering from Achromatopsia (the ability to interpret one color), the color depth must be adjusted to divide the website segments and provide a refreshing user experience.

Subtle Tone Definitions Contribute to Wider Acceptance

As we keep exploring the tenets of inclusive high-quality iGaming content that pays close attention to inclusivity and accessibility, remembering subtlety is essential. This tenet explores the different demographic combinations of inclusivity.

In a world where big data is standard and now AI-researched targeting is slowly becoming mainstream; website content is facing the challenge of being more targeted than ever. Paying attention closely to individual preferences is held in the highest regard currently.

We’re not referring to just disabilities now.

Going deeper and considering the essential elements mentioned here is crucial to developing inclusive content:

Let’s take a quick case study to understand this better. Let’s talk about a queer person who’s into iGaming. Giving them the option of choosing their respective gender during the signup process at an iGaming site or using “them” instead of “he/him” or “she/her” contributes to making content inclusive.

Now let’s say we add another demographic factor: the person belongs to the median socioeconomic status (a majority in this case).

Automatically, the targeted bonus offers by iGaming providers will need to be tailored using language relatable to the kind of exposure they have to create immediate relatability. It refers to the usage of sociolects (dialects influenced by sociological factors).

For example, Cockney, a dialect spoken by working-class Londoners refers “stairs” as “apples and pears” and “phone” as “dog and bone”.

Another subtle yet overlying element is the case of vernacular content, where gendered languages are common. However, using gendered languages like – Hindi, French, etc., might not relate to queer audiences. Thus, overcoming the barriers of vernacular language is also necessary for absolute inclusivity. 

For example, in Hindi, the general structure of referring to audience is gendered. Hence, the word “yours” can be conveyed in two ways – “तुम्हारा” (pronounced too-m-ha-ra) for men and “तुम्हारी” (pronounced too-m-ha-ree) for women.

To make the phrase gender neutral, the use of the word “आपका” (pronounced aa-p-ka) is appropriate as it is seen as a respectable way to address someone and the word doesn’t assume the gender of another person.

Hence, when developing content in gendered languages finding alternate words that can speak to all audiences is extremely necessary.

Making Websites More Targeted – The Key to Inclusivity and Accessibility

Translating inclusive language is a ball game where empathy is one of the primary requirements. Audience relatability is the most critical metric that iGaming giants need to track. Operators can also use casino translation to reposition their brand in a more personalized manner to audiences.

 Let’s look at how you can find the right balance to maximize the experience delivered to users.

Testing Removes Pre-Defined Biases

Changing how content appeals to audiences requires changing the approach to developing it. We are nearing a world where diversity serves as a significant factor driving content marketing.

Understanding the customer psyche in modern times is becoming a difficult challenge. But to devise content that is inclusive, it’s all but essential.

One of the best methods to ensure excellent and inclusive content is to remove pre-defined biases. Let’s take a case study to understand this better.

For instance, a blind user visits an iGaming website where the content reads:

“Can you hear the sounds of the dragon gods roaring?“

While on the surface, the line looks fine since most users can see the bonus advertisements/banners, it isn’t inclusive for the hearing-impaired user.

Switching the line to something more quirky such as:

“Do you feel the rumble of the earth as the dragon gods approach?“

Below is another example of content that’s non-inclusive towards a blind user:

When reading in braille, the user won’t feel excluded from the general population. On the other hand, the general population would perceive it as an emotional connection and still feel included in the mix.

But with the size of the market and the pace at which it’s growing, devising a key content strategy that replicates our case study needs testing.

Testing is done best when you can launch a piece of content into a randomized focus group to understand the feedback and receptiveness. Once you receive the same, you can incorporate it into your website’s content to make it as inclusive as possible.

Designing with Accessibility in Mind

Accessibility can be developed using a multitude of tools and strategies.

For instance, one of the primary methods is to use a color scheme that appeals to a wide range of users. It also means using a color scheme that contrasts starkly and appeals to those with visual impairments.

That can be taken a step further to include auditory cues for those who are visually impaired.

Localizing content for online casinos requires adding features that make it easier for a user to move through your website. The target goal should be to reimagine your website so that it can reach and talk to the most number of users while ensuring each user’s experience is individualistic and not compromised.

An example of this would be having different website setups and UX features depending on the features and natural flow of different devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, etc.

Further localizing it would entail shuffling website features around according to device types. A website variation for a 6.5” screen phone can have the menu option placed a bit lower on the screen than right at the top edge to make it easier for users to access it.

Another critical element driving accessibility for the same case study can be a narration tool. Narrations can significantly reduce – the time taken by an individual user to skim through your website. For a blind person without an audio impairment, it can bring a rewarding experience.

Casino and sports betting translation also go hand in hand with website design.

Remember the tenet of readability? A clean design with simple visual/audio/other cues to guide users through your website’s content also unlocks immediate accessibility.

How to Avoid Excluding Audiences – Golden Rules

Following just a few golden rules can help you avoid offending audiences and assure inclusive and engaging content creation:

1. Never separate your audiences using extremisms to appeal to a widespread demographic profile. For instance, while writing content targeted for the UK, using phrases or terms common for fair-skinned people may cause you to lose out on people with different skin colors and put your brand in a tough spot.
2. Avoid using images that are excluding: Using socially-excluding imagery in your content may lead to a high bounce rate. Even if your content is inclusive and well-translated, it may not even receive attention due to the images being perceived as ignorant. In iGaming, several types of character renditions can also lead to exclusion.
3. Don’t use culturally exclusive accessibility features: The most common example of this can be drawn from narrations. Narration voices may often sound culturally exclusive, so using the most neutral voice is recommended.

Tying Up Loose Ends – Weaving Content That’s Inclusive and Accessible

Making content inclusive and accessible in the modern iGaming industry can be pretty challenging. We highly recommend seeking help from the best iGaming translation agency out there.

To ensure appropriate levels of inclusivity, one must consider all the user attributes while considering the importance of content-based local and regional SEO. You must also consider the different attributes of users to devise truly inclusive content.

Always remember the key to unlocking inclusivity through your content is to ensure it respects the audience that it speaks to. Exercising a certain amount of empathy always pays off!

With the industry at its peak of growth, now is the right time to start developing your content translation game. Take an inclusive approach and ensure you don’t lose out on users. It also brings a significant boost to the brand image you have.

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