Dear AccessWorld readers,
Last month, AccessWorld celebrated Disability Employment Awareness Month by providing information about employment resources, strategies, and insider perspectives. Good job search strategies and resources are important all year long, so I encourage you to look back at last month's issue and forward information to anyone you know who may be looking for employment or for better employment opportunities.
As you know, there is now a chill in the air, and the days of fall are well upon us. It's time to start thinking about the holiday gift-giving season. Ready or not, the shopping season is just around the corner. I know some of you have already started shopping, and the AccessWorld team wants you to be ready with information about accessible shopping options and gift ideas for yourself or those in your life who experience vision loss.
In this issue, Deborah Kendrick unveils this season's top gift ideas in the 2017 AccessWorld Gift Guide, and Janet Ingber provides information, advice, and tips to get more from holiday shopping using websites, apps, and your mobile device. This year, she specifically investigates the always popular Macy's, Hickory Farms, and Walmart websites and apps. She also reviews ThinkGeek, which may be new to many of you.
While this is an exciting time of year, shopping can be especially challenging for people who are blind or visually impaired. Janet Ingber's article certainly shows there is still a long way to go when it comes to the accessibility and usability of online retailers. As readers of AccessWorld can fully understand, with every update to a website or app, accessibility and usability can be greatly improved or hampered. I must say, when reading the pre-publication version of Janet's online shopping article, I was extremely disappointed. I was disappointed that despite the huge increase in the overall awareness of accessibility issues, despite the efforts of all blindness groups, despite legislation, and despite lawsuits that have been filed and won against retailers, many still fail to offer accessible online shopping options for people with vision loss.
Today, there are many companies and organizations, including the American Foundation for the Blind, who have consulting services solely dedicated to assisting companies of all types and sizes develop and maintain accessible websites and apps. These consulting services also lend themselves to the remediation of inaccessible sites and apps which can help them become more compliant with accessible design principles and best practices.
I am not sure how multimillion dollar and multibillion dollar retailers, such as the ones evaluated in this issue of AccessWorld, can justify the inaccessibility of their online presences. Is it just too difficult? Is it just too time consuming? Is it just too expensive? Their brick and mortar stores are built to stringent, complex, plumbing, electrical, and structural codes, and architects design for access by people who use wheelchairs, scooters, and strollers. Ramps, elevators and escalators are installed to accommodate people who are not easily able to climb stairs, yet the same stores turn a blind eye, so to speak, on the designs needed by people who experience vision loss and want to shop online and by app.
An estimated 25 million Americans experience vision loss to the point where they find it difficult to read standard-size print, even with best correction from glasses or contact lenses. These 25 million Americans purchase goods and services, and would likely purchase them online from Walmart, Macy's, and Hickory Farms if that choice was more readily available.
The obviously available choice is for retailers to design with inclusion in mind. There is no reason for retail websites or apps to be inaccessible to people who use access technology. Design guidelines and consultants with expertise are available and ready to make accessibility a reality, if retailers choose to take the initiative.
Next year, I hope there will be more good and exciting news and cheer to share regarding accessible online shopping options. Until then, if you have a favorite accessible online shopping site you would like to share with fellow AccessWorld readers, please write to us and let us know. We may share your suggestions in the December Letters to the Editor section of AccessWorld.
The AccessWorld team hopes this issue helps you find just the right holiday gifts for you and your family and friends with vision loss.
We wish you and yours health, happiness, peace, and prosperity as we enter the holiday season. As Helen Keller once said, "Peace and prosperity will come when we realize, and incorporate into our lives, the truth that we live by each other and for each other and not unto ourselves."
Sincerely,
Lee Huffman
AccessWorld Editor-in-Chief
American Foundation for the Blind
