AN ISSUE OF EQUALITY

Article Published March/April 2009
Canadian Retailer
E-Commerce Section: View pdf version

As online commerce matures, it’s becoming clear to retailers that ensuring accessibility for disabled customers isn’t just an issue for their brick-and mortar operations. Fortunately, help is out there.

Every business with a Web site wonders if people are seeing what it has to offer, and if those same people are find the site a visually appealing and easy-to-navigate experience. But what about those potential customers who don’t visit a Web site for its visual appeal?

Last summer, Target Corp. agreed to pay $6 million in damages to plaintiffs in California unable to use its site, a payment that was part of a class-action settlement with the U.S.-based National Federation of the Blind. The retailer and the NFB also agreed to a three-year relationship during which the advocacy group will keep testing the site to make sure it is accessible to visually impaired people. “It is our sincere hope,” said NFB president Marc Maurer at the time, “that other businesses providing goods and services over the Internet will follow Target’s example and take affirmative steps to provide full access to their Web sites by blind consumers.” (Apple Inc. later announced its intention to make its iTunes site fully accessible to the blind by the end of 2009.)
The Target case, in which its site was found in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and California civil rights statutes, is one of the more high-profile cases in this area of law, but it’s far from the only one. Here in Canada, the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians recently filed a human rights complaint against TicketMaster because its CAPTCHA did not provide an audio equivalent or other accessible means of proceeding through their Web site (CAPTCHA, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, is used by many sites to prove a real user is trying to access it; if you have ever had to type a random series of letters and numbers to complete an online transaction, then you have used a CAPTCHA). As a result, TicketMaster has since made changes to its site to assist those with visual impairments.

The message e-commerce providers are hearing from customers is clear: if you do not ensure that every potential customer has reasonable access to your site, you may soon be forced to make that effort. Fortunately, there is help for retailers in this area; every day, organizations working on behalf of people with disabilities are working with companies to ensure their Web sites are accessible to all. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind, for example started auditing Web sites in 2007 to assist companies and government departments that wanted to be in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, which could, when fully implemented, have an impact on e-commerce in that province.

“The [Ontario] government is in the process of developing standards for accessible information and communications, which may include policies around making e-commerce Web sites accessible for the visually impaired,” says Chris Tidey of the Communications and Marketing Branch for the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services. “The work of the Information and Communications Standards Development Committee will assist government in determining what support retailers might require in complying with possible regulatory requirements and what might constitute best practices.”

Mike Park, manager of accessibility consulting for CNIB, notes that aside from the Act, which affects only companies doing business in Ontario, developers and Web managers should also adhere to standards set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C is an international member organization working to develop Web standards). “Some of the major large retailers may be more on the ball when it comes to adhering to the standards, but some smaller companies may not have an idea that these standards exist,” says Park.

Why is this becoming an issue for retailers that sell online? Putting aside obvious questions of fairness and equality, online retailers who do not make the effort to create an accessible site run the risk of cutting themselves off from a significant customer base. The CNIB notes there are roughly 836,000 people in Canada with significant or total vision loss — a number that can only be expected to increase as the population ages (see story, page 35). And that figure does not include those Canadians with other disabilities, including deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, or speech disabilities —all of which can impede a person’s ability to fully access and appreciate online content. If that number sounds huge, consider this
one: a recent Royal Bank report estimates people with disabilities account for an estimated $25 billion a year in consumer spending in Canada, and they have influence over the spending decisions of an estimated 12 to 15 million more consumers. And yet, according to a 2006 United Nations report, only three per cent of the world’s Web sites are accessible to the disabled.

Simon Dermer, managing director of Toronto-based eSSENTIAL Accessibility, says that online accessibility is a crucial issue for people with disabilities. “When you’re disabled and you can’t go to the bank, and you can’t go to an educational institution or store for your groceries, you can see that it’s not really a luxury anymore,” he says. “It’s actually more a necessity than ever.”

His is among a handful of companies that have sprung up in recent years to help companies navigate the still emerging challenges of communicating electronically with people with disabilities. Dermer’s company, for instance, has developed a program in which subscribers can position a user-friendly Accessibility icon prominently on their homepage; customers then click on the icon and are transferred over to eSSENTIAL Accessibility’s Web site, where they can download the solution they need to access the subscriber’s Web site. As an example, eSSENTIAL provides technology for those who may be quadriplegic, allowing them to use their Webcam as their mouse by means of the camera picking up on eye movement and head movements. “For those who may not be able to use a mouse or keyboard, or have difficulty doing so, it presents a variety of what are called ‘alternative input methods’ to enter data,” Dermer said.

A number of prominent retailers have begun subscribing to eSSENTIAL Accessibility’s solution during the past year, including Canadian Tire, Grocery Gateway, Home Hardware, Longo’s, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, and U.S. jewelry retailer ICE.com. “We re-launched our Web site in mid-2008, and just kept in mind that we wanted it to be accessible,” said Kathy Philippe, consumer loyalty & Web site manager for Home Hardware, when asked about the decision to partner with eSSENTIAL.
“It’s a really easy integration; they control the whole process and you don’t have to do anything to your Web site.”

While outside services like eSSENTIAL can be helpful in navigating a changing landscape, there are other, low-cost ways of ensuring your site’s content is accessible to as many viewers as possible. John Rae with the Kelowna, B.C.-based Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians says companies should avoid using Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files, or include equivalent pages in rich text or HTML, because the majority of PDF documents cannot be read by screen-access technology that convert text into speech, such as JAWS (Job Access With Speech). And retailers should be wary of getting so caught up in deploying the latest and coolest Web applications that they forget to provide text alternatives for any non-text content. The CNIB’s own site is also a good example of how an organization can use different display options (font sizing, different contrasting backgrounds, etc.) to help those who experience difficulties reading text on screen.

“We believe that all companies want our business, like they would anybody else’s, and so these barriers, if eliminated, make it easier for us to shop or to be informed,” Rae said. “In the disabled population, despite the level of poverty which still confronts many of us, there is some considerable purchasing power…. We simply want to be able to participate in all aspects of life on an even playing field, and that includes being able to shop online.”