Research Case Study — CalABLE
Helping a state government program find and serve people living with disabilities
The Problem
CalABLE is a state savings and investment program that gives people the ability to save for disability-related expenses. It’s a potentially life changing financial service, and CalABLE was doing an excellent job of growing awareness that it existed. That said, once audiences were exposed to the program, they were still reluctant to open and fund accounts. CalABLE needed to understand the particular barriers and pain points for those living with disabilities, their families, and their advocates.
The Program
Program 11 understands that people living with disabilities – and those who support them – aren’t a homogenous “community.” Our survey development and design needed to reflect our goal of developing materials to help each audience during the consideration stage of their journey. Our research program included:
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Comparative research and analysis: What were other ABLE programs nationwide doing that was successful? What about other financial programs geared toward typically marginalized or underserved communities like ours?
Surveys and insights: We partnered with National Disability Institute to design a survey, then identified and surveyed panels that include a representative sample of people who live with a disability or have a household member that lives with a disabilities.
Recommendations: From our research insights, we developed recommendations for deeper, more instructional messaging and content that include webinars, ebooks, and guides.
The results? Our work with CalABLE supported multiple initiatives:
The rebranding of the program with more clear, accessible visuals and messaging.
The development of Instructional Marketing™ guides that educate those who work with and serve people living with disabilities, supporting the flywheel effect of one to many.
The introduction of more Spanish language materials.
