Importance of Accessibility Features for Online Stores
Taking your business online or operating an online-only store does not mean you can forego accessibility and the standards you’d offer in a regular bricks-and-mortar store. Web accessibility laws have been developed and finessed to ensure people with various disabilities can have the same online experience as able-bodied people.
Cases such as Netflix v. NAD and Gil v. Winn-Dixie highlight the importance of providing accessible eCommerce stores, apps and websites. Despite high profile cases, many websites are still not complying with regulations, making their websites inaccessible or difficult to use for disabled people.
Regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act state that commercial facilities are required to provide accessible designs and accommodations for individuals with disabilities. While there are no specific enforceable legal standards for web accessibility most online stores must comply with the ADA requirements regarding accessibility if they satisfy one or both of the following conditions:
1. They have 15 full-time employees.
2. Run at least 20 weeks of the year.
These regulations apply to virtually all businesses - including all eCommerce stores. However, brands should want their store to be as diverse and accessible as possible. Most stores these days offer wheelchair-accessible ramps and bathrooms. Your online store should feature similar accommodations for people who want to buy your products.
Is your Business Subject to ADA?
Organizations and businesses that meet the above criteria must maintain ADA compliant websites, both on desktop and mobile. Any third-party apps must also be accessible to people with disabilities. Compliance is not always laid out clearly but the WCAG private industry standards have been widely adopted by many businesses as the minimum standard. Federal agencies and other similarly important bodies comply with the WCAG guidelines which are currently in their 2.1 iteration.
The current guidelines state there are three levels of accessibility: A, AA and AAA. All US federal agency websites are required to meet level AA accessibility and this is something many businesses choose as their standard base too, ensuring their sites give customers the same experience as they can expect from government websites.
The Principles to WCAG Accessibility
There are four unique principles of WCAG accessibility for people with disabilities including hearing impairment, sight impairment, mobility issues and cognitive impairment. They are:
1. Perceivable
Information and user interface components must be presented in ways which allow the users to perceive the content. For example, photos must be recognizable using captions and alt text to describe them.
2. Operable
All user interface navigation and components should be operable. For example, dropdowns should be clearly identifiable and accessible.
3. Understandable
Information and the operation of the user interface must be understandable. Information should be displayed clearly so it can be easily understood including features such as forms.
4. Robust
All content should be robust enough so it can be interpreted or translated by different technologies and screens for a variety of different users. Content should be easily converted into a range of different formats using assistive technologies.
Compliance does not mean that you need to provide the equipment needed to access your website. Rather, your eCommerce store and its applications need to be robust enough to provide equal perceivability, operability and understandability for consumers with differing abilities.
Enforcement and Risk Mitigation
Not complying with ADA regulations can result in litigation for a company of any size. Even the most well-defended cases have resulted in federal fines. The lack of specifics in the ADA guidelines for the web is not enough to absolve website owners from accessibility obligations.
To avoid the risk of legal vulnerability, you need to regularly audit and assess your online store for compliance. Keep the four WCAG 2.1 principles in mind and test all aspects of the site. Support for accessibility testing is available from many professionals in the web design and development industry, and it is also possible to find content creators and specialists in accessibility to support your aim of a more accessible store.
Practical Steps to Make Your Online Store Accessible
What can brands do to make their online store as accessible (and compliant with law) as possible? The WCAG 2.1 guidelines are readily available online, however it can take a while to digest and understand it thoroughly and properly implement into your design.
To summarize, visitors who come to your eCommerce site need to be able to perceive, use and understand the information on its pages. They also must be able to access it via their chosen assistive technology.
Below are some of the key considerations for accessibility for the average eCommerce store. Use it as a starting point/a checklist for what you should pay closer attention to when auditing your site for accessibility considerations.
o Buttons and links should stand out to people who are color-blind. You can use an asterisk or another punctuation mark to make them stand out from the rest of the navigation. Use a color that’s easy to distinguish for the color-blind consumers.
o Don’t use flashing animations of animated GIFs as they can cause or induce seizures.
o Avoid excessive CAPTCHA. While it was developed for security purposes, it creates an extra layer of inaccessibility. CAPTCHA doesn’t always stop spam and it may make your store prohibitively inaccessible to people with disabilities.
o Always opt for high-contrast color combinations for text and background. Using colors that are similar to each other on the color wheel are harder to read and differentiate.
o Consider braille support and easy access to enlarged text via the mouse and keyboard.
o Use descriptive alt text and captions for all images, video and audio used across your webstore, especially on commercial pages (products + categories).
o Optimize your content for quick, simple reading incorporating features such as headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up the text for easy readability.
o Make good use of the anchor text you use for internal links by ensuring it is descriptive of the linked-to page. Avoid anchor text like “Click Here” which does not describe what the linked content is about.
o Avoid the use of technical language, jargon and industry-specific abbreviations without also providing a full definition (you can use a glossary page to define terms).
o All buttons, menu items, drop-down menus and navigation features must be accessible via keyboard and mouse.
o Properly label the checkout forms and label what info is required in each field. Each field should also provide customers with warning and confirmation messages.
o No media should play automatically on your site. Videos and audio tracks should be clearly labeled with controls for playing, pausing and stopping. You should also provide transcripts for all audio-visual content and closed captioning and sign language support where possible.
o Consider plugins for specific development systems which will check and fix common accessibility issues. You shouldn’t rely on automatic checkers, but they can help locate common errors and faults.
o Any buttons that lead to downloads or similar trigger actions should be clearly labeled so visitors know what will happen if they use the button.
Business Benefits to Accessibility
There are also significant business benefits to offering an accessible and user-friendly eCommerce store.
Attract a More Diverse Audience
Web accessibility naturally opens up your business to a wider audience. This includes people who have permanent disabilities as well as those living with temporary disabilities.
What’s more, web accessibility has benefits for everyone. Providing captions in your videos may help not only people with hearing impairment, but also non-native English speakers may struggle with understanding accents.
Give your Store an SEO Boost
eCommerce SEO can be challenging but accessibility will naturally push your site in the right direction. By investing time and energy to meet the technical requirements for accessibility, your website will be looked upon favorably by Google and other search engines.
A disorganized, inaccessible website will be caught as Google crawls and learns your site content. Lack of on-page information, images lacking descriptive text, and other numerous usability issues will count against your site’s organic SEO equity. Most of the best practices for on-page optimization heavily overlap with accessibility features in web design.
Enjoy Faster Transactions
Every consumer wants a quick and simple checkout process when shopping online. Sites designed with accessibility in mind from the start accommodate for this.
Simplifying the checkout process means more conversions. Websites built with speed and accessibility in mind account for an easier and faster shopping process.
Additionally, customers will be much more likely to return after a successful, glitch-free shopping experience.
Commit to Accessibility for your Customers and your Business
Accessibility is something you should want for your eCommerce site, not merely an exercise to avoid lawsuits. A store that welcomes a diverse customer base and accommodates for the best user experience possible is something that most brands should strive for as part of their growth.
An accessibility-first mindset also allows your product range to attract a wide range of customers, as well as boost customer loyalty and generate positive reviews for your products and brand in general. With a quarter of Americans shopping online at least once per month, accommodating eCommerce shoppers with sound accessibility and user experience is integral to the success of your online store.
