ACCESSIBLE BUSINESS: Stop Confirmation Humiliation

The word Anxiety spelled out

Call to action (CTA) is a marketing term for “any design to prompt an immediate response or encourage an immediate sale.” A CTA most often refers to the use of words or phrases that can compel an audience to act in a specific way. [SOURCE]

I don’t know about you, but I find some online CTA messages overly manipulative and incredibly insulting.

Using these types of over-the-top directives may also cause you to lose business with a particular audience…namely people who suffer from social anxiety who find these types of messages overwhelming.

FACT: Social Anxiety Disorder Affects 15 Million U.S. Adults

The ADA defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH):

“Social anxiety disorder (SAD – also called social phobia) is a mental health condition. It is an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others. This fear can affect work, school, and other day-to-day activities. SAD affects 15 million adults, or 6.8% of the U.S. population. SAD is equally common among men and women and typically begins around age 13.”

According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America:

“The defining feature of social anxiety disorder is intense anxiety or fear of being judged, negatively evaluated, or rejected in a social or performance situation. People with social anxiety disorder may worry about acting or appearing visibly anxious (e.g., blushing, stumbling over words), or being viewed as stupid, awkward, or boring.”

Ashley Firth, author of Practical Web Inclusion and Accessibility: A Comprehensive Guide to Access Needs lists some of these types of CTA message examples from a website called confirmshaming that seek a website visitor’s confirmation:

1) Choosing not to sign up for a beginner’s guide to gardening

Vegetable Gardening Book Offer

“No thanks, I know everything about gardening.”

2) Choosing not to subscribe to a magazine

Magazine Subscription Confirmation Method

“I’m boring.”

“In both cases,” Firth writes, “you can clearly see how the option that the site doesn’t want to happen is intentionally worded to either shame or scare the user, whether they meant to or not. Here, those who are susceptible to feeling embarrassed, humiliated, or judged negatively have their access needs used against them, simply because they don’t want to sign up to a newsletter or give out their details. Even if they choose not to perform the action, they still had to face the decision.”

BEST PRACTICE

Use CTAs that don’t shame or manipulate users.

How about simply using the confirmation options of “Yes” or “No” to be the most inclusive.

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ACCESSIBLE E-COMMERCE: The Strikethrough Strikes Out

Pencil Drawing of Shopping Cart

So many e-commerce websites use the strikethrough style to indicate a discounted price, like this:

Display:
Price: $12.99 $9.99

Code:
Price: <span style=”text-decoration: line-through;”>$12.99</span> $9.99

For the sighted user, the strikethrough text remains readable.

But for those individuals who use screen readers, it’s a strike out.

Screen readers, such as NVDA, ignore the strikethrough text. NVDA reads the price example above as:

Price: $12.99 $9.99

What is the actual price? Very confusing.

Solution

Be sure to deliver the complete info so all shoppers can understand.

Display:
Price: $12.99 now $9.99. You save $3.

Code:
Price: <span style=”text-decoration: line-through;”>$12.99</span> now $9.99. You save $3.

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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY TESTING & REMEDIATION SERVICES: Mary Gillen is an experienced Website Accessibility Compliance Auditor and Remediator. She can test your website to determine if it meets accessibility standards:

WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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ACCESSIBLE E-COMMERCE: Five Online Shopping Problems Encountered by People with Disabilities

Pencil Drawing of Shopping Cart

In the article Tips For Online Shopping With Disabilities: A Website Accessibility Guide, you’ll discover some of the common online shopping problems experienced by people with disabilities.

These include:

  • Rarely can you see what clothing looks like on people sitting down. There’s the website, but what about the products themselves? For people who use wheelchairs, it can be hard to tell if clothing they see online would be comfortable or flattering in a wheelchair
  • Detailed, homogeneous descriptions can be difficult to find on some sites. According to surveys, only 49% of disabled people feel they have even some of the information needed or wanted while making purchasing decisions
  • Flash animations can be bad for both visually impaired and learning-disabled users, creating over-stimulation. Sometimes, there’s not much to be done for ads, but sites themselves can be overstimulating, too.
  • Subtitles and closed captions are a small thing to add to videos but sometimes ignored. Be sure to turn on closed captions on YouTube, as most websites use YouTube to host their videos.
  • Plain links called “links” or “click here” are not helpful to those who use screen readers. Luckily, labeling a link with the text “click here” is falling out of fashion

Read the rest of Tips For Online Shopping With Disabilities: A Website Accessibility Guide

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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY TESTING & REMEDIATION SERVICES: Mary Gillen is an experienced Website Accessibility Compliance Auditor and Remediator. She can test your website to determine if it meets accessibility standards:

WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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