Picking up where I left off on chain restaurant online ordering, today's blog is about item customization. Almost every chain restaurant ordering system lets you customize what you're ordering based on preferences and dietary needs. As a blind customer using a screen reader, that process keeps breaking for me in the same ways no matter which chain I'm using. I'll walk through three places it falls apart: choosing the customizations, adding special instructions, and adjusting ingredient levels.
Item customization almost always happens on the item details screen. The page shows a list of options for adding ingredients, removing default ingredients, or modifying the dish's ingredients. The biggest problem I run into is that my screen reader rarely tells me the current state of any of these options.
Visually, the page shows me what I picked: a checkmark next to a selected option, a font change, a highlight color, something like that. None of that comes through in audio. I can go through and check every box, then have no idea what I actually selected when I review the page before adding the item to my order.
The other issue here is price. Adding ingredients usually costs extra, and the price adjustment shows up to the right of the option in small text. My screen reader skips right past that on most chains, so I get to the cart and find a total I didn't expect.
Whether the checkbox is announced as selected, whether the price adjustment shows up in audio: those are the kinds of things a real accessibility audit catches in the first pass. That so many chains ship them anyway tells me nobody is testing customization with a screen reader on.
Most item pages include a text field near the bottom for special instructions, somewhere above the add to order button. I run into more issues with these fields than with any other text inputs on the web. Three things keep going wrong.
Sometimes my screen reader skips the field entirely, so I do not even know that special instructions are an option on that item. Other times, the field is there but announced as "Read Only," meaning I cannot enter text into it with my screen reader. Sighted users have no problem typing into the same field, which suggests this is an accessibility flaw rather than a general bug.
Other times I can type but get no audible feedback after I am done, so when I try to review the page I have no way to confirm what I actually entered. Whichever version of the bug appears, the result is the same: I cannot give the restaurant any custom instructions for what I'm ordering.
A missing label on a text field or a misapplied "Read Only" attribute is exactly the kind of thing a free automated accessibility test flags right away. It's the kind of issue I am surprised to keep hitting in 2026.
Beyond changing quantity, more chain restaurants are letting customers adjust the level of individual ingredients in an item. Picking how much sweetener you want in a coffee, or how much of a specific sauce on a sandwich. I have real trouble pulling this off on most of these interfaces.
The most common version is a slider with a numbered scale below it, usually in 25 percent intervals for things like sweetener level. My screen reader does not accurately announce where the slider sits on that scale most of the time. Other times, the slider springs back to its original position after I move it with a screen reader gesture.
The other common version is a pair of fewer buttons and more, usually arrow icons. The buttons rarely have the right labels in the code, so my screen reader either skips them or reads back something vague and useless. There is also no audible feedback on how much each press will change the level, even though sighted users can see that number on the screen.
Whether the right next move on something like this is an audit, a free scan, or a code review depends on where the team is starting from. Finding the right approach is different for every chain.
In my experience, no. They break in predictable ways across almost every chain I have tried. My screen reader does not announce which customizations are selected, prices for added ingredients go unspoken, and ingredient-level sliders fail to report their position on the scale.
The price text for each customization sits to the right of the option in small or styled text, and screen readers skip past it on most chains I have tried. My guess is that the price is in a graphic element or has styling that hides it from the accessibility tree. Either way, I get to the cart and find a total higher than I was expecting.
Not reliably. About half the chains I order from let me type into the field without issue. The other half either skips the field entirely so my screen reader does not announce it, or labels it as "Read Only" so my keyboard input does not register.
The lack of state feedback. My screen reader rarely tells me which customizations I have selected, which makes it impossible to review my order before adding it to the cart. The visual checkmarks and color changes that signal selection do not come through in audio.
With a real person using a real screen reader, customizing a real order. Automated tools catch some of the issues, like a missing label or an unlabeled button, but the deeper problems are only visible during an actual ordering attempt. A 30-minute walkthrough with a blind tester would surface most of what I covered above.
Item customization is one of the most important parts of ordering at a chain restaurant, and as a blind customer, the experience falls apart for me at every step. State feedback, price adjustments, special instructions, level controls: every one of them broke on me at one chain or another. None of these is a surprising failure.
What accessibility work costs is rarely what keeps these issues alive. It's that nobody on the team is putting on a screen reader and trying to customize a sandwich.
Checkout is next in the series, and that's where things go wrong in some of the most consequential ways. Including the time my delivery order ended up at my aunt's house an hour away.
In case you missed it, check out my blog from last week, "Chain Restaurant Online Ordering: How the Menu Fails Blind Customers."
For more insights on accessibility for restaurants and the hospitality industry, including how UsableNet can help, visit Food Service & Hospitality Accessibility Solutions
Editor's Note: This is a guest post from our marketing contributor, Michael Taylor. It reflects his opinions and experiences. Read more about Michael and some other posts on his experience online here.