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E-commerce

Disabled people want and need to access websites for goods and services. Accessible e-commerce sites, as well as attracting business from disabled people who have £80billion [i] to spend in the UK and $220 billion [ii] in America, work better for everyone.

Disabled people, their families and carers access the same website products and facilities as non-disabled customers. Accessible websites are also an important resource for disabled customers who find getting to the shops difficult.

  • 71% of UK disabled people use the internet to find information on goods and services. [iii]
  • 48% of American disabled people said that going online significantly increased their quality of life. [iv]
  • 54% of disabled UK citizens sampled considered Internet access essential, compared with only 6 per cent in the general population. [v]

Millions of individuals have impairments including visual, cognitive, manual and dyslexic which affect the way they access the internet. Accessible websites make it much easier for disabled customers who use a variety of assistive technology to access the internet.

  • Two-thirds of disabled internet users use assistive devices (aids, equipment, adaptations) to access a computer or the internet. [vi]
  • 45% required voice recognition assistance. [vii]
  • 28% use keyboard adaptations. [viii]
  • 24% use mouse adaptations and 19% use speech output systems. [ix]
  • Only 38% of those needing assistive devices found most or many websites easy to use and navigate. This compares with 69% of people who do not use assistive devices. [x]

A recent survey was undertaken to establish the top ten accessible websites favoured by disabled online shoppers. The results illustrate the range of interests of disabled people, and are revealing of the fact that accessible websites are often those which are easier for everyone to use. In terms of accessibility the top three sites were listed as bbc.co.uk, nationwide.co.uk and google.co.uk. The remaining seven sites listed were ebay.co.uk, amazon.co.uk, guardian.co.uk, lastminute.com, premierleague.com, yahoo.co.uk, and timesonline.co.uk. [xi]

Accessible websites work better for everyone.

A recently re-launched website for the home and life insurance market has seen:

  • A saving of 66% in maintenance costs, amounting to £200,000 per annum. [xii]
  • Natural search engine traffic increased by 30% [xiii]
  • A 75% reduction in time to load a page [xiv]
  • An additional 13,000 visitors each month from improved browser compatibility alone. [xv]
  • A 95% increase in life quotes online with Life insurance sales online increasing by 90%.[xvi]

The benefits of accessible websites are clear, yet four of five major UK supermarkets are falling below minimum accessibility standards for disabled users [xvii]

Tesco

Tesco, the leading online grocery supplier in the UK, has produced the Tesco Access site. Developed in close consultation with the RNIB and a panel of visually impaired shoppers, the site offers an alternative to the high-graphic content of the mainstream version of the site.

The 15-minute rule (30 items purchased over a 56K connection in 15 minutes or less) is an important aim of the Tesco site. By having Tesco.com and Tesco Access side-by-side, all users can benefit from 15-minute shopping.

Many fully-sighted people find Tesco's Access site easier to use than other sites. Although originally designed for visually impaired users, the site now attracts a much wider audience, spending £13 million [xviii] a year, which is a fraction of the original cost of £35,000 to develop the accessible site.

As a result of their commitment to accessibility, Tesco has for no extra cost a site that will be easy to access from other devices like PDAs, Web TV and Pocket PCs with low speed connections and/or limited screen sizes. [xix]

Tesco Access site

 

Sources

  1. [i] Department for Work and Pensions estimate, December 2004
  2. [ii] Robert Rudney, A Disability Market Survey 2003, NOD
  3. [iii] Disabled People and the Internet:- Experiences, Barriers and Opportunities, Piling, Barrell & Floyd, Joseph Rountree Foundation, 2004
  4. [iv] Survey carried on behalf of the US National Organization on Disability in 2000.
  5. [v] Disabled People and the Internet:- Experiences, Barriers and Opportunities, Piling, Barrell & Floyd, Joseph Rountree Foundation, 2004
  6. [vi] Disabled People and the Internet:- Experiences, Barriers and Opportunities, Piling, Barrell & Floyd, Joseph Rountree Foundation, 2004
  7. [vii] Disabled People and the Internet:- Experiences, Barriers and Opportunities, Piling, Barrell & Floyd, Joseph Rountree Foundation, 2004
  8. [viii] Disabled People and the Internet:- Experiences, Barriers and Opportunities, Piling, Barrell & Floyd, Joseph Rountree Foundation, 2004
  9. [ix] Disabled People and the Internet:- Experiences, Barriers and Opportunities, Piling, Barrell & Floyd, Joseph Rountree Foundation, 2004
  10. [x] Disabled People and the Internet:- Experiences, Barriers and Opportunities, Piling, Barrell & Floyd, Joseph Rountree Foundation, 2004
  11. [xi] 'Disabled people favour accessible sites.' AbilityNet news archives, December 2005.
  12. [xii] 'How to Enhance Your E-Business, Public Available Specification 78 - Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites., DRC 2006
  13. [xiii] Example of Legal & General accessible website, cited in Choice of one for disabled on-line supermarket shoppers. AbilityNet news archive 2004.
  14. [xiv] Example of Legal & General accessible website, cited in Choice of one for disabled on-line supermarket shoppers. AbilityNet news archive 2004.
  15. [xv] Example of Legal & General accessible website, cited in Choice of one for disabled on-line supermarket shoppers. AbilityNet news archive 2004.
  16. [xvi] 'How to Enhance Your E-Business, Public Available Specification 78 - Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites., DRC 2006
  17. [xvii] AbilityNet survey 'State of the eNation - Choice of one for disabled online supermarket shoppers' July 2006
  18. [xviii] RNIB, quoted in AbilityNet State of the eNation report.
  19. [xix] Case study extracted from 'The making of the Tesco Access site.' siteusability.com -improving the web experience