The Accessibility Corner podcast series on access and website

The podcast discusses the importance of access for people with disabilities, particularly in online shopping. Many websites are not designed to be accessible, making it difficult for people with disabilities to navigate and make purchases. This affects people with mobility issues as well as those with low vision or other disabilities. The podcast emphasizes the significant market power of people with disabilities and the need for businesses to prioritize accessibility. It suggests that businesses should view accessibility as a long-term investment and highlights the importance of proactive communication and collaboration between people with disabilities and business owners to find solutions. The overall message is that people with disabilities want to be treated equally and included in all aspects of society. Welcome to the Accessibility Corner. And today we're going to start a series of podcasts focusing on what's important to people with disabilities, and that is access. Access is very important for us because it enables us to be independent and also be equal to those who don't have a disability, which we call a quote unquote able-bodied. I ran across a great story on the NPR Marketplace podcast, and it talks about specifically about that, and which is access, and websites. Of course, this past Monday was what, Cyber Monday. Unfortunately for a lot of us, we don't have the same access. Like myself, I'm buying some websites I couldn't use. I wanted to buy something, but you know what, it's not accessible, so what can I do? Yes, I'm going to ask my wife, who's sighted, to assist me, but what for? I want to feel independent, feel like, you know what, I'm welcome at this place, either a store or a restaurant or even a website. So I'm going to go ahead and play that story, and then we'll be right back. Shopping online is a lot harder when websites aren't designed for you. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Kimberly Adams. Cyber Monday has become one of the busiest and lucrative online shopping days of the year. The National Retail Federation estimates almost 64 million people will be looking for deals today, but for shoppers with disabilities, it can be a lot harder to take advantage of sales and promotions online. A significant number of the biggest retail websites aren't compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act or with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Josh Bassel is Community Relations Manager at tech accessibility company AccessiBe. He's also quadriplegic and uses assistive devices to help him navigate the Internet. I asked him about his experience of shopping online. When I go on a site, I kind of want to learn first what that site's about and how to navigate it. So I usually go scroll through the home page from top to bottom, then I like to dive through the menus and drop-down menus. But a lot of times if a website is not accessible, I can't access that menu and get to the drop-down menu and click and go through the site and I'm kind of stuck on the home page, which can be a very frustrating experience. And during checkout, a lot of times my voice dictation software, I can't even type in my name or my credit card information. How do you think that affects how much you shop online compared to how much you would like to shop online? So I'm going to shop online no matter what because it's my, it's my really my only option with the world we live in, with the pandemic and being, having a significant disability. I just end up going back to the same places that have accessibility built in. So if they've welcomed me and opened the doors, I come back as a repeat customer. And that's what we found with people with disabilities, that the most brand loyal customers, when they're taken care of, they come back again and again and again. You mentioned some of the struggles that you face on online shopping websites and other websites because of mobility issues. But I'm thinking about people who have low vision or other disabilities. What are some of the common barriers that people run into when they're shopping online? Absolutely. So if you have a vision disability or are blind and you go into a site, oftentimes you need to have a screen reader or you need some ability to zoom in and have different text be a certain font size or a certain type of font to make it easier for you to see. And if you don't have a website that's built with accessibility in mind, those assistive technologies that you have can have difficulties being able to work the way that they're designed. Can you talk about the size of the market that we're talking about in terms of the purchasing power of people with disabilities? Absolutely. In the U.S. alone, one-fourth of the U.S. for adults are considered to be living with a disability. And with that being said, in 2020, that was $1.28 trillion in disposable income. And that's just people with disabilities. But if you look at the disability community, the friends, the family, we're looking at $7.1 trillion, over 149 million people across the country. If you're able to bring accessibility into your website, into your stores, you're just opening the door to so many people to be a part of that journey with you. And I just can't stress enough for businesses to just really make sure that you allow all customers, all abilities to be a part of your business journey. What does the law say about what kinds of accessibility features these sites are supposed to have? Well, the DOJ for a second time came out this summer saying that websites online fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The courts have been split across the country here and there, but it's one of those things that web accessibility is a smart business practice. It should be done based on the DOJ for compliance purposes. But at the end of the day, it's the right thing to do to be able to make sure that all your customers have a good experience and have an option to make accessibility and usability for them to actually have a good experience. Do you have a sense of what compliance is like online by some of the biggest retailers in the United States? It's a different mindset. So some businesses and some of the biggest businesses, they think of accessibility just as a checkbox. I want it to be something that's built in for reason, for purpose, because it's a long game. It's something that once you build accessibility in and have the right conversations, you are transforming your business and building accessibility into the DNA of your business, which makes it an easier and a more fluid conversation as your business grows. There's so many benefits of making sure that accessibility is part of the equation, especially inclusion, diversity, equity. All of these things strengthen businesses that do it right and make sure that it's part of their business model going forward. It's Cyber Monday, and so many of these big retailers are offering these big deals. There's a ton of ads, marketing, all of these new products and technology and gadgets. And I wonder how it feels to see all of these promotions, knowing what you know about what the back end of these sites is like in terms of accessibility. Companies are spending so much money to bring as many people as possible to Cyber Monday and to draw people into their sites. Now they're drawing in people with disabilities, and then at the door, the door is being closed. So it's just so important, not only for Cyber Monday, but for every day of the year, if you invest in accessibility, making sure that it's both the best short-term and long-term investment for you, to make sure that you have accessibility built in and you're bringing this audience with disabilities, they're going to come back again and again as repeat customers, not just one day a year, but all the days of the year, because they had a good experience on the site. So it's just such smart business to make sure you welcome everyone and anyone at any moment. Josh Bassel with AccessiBait. Well, as you heard, it made some very good points in this story regarding having access, the ability for us, people with disabilities, to spend our money, because our money is the same color. What color is it? Green. It doesn't matter if you're blind, hard of hearing, you have a mobility impediment, it doesn't matter. And that's what companies and establishments like restaurants and like I said earlier, need to know, that we are a powerhouse. As the story stated, we spend trillions of dollars in the private sector. And once these business owners realize that, they're going to say, wow, we need to do more to make our establishments or websites accessible so we can have that extra revenue. But at the same time, I feel that if we're going to approach someone or place with a problem, we also should have a solution. And what I mean by that is let's not go in there and get upset and, you know, your place is not accessible or your website is not accessible, okay, but what can we do to make it accessible for everyone? And to that point, it's very important that people with disabilities, that we are more, not aggressive, but more progressive, if that's the word to use, in regards to accessibility. Reach out to those owners, reach out to that webmaster, say, you know what, knock, knock, hello, my name is George, the website is not accessible because of this, this, and this. However, I could send you or have someone come in and do an evaluation to see how we can make that website accessible for everyone, you know, because we want to feel inclusive, not exclusive. Am I correct? I hope this podcast really hit home for a lot of people that have a disability in regards to access and that we just want to be equal. We don't want to be special, we don't want to do that, oh, I'm this, I'm that, I have this, I have that, treat me special, no. We want to be treated equal. And with that being said, I hope everyone enjoyed this podcast, and we will see you next time on the Accessibility Corner Podcast. .