World Health Organization claims that the estimation of people living with an impaired vision all over the world is about 253 million. Among them, 36 million are fully blind, while the remaining that moderate to severe vision impairment.
These people often feel that they are moderately or completely being cut off from the people and things around them. It makes them feel depressed. Moreover, with everything moving online, shopping is also becoming arduous for them.
However, the advancement of digitization has also given rise to modernization where developers are building eCommerce websites for visually impaired people. They are helping them to purchase anything from clothes to groceries and roller shades effortlessly.
In this article, we will explain crucial information required for developing a website for visually impaired people.
Why Is Web Accessibility and Web Design Important For Visually Impaired People?
Table of Contents
- 1 Why Is Web Accessibility and Web Design Important For Visually Impaired People?
- 2 Ethical Reasons
- 3 Legal Compliance
- 4 Improves Brand Reputation
- 5 Access To A Large Market
- 6 Tips To Make eCommerce Website Accessible For Visually Impaired People
- 7 Avoid Using Colour To Communicate Essential Information
- 8 Grant Keyboard Accessibility
- 9 Use Explicit and Descriptive Labels For Links And Buttons
Websites that consider web accessibility tend to acquire high business performance. The reasons that reveal why one should make it website accessible for blind peoples are:
Ethical Reasons
Every eCommerce organization is responsible to offer equal access to people who are visually impaired. This way, they can actively participate in the community.
Legal Compliance
Several countries have made web accessibility a legal requirement. Therefore, if such people are unable to access your site, they have the right to file a petition against the organization.
Improves Brand Reputation
When you make your site accessible, you bestow your brand a label of a socially responsible website. It reveals that the company takes care of others and improves its audience’s brand image, hence increasing sales.
Access To A Large Market
Although visually impaired people may not be your primary customers, you should never forget that they are also a part of your audience. Moreover, such people have enormous purchasing strengths. Therefore, when you target this market ideally, you tend to have a larger audience.
Tips To Make eCommerce Website Accessible For Visually Impaired People
While developing a website for visually impaired people, you need to consider the tips given below:
Avoid Using Colour To Communicate Essential Information
For colour blind people, underline the linked information. It is because to clarify warnings, alerts, and actionable page elements, we change the colour to blue that make normal people understand that the text is linked. However, it is not possible for colour blind people, and doing so makes your website more accessible to them.
Grant Keyboard Accessibility
Some visually impaired people depend on keyboards to navigate the web. Therefore, it is advisable to facilitate keyboard shortcuts and commands to make their navigation process effortless.
Use Explicit and Descriptive Labels For Links And Buttons
People who use screen readers generally use keyboard shortcuts to enlist every link on a page and navigate more proficiently. For those people, descriptive and explicit labels appear to be meaningful. They help promote scan ability for the sighted users and also act as a bonus since it assists in boosting SEO for the website.
So, ensure to make these changes to make your eCommerce website accessible for visually impaired people.
