Once a search returns dozens of flights, filters are how a traveler narrows the list, unless the filter controls lock a screen reader out. These are the filter barriers to check for on your own site. Second in Michael Taylor's five-part series on airline booking accessibility.
When it comes to airline website accessibility, the flight search process can be slow and tedious. Results lists are usually long, with many different flight types mixed together. Basically, every airline offers filters to narrow down to the options that fit my needs, but using those filters with a screen reader can be tricky. As usual, screen readers are the focus here.
Time Filters
Time is one of the filters I lean on most. If I know I don't want a morning flight, I don't want to hunt through the whole list for afternoon options. It's much easier when the site can show me only flights inside my departure or arrival window.
Time filtering is great when it works, but there's one design I've been seeing more often lately that breaks it completely. Some filter menus use a graphic of a clock face, where sighted users click different sections to set a time range. That's a purely visual control, and my screen reader can't do anything with it.
Even the filters that use plain numbers have a problem. My screen reader often skips the AM or PM label when it reads out the available time ranges. Without that, I can't tell which part of the day I'm actually choosing.
Reaching the Filter Menu
Getting into the filter menu is its own hurdle. Sites usually show a few common filters across the top and put a button on the far right to open the full menu. That button is invisible to my screen reader unless it's labeled in the code, and often it isn't.
Sometimes the menu does open, but in a kind of ghost mode where every filter reads as one block of static text I can't act on. On my phone the button often floats at the bottom, above the page content. Because it isn't part of the main flat navigation, swiping or moving button to button doesn't land on it. Direct touch sometimes places focus on it, but I can't count on that.
Filtering By Price
I often want to filter out flights over a certain price, and sites handle that a few different ways. A list of preset price ranges works best for me, where I pick a range with a button or checkbox, though bad labeling can still break it.
Some sites ask me to type a minimum and maximum into text fields. My screen reader doesn't always read back the existing values or what I've typed correctly. The dollar signs and decimal points tend to get dropped, so the readout is choppy and I have to listen a few times to make sense of it. My guess is that an inaccessible font is being used for the punctuation.
The worst option is a slider. Sometimes the slider won't respond to my screen reader at all. Other times its range is set so wide that one small move of the handle jumps the value way too far, which makes fine adjustments by the dollar impossible.
Filtering is supposed to make a long list manageable, and for me it often does the opposite. On the sites where these controls break, I either give up on filtering or give up on the search.
Airline Flight Filter Accessibility: FAQ
Are clock-style time filters accessible to screen readers? Clock-face time pickers are generally not accessible to screen readers. They rely on clicking regions of a visual graphic, which assistive technology can't interpret, so a blind traveler has no way to set a time range. A text-based or list-based time filter is the accessible alternative.
Why do price range sliders fail for screen reader users? Price sliders fail when they don't expose their value or steps to assistive technology. In Michael's experience, some sliders don't respond to a screen reader at all, and others move in increments so large that precise price limits are impossible. For a step-by-step way to check controls like this, see UsableNet's web accessibility audit guide.
How can a filter button be hidden from a screen reader? A filter button becomes invisible to a screen reader when it lacks a code label or sits outside the page's normal navigation order. Michael describes floating mobile buttons that swipe navigation never reaches and menus that open as unactionable blocks of text. An automated accessibility testing tool catches missing labels, though outside-the-flow controls usually need manual testing.
Filter controls that a screen reader can't operate are exactly the kind of barrier behind ADA web accessibility claims, and partial fixes don't remove the exposure.
UsableNet's Accessibility as a Service pairs an expert WCAG 2.2 AA audit with a prioritized remediation plan your team implements, backed by testing from people who use assistive technology and litigation support. If travelers can't filter your results by hand, talk to a UsableNet accessibility expert.
Related in this series: Flight Search Fields That Fail Screen Reader Users,
