What do Beyoncé, Harvard University and Target have in common? Each has faced legal action over claims they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with inaccessible websites. They’re hardly alone. In 2017, website and app lawsuits totaled just over 800, yet by the close of 2023, the volume had climbed to more than 8,200. And retail is the industry leading the way with the most ADA website lawsuits.
With Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 16, it’s important that those in ecommerce keep this in mind. There’s an abundance of online stores. Unfortunately, many retailers view compliance as a game of odds and bet they’ll slip under the radar. However, identifying usability and accessibility gaps isn’t hard when you’re aware of best practices. Neither is reporting or joining in efforts to expose shortcomings. If you’re a person with a disability who relies on online shopping, noncompliance can mean you’re unable to buy or have to abandon a retailer altogether.
As a result, retailers are more vulnerable to fines and damaged reputations than ever before, which is ironic. After all, complying with ADA and accessibility standards doesn’t just protect a retailer from legal action — it can also open up lucrative new sales opportunities.
Why Comply?
There are an estimated one billion people living with disabilities, comprising about 15% of the world’s total population. This makes it the single largest minority market and, according to Forrester, it’s one that accounts for nearly $2 trillion in spending annually. Further, for every dollar a company puts toward web accessibility, the analyst firm estimates $100 is produced.
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Still, WebAIM, a nonprofit focused on expanding the potential of the web for people with disabilities, has found more than 96% of the world’s top one million web pages are still not accessible. Not only is this statistic alarmingly high, it means that less than 4% of the most popular websites are capitalizing on this grossly underserved market.
Being ADA compliant pays other dividends as well. In a survey of consumers by Deloitte, nearly 60% of respondents said they’re more loyal to brands that demonstrate a commitment to addressing social inequities in their actions. What’s more, their research shows more venture capital firms are looking at prospects’ diversity, equity and inclusion strategies too.
Then, of course, there’s the most important compliance reason of all – it’s the right thing to do.
What are the Issues?
WebAIM reports the average number of detectable accessibility errors per website home page is 50.8. They also found 98.1% of home pages fall short of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Typical issues are low-contrast text, no alternative text for images, empty buttons, missing links and form input labels.
Ideally, accessibility should be baked in from the start, not treated as an afterthought. Unfortunately, retailers sometimes rush to begin building websites and products, putting off accessibility until later. In doing so, they fail to consider how a person who is blind, for example, would be able to navigate their offering. To rectify this, designers must go back through what feels like a huge debt of work that’s been accumulating from day one, causing accessibility issues to snowball and waste a website or app’s value even before it’s live.
Where to Begin?
There are an array of common web accessibility design issues, ranging from poor color contrast and navigation structure to lack of screen reader compatibility and inaccessible forms. As a result, technologies have emerged that are designed to ensure we’re thinking about accessibility and incorporating it into our practices. Here are just a few of my favorite tools, with brief descriptions of how they can help make your site compliant.
- Stark: This suite finds and fixes compliance issues fast via automated checks and smart suggestions. With tools like Contrast Checker, Focus Order, Alt-Text Annotations and Vision Simulator, you can prevent accessibility issues before they make it into a design — or analyze and correct what you’ve already got. Designers, don’t miss their Figma plug-in!
- Lighthouse: This is an open source tool for running deep technical website audits and flagging anything that might be a concern. It was developed by Google and analyzes websites and progressive web apps for accessibility, performance, best practices and search engine optimization (SEO).
- APCA Contrast Calculator: There’s a new standard for calculating color contrast called the Accessible Perceptual Contrast Algorithm (APCA), which takes a more modern approach to evaluating appearance for self-illuminated RGB displays and devices (rather than old school CRT-type displays). To help designers meet this standard, the APCA free online calculator assesses contrast to ensure such things as proper text and background combinations for readability.
- Huetone: This allows users to build color palettes while measuring their choices for accessibility. Just enter color palette information and it’ll check all colors against each other, WCAG and the new APCA scale to see if you’re on target.
- Sim Daltonism: This tool lets you visualize colors the way they are perceived by a person who is colorblind. You simply open and position Sim Daltonism’s app window over anything on your screen and it shows what it would look like to a person who is colorblind.
Make it Year-Round
It’s a shame Global Accessibility Awareness Day is just 24 hours. As businesses, there’s so much opportunity being ignored. As a modern society, there are far too many people that still do not have equal access to online services.
Accessibility is a win for all involved, especially, and most importantly, people with disabilities. Keep it in the forefront of your mind, use it as a pillar of your culture, and make it a year round commitment. You’ll be doing good, and it’ll certainly be good for your business.
Glynnis Ritchie is Principal Designer at Flagrant, a shop that discovers, designs and develops software solutions for the unique needs of each client. Ritchie has over a decade of product design and UX/UI experience, along with a passion for shaping accessibility through intuitive workflows, strong visual design and human-friendly content.
