Top shopping sites fail disabled

The UK's top thirty online retailers are failing to meet the needs of disabled people, according to a new report.

Big names such as Amazon, Dell, Argos, Play.com, Expedia and Easyjet all failed a test to see if they met the minimum requirements set out in the globally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The report from web accessibility company Nomensa looked at the homepages and terms and conditions pages of each retail site, and measured and evaluated them using a combination of manual and automated testing.

Simon Norris, managing director at Nomensa, said:
“There are over 10 million disabled people in the UK, and I believe that each one of those has a right to be able to buy a Christmas present online for a friend or loved one this year.

“These research findings show that anyone with serious physical impairments, the visually impaired or even just people wearing glasses to read would encounter difficulties and in many cases would give up trying.”

However, Nomensa noted that John Lewis, Marks and Spencer and Tesco were better than others in the field.

Norris called on the boardrooms of the retailers to improve accessibility.

http://www.nomensa.com

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