“Keep asking questions and updating your sites and apps. Don’t give up and please don’t leave us out.”
Access to digital information is critical for full participation in a wide assortment of modern life activities. Americans who are blind, have low vision, and are deafblind, like Americans who are fully sighted, use digital tools for many daily activities, from shopping and planning trips to job-searching and dating. Across these tasks, however, participants reported significant, pervasive gaps in the accessibility of websites, mobile apps, and video programming services. More than 80% of participants who use websites and apps to order food, find and apply for jobs, book travel, or shop online reported at least occasional difficulties, and across most digital tasks, 20%-30% reported having difficulties at least half the time when they tried to perform these tasks. Multiple types of barriers were identified, impacting both screen-reader and screen-magnification users. Furthermore, participants reported inconsistent availability of audio descriptions and difficulties navigating menu-based features on television and while using TV streaming websites and apps.
Participants reported a variety of negative impacts that they linked with the experience of access barriers, including limited independence and privacy, as well as restricted freedom of choice in which companies to utilize. Although participants reported using a variety of strategies to overcome access barriers, more than 40% reported switching companies if they encountered an access barrier while trying to obtain goods or services online.
When digital information and tools are accessible, however, they have great potential to level the playing field and afford full access to people who are blind, have low vision, and are deafblind. As one participant stated, "Accessible websites, PDFs, and thoughtful design free me up to participate, recreate, and work to my full potential".
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