A shop entrance with steps, a changing room that is tiny, or a price tag that is hard to read. These are barriers that people with disabilities encounter repeatedly when shopping in the high street. But is accessibility any better online? This article looks at the need for retailers to create truly borderless shopping for customers.
The Equality Act (2010) means that ecommerce retailers are under obligation to actively provide an equal website experience for all their users, including those with visual, motor, hearing, cognitive and learning disabilities. This means that they have a duty to think ahead and take positive steps to ensure disabled people can access the services they offer.
In the UK one in five people have a disability. Allowing for their needs is not just a question of ethics, but common sense. Building a hitch-free, seamless customer journey will simplify the search, select, and purchase process for all customers, which in turn reduces basket abandonment and increases conversions.
Whether an ecommerce site is accessible can be tested using the internationally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These define the criteria that must be met for web content to be considered accessible and usable for shoppers with motor, cognitive, visual and auditory impairments. Among these criteria are keyboard usability, the two-senses principle and the colour contrast of the respective page.
A Swiss study published in 2020 by the foundation “Access for All”, which evaluates online shops according to the WCAGs, indicates that 34% of the online shops tested completely exclude people with disabilities from using them due to their design. They found that just under a quarter were easily accessible.
This is backed up by a report from Purple in which 836 people identifying as disabled in January 2021 and 1000 in August 2021 were surveyed. It found that 15% had problems reading websites and 18% gave up using the site they were on.
Facilitate visual impairment to complete sales
One of the main problems identified in the Swiss study is that people who depend on a screen reader were unable to complete the purchase process, leading to unnecessary purchase cancellations. Yet at the point of check-out, the final essential step in the customer journey, most of the functions that are needed for any customer can easily be implemented by the online retailer’s payment service provider (PSP). These include the input fields on the payment page, for example, so they are unambiguous and clearly labelled – which also makes it easier and faster for other customers to make purchases. In addition, the field and associated text should be linked in the backend.
Where certain fields are obligatory on many ecommerce sites all too often they are only visually marked. Even in the case of error messages, the input field will light up in red – which for the visually impaired is of no help. To ensure that the check-out is screen reader-compatible, appropriate codes should be embedded in the form. They ensure that mandatory fields are not only recognisable by an asterisk, but that the screen reader verbally reads out “required”. The other alternative is to have it translated into Braille – thereby fulfilling the two-senses principle.
When it comes to the small logos of Visa or PayPal, it can be very difficult for customers to see them, but a simple solution is to use a screen reader which depends on alternative text below the logo image. It is a small change but one that ensures more participation.
In the case of visual impairment, those affected are also often dependent on the High Contrast Mode. This makes it possible to adjust the screen colours so that content is more visible. If an online retailer’s checkout is not designed for this, input fields and logos become invisible, and payment cannot be made.
Keyboard operability enables checkout with a click
People with motor impairments are dependent on a keyboard when shopping online. This means that all content customers interact with must be operable exclusively with the keyboard and no mouse. In addition, the customer should be able to clearly recognise which field of the form they are located in at the checkout, possibly by visually highlighting the element.
In one of the ecommerce sites tested by the Swiss study, the customer journey went no further than the shopping basket. The reason was because a keyboard user cannot reach the payment page without the use of the mouse. Pressing the tab key wouldn’t work for them. This was not only frustrating for the shopper but would not have encouraged them to return to the site. A lost opportunity for the retailer.
Enhancing the customer journey for everyone
In ecommerce, there are no aisles that are too small and no steps to climb to get into the shop, but people with disabilities still encounter barriers again and again when browsing virtually. There is no reason for this since the issues relating to the checkout process can be easily eliminated with a few programming changes and a call to their PSP. In addition, retailers can win new and loyal customers with little effort and at the same time make the journey easier for every other shopper they are trying to attract.
By Ralf Gladis, CEO, Computop
