The Saturday after Thanksgiving is "Small Business Saturday." Shoppers are encouraged to patronize local and independent businesses after the Black Friday shopping rush, which is dominated by national chains and big-box retail.
While the context here is Small Business Saturday, digital accessibility and inclusion should be a priority for businesses of all sizes. Much of what I'll share can be applied universally, whether you are a local shop or a large corporation. Ensuring your digital presence is accessible benefits your customers and your business's bottom line.
If you are an independent business this holiday shopping season, accessibility will definitely be at the top of your priority list. According to a QuickBooks survey, 93% of consumers plan to shop at independent businesses during the holiday season 2024, representing over $76 billion in potential sales. Prioritizing accessibility ensures that all customers, including those with disabilities, can participate in this spending.
As an independent business, bringing your digital offerings into compliance with modern accessibility standards may seem daunting and even impossible. However, I am here to tell you that with the right tools, resources, and guidance, full accessibility is most definitely attainable for businesses of any size.
To begin the accessibility conversation, I will discuss a few potential areas of interest when considering digital accessibility progress. The goal is to help provide a foundation for accessibility improvement by highlighting critical areas of attention during accessibility testing and remediation. As always, screen readers will be my primary area of focus.
Material Digitalization
Independent businesses often need to digitalize physical printed documents. The digital material could be a menu or a special holiday announcement for a restaurant. For a retail shop, this digitalization could be a discount advertisement flyer or daily hours of operation list. For a hotel, this may be check-in guidelines or a room service pricing breakdown. The possibilities are virtually endless.
One of the most prominent digital accessibility shortcomings that I have observed on all types of websites but seems even more common on independent sites is improper digitalization of these printed materials. Many businesses take photographs or image-based scans of the physical paper document and upload the raw files to the website. This method is popular because it requires minimal effort or technical knowledge. However, the resulting digital materials are not accessible to screen readers. The screen reader will interpret the files as images and read little or none of the included text.
While it takes far more time and effort upfront, the best way to digitalize physical printed materials is to add the data to the website as plain text. This step ensures that screen reader users have full access to all the information in the new digital offerings. Considering that 68% of individuals with disabilities feel ignored by retailers, ensuring accessible material is a critical step toward inclusion.
Compatibility With Modern Software
This next website issue, which I have frequently observed, is difficult to explain. Often, the websites of independent businesses do not receive code updates anywhere as frequently as do the sites of larger national retailers. I believe this is due to resource limitations and outsourcing of website maintenance duties.
As a result, the compatibility of that website's functionality with newer operating systems and screen reader versions may become compromised. As screen reader developers improve the underlying code running the screen reader, bugs are fixed, performance is enhanced, and new features are introduced that improve the experience on all websites.
If web developers do not frequently update their code to reflect these developments and other changes to accessibility standards and guidelines, a website's accessibility on newer computing systems may suffer.
I have a first-hand example of this. I recently visited the website of a small online lighting retailer to purchase some Christmas lights. For whatever reason, the website would crash on launch every time on my recent model Mac computer. Something told me to try on my old Mac, which is running software that is three years out of date. Surprisingly, the website ran fine on this older system, and I was able to complete my order without incident.
Something in the newer versions of the Mac software was incompatible with this site's older code structure, wreaking havoc on the screen reader's performance. I can confirm that it was a screen reader issue because I disabled the screen reader and asked a sighted person to try launching the site. It worked flawlessly with the screen reader off.
This happens when web code is not updated to keep up with modern software requirements and demands. If you are serious about accessibility, it is of the utmost importance to keep the back end of your website up to date, no matter what it takes. Full accessibility depends on it. Businesses that ignore these steps risk legal penalties and financial loss due to compliance violations.
Social Media
Social media is at the forefront of all modern commerce, and independent businesses also want to participate. Unfortunately, most of the social media I have interacted with has not been very accessible. The two biggest issues are undescribed images and unlabeled links.
For example, a popular restaurant near me posts to Facebook every Friday with that weekend's specials. The posts contain images of the dishes themselves, which I am told look very delicious. However, none of the posts contain alternative text image descriptions for the pictures of the food being served as the special for that weekend. As a result, social media users like myself cannot tap into the sensory appeal of food advertisements.
To ensure that your social media presence reaches as wide an audience as possible, describe all visual material in words for those who cannot see..
Key Takeaways for Digital Accessibility
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Prioritize Accessibility: Over $76 billion in potential sales are expected from independent businesses this holiday season. Ensuring your website is accessible allows you to reach a larger customer base, including individuals with disabilities.
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Digitalize Documents Properly: Avoid uploading scanned images or photos of printed materials. Instead, use plain text to ensure screen readers can access the information.
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Keep Website Code Updated: Regularly update your website’s code to maintain compatibility with modern operating systems and assistive technologies, reducing the risk of performance issues or compliance failures.
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Make Social Media Accessible: Include alternative text descriptions for images and ensure all links are correctly labeled to ensure your social media posts are accessible to everyone.
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Invest in Accessibility: Studies show that 80% of individuals with disabilities believe brands could increase sales by addressing their accessibility needs. Accessibility is not just ethical; it's good business.
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Avoid Legal Risks: Keeping your website accessible helps prevent potential lawsuits and compliance violations, which can be costly and hurt your brand's reputation.
A Final Word on Accessibility
As an independent business poised for the impending holiday shopping rush this year, becoming accessible may seem downright scary. However, the negative ramifications of neglecting accessibility can be even scarier.
As a blind internet user, I rely on good accessibility for everything digital. Myself and other visually impaired individuals simply cannot and will not visit and use the websites of companies that are not accessible.
Given that it is becoming increasingly difficult for independent businesses to compete in a market with ever-growing online retail giants, it is of the utmost importance that every company with a digital presence becomes accessible to reach every potential customer.
I hope my discussion shed some light on a few common areas of deficiency that I have observed with website accessibility. This Small Business Saturday, if you consider accessibility improvement as part of your ongoing business model, we will be well on our way toward ensuring that technology users in the disability community have access to as many digital experiences as possible, regardless of the size of the business.
Editor's Note: Our frequent contributor, Michael Taylor, wrote this post. This post reflects his opinions and experiences. Read more about Michael and some other posts on his experience online here.
