According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 56 million people in the US live with some sort of disability. As a result, if your Shopify online store isn’t ADA compliant, it is missing out on a massive chunk of revenue and sales.
Different people set the foundation for different needs. So, if your store is not accessible to all, it can be difficult for people with disabilities to use. it. Accessible designs can resolve these differences and provide a friendly online experience to all users.
If you own a Shopify store, you may wonder about the purpose of website accessibility for your business. So keep reading to find answers to all your questions.
What is Website Accessibility?
Accessibility is a concept where people of all abilities can equally access, use, and understand an online website. Most web designers consider the standard disability categories when building online stores. These include:
- Visual Impairment. People with total or partial disabilities to see or differentiate color contrasts.
- Deaf/Hard of Hearing. People with poor ability to hear.
- PhotoSensitive or Epilepsy. Bright color contrasts and flashing lights trigger people with such conditions.
- Physically Disabled or Impaired Motor Skills. Users with limited movement of body parts (such as moving a finger).
According to a recent survey, 263 million people in the US shop online. This makes up 80% of the population. Out of this group, 61 million people live with disabilities, making up 21% of the population.
Considering these figures, the WCAG-compliant Shopify app gives a sense of consideration and freedom to those with disabilities.
How to Make Your Online Store on Shopify ADA Compliant?
Here are some different types of disability in people you can consider to make your Shopify store ADA compliant:
Visually-Impaired
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that 1 billion people worldwide have severe blindness. Keeping this figure in mind, every Shopify store should have an accessible online store that can assist users having partial or complete visual impairment.
Here are some ways to make a WCAG-compliant Shopify app:
- Design a Shopify store with a screen reader compatibility.
- Make sure your Shopify store has a simple UI.
- Avoid adding flashy elements.
Try using high-contrast colors to differentiate between the online store background and foreground.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Another way to make your Shopify store ADA compliant is to consider deaf people or those with hearing loss. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.5 billion people have a hard-of-hearing disability, while 430 million are entirely deaf. This makes up nearly 20% of the global population.
While deaf and hard-of-hearing people do not have as much difficulty as the virtually impaired one, they still struggle with online shopping. Here are some solutions for these individuals:
- Add captions and alt texts to your images and videos. Feeding captions in your embedded videos can help you meet the basic WCAG-compliant Shopify app store standards.
- Captions, transcripts, and subtitles are common ways to make your Shopify store accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing people. It can provide them with a basic understanding and form of communication.
Another expensive but great approach to making your Shopify accessible to 1.5 billion people is to add sign-language videos in different areas of your Store. For example, you can add a short 15 seconds video of a person doing sign language about product usage. While this process is costly and time-consuming, it can expand your online store’s outreach.
Color Blind
It is estimated that around 300 million people worldwide live with color blindness. As a result, around 8% of men and 0.5% of women suffer from a color-vision deficiency. However, with slight changes in your online Shopify store, you can make it accessible to color-blind people.
The main concern for individuals with color vision impairment and photosensitivity can not differentiate between a few groups of color.
Two common color combinations affected by color-vision deficiency are:
- Green – Red
- Blue – Yellow
UI/UX designers play an integral role in eliminating this barrier in your Shopify store. Here are some solutions:
- You can add a color wheel on the first page of your Shopify store that users can use to choose the best perceivable colors.
- Your Shopify store can also feature a sitemap to display the complete contextual list of your store. It can help people with color blindness to navigate easily.
- Another great solution is to add different elements to your store page featuring different uses of texture, color, and pattern to help users differentiate the segments.
You may also like: Best Options to Customize your Accessibility Spark App
Cognitive Deficiency
Users with limited mobility, understanding, or learning ability are cognitively deficient. People with cognitive disability struggle with everyday tasks, such as communicating, performing independently, memory loss, delayed speech, etc.
Down syndrome, dementia, epilepsy, and dyslexia are some common types of cognitive deficiency found in 4.6% of people aged between 21 to 65. It is imperative to make your Shopify store accessible for all, considering this age group is the target audience of most online businesses.
Here are some solutions to make a WCAG-compliant Shopify app:
- The layout of your Shopify store shouldn’t be stuffed with visual elements.
- Try to design a simple interface without interruptions, like pop-ups and ads.
- A site map is another good choice to improve the accessibility and usability of your Shopify store.
- Another powerful tool to make the online store on Shopify ADA-compliant is to add HTML. Whether you have short-form content or detailed product descriptions, HTML can represent content easily and understandably.
- Implement reminders and notifications to help people track their tasks. For example, if someone has added a product to their cart and forgot to proceed, send them a personalized reminder to purchase.
Why Should You Make Your Shopify Store ADA-Compliant?
The primary purpose of building a WCAG-compliant Shopify app is to offer access to online shopping to all people. People are struggling with different disabilities—for instance, auditory impairment.
According to the World Bank, around 15% of the population worldwide has some disability. You can call your Shopify store ADA compliant only if it delivers everyone an inclusive digital user experience. An ADA-compliant Shopify store can be accessed by:
- People of all age
- Having any disability (deaf, blind, mobility, etc.)
- With any skill
The advantages of online accessibility aren’t limited to people with disabilities.
If you are still on the fence about whether you should make your Shopify online store ADA-compliant, here is why you should go for it:
Includes No Discrimination
As the digital world becomes the new normal, it is no surprise that online accessibility is a civil right of people with varying disabilities. Most e-commerce businesses do not discriminate against disabled people intentionally; they just don’t consider this deeply.
If you want to avoid legal complaints regarding online accessibility, consider making your Shopify store ADA-compliant.
Offers Wider Outreach
Disability comes in different forms, including visual impairment, hearing difficulty, limited mobility, and cognitive disability. According to an estimate, around 1 billion people across the globe can not enjoy an online shopping experience because most websites are not accessible. So, if your Shopify store doesn’t offer an accessibility solution, it surely is missing out on reaching a newer and broader audience.
Creates Positive Brand Image
In this era of digital technology, most customers support online stores that share their objectives, beliefs, and values.
According to a survey conducted by Accenture Strategy, 62% of customers prefer buying from an online store that takes a stand on ongoing issues. On the other hand, 47% will simply walk away if the brand’s actions or words do not satisfy them. Hence, web accessibility serves a great and positive cause for disabled people. By incorporating web accessibility in your Shopify store, you build a positive brand image of your company.
Improves Usability
Accessibility and usability go hand-in-hand. The WCAG-compliant Shopify store aims to make products and services accessible to people with disabilities. Accessibility is an overlapping concept of usability that focuses on improving the user experience. Hence, you improve the usability of your online store by making it ADA-compliant.
Boosts SEO
Creating an accessible online Shopify store not only enhances its usability but also makes the store easy to find for crawlers. The main goal of SEO is to generate traffic to your store by improving its ranking in search engines like Google and Bing. By making your store ADA-compliant, you are increasing its traffic. This way, your store is more likely to rank higher on the search engines.
Final Words
People with disabilities, low literacy, or other socioeconomic barriers are often limited from utilizing the digital experience. Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990, online accessibility caters to the needs of these people.
But how will you know that your Shopify store is accessible and which areas should be accessible to people with disabilities? That’s where Accessibility Spark comes to save the day.
Accessibility Spark is an online accessibility platform that ensures your Shopify store meets the standard to be ADA-compliant. Whether you want to facilitate people with disabilities or to look to improve the usability of your store, the platform offers a range of valuable solutions to meet your site needs.
Also read: Which Type of Navigation is Best to Improve the Accessibility of Your Website