Article

Making retail Web sites more accessible

Experts offer tips on making e-commerce sites useful to all users.

March 11, 2008

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) hears from its members and friends all the time about accessible Web sites. For instance, we work closely with colleagues who are blind or with low vision. What we hear from them are concerns such as: "How do they expect me to order plane tickets on this web site?" or "What were they thinking of with all these flashing and moving images if they wanted me to buy their wonderful new gadget?" or "All I wanted was to buy some bling and I couldn't even enter my credit card number!"

We are also hearing more and more from our friends in the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities about video clips and little movies or talking heads on Web sites where there is no optional captioning or text version of the spoken word, or any indication that there is music playing or other sound effects.

Another group of persons with disabilities tells us that they get lost looking for information online or can't find their way through the text or don't know what to do next on a Web site. These are Web sites that haven't been designed intuitively or with usability in mind. We hear these concerns from persons with intellectual disabilities, persons with cognitive disabilities, persons with mental illness and elderly persons who may be new to shopping on the Internet.

Experts in the field of Web accessibility tell us that it is essential that the several different components of Web development and interaction work together in order for the Web to be accessible to people with disabilities. They tell us that key components of good Web design involve:

• Content designed for the greatest number of users;
• accessible Web browsers and media players and other "user agents" that interact with the pages;
• assistive technology such as screen readers, alternative keyboards, switches, and scanning software, typically used by persons with vision disabilities;
• consideration of users' knowledge, experiences, and adaptive strategies when they use the Web — that is, was the site designed with the full range of potential users in mind rather than the gee-whiz artistic expression of the developer;
• developers, such as the designers, coders, authors, and other users who contribute content are aware of accessibility concerns and issues

All of these components have to be addressed with disability in mind or someone somewhere is going to find they can't use the site. They are likely to give up going to the site, and you will lose the sale or not get your message out. You may even lose the long-time customer who came to your site for information about a product they heard about and wanted to buy.

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It's worth noting here, for instance, that we — people with disabilities — are not single, discrete consumers. We are parents shopping for our kids, we are students looking for hotel deals, we are employees procuring supplies, and we are people buying gifts for friends or shopping for movie tickets.

Some basic guidelines for accessible site design:

• When using images and animations, use descriptive alt-tags to describe what is being shown
• For multimedia, provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of any action in a video
• Use text that makes sense when read out of context — for instance, avoid "Click here," instead using text that explains where the link goes
• Use easily identifiable headings, lists and a consistent site structure

We believe that making a retail Web site accessible to and usable by people with disabilities makes the site a whole lot friendlier for people without disabilities and should lead to even more business. AAPD knows of numerous resources to support designing better Web sites and we are happy to point you to them.

Andrew Imparato is the president and chief executive officer of AAPD. Jenifer Simpson is AAPD's senior director for telecommunications and technology policy initiatives.

AAPD is the largest national nonprofit cross-disability member organization in the United States, dedicated to ensuring economic self-sufficiency and political empowerment for the more than 50 million Americans with disabilities. AAPD works in coalition with other disability organizations for the full implementation and enforcement of disability nondiscrimination laws, particularly theAmericans with Disabilities Act(ADA) of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.