When you’re managing an online business, digital accessibility is the key to everything. Making your website or online shop accessible to a wider audience will ultimately drive more revenue your way.
Considering the upward trend of online shopping, it’s crucial to optimize your web-based shop for people with disabilities. If Magento is your eCommerce platform of choice, there are some things you need to consider for accessibility.
In this blog post you will find key guidelines for Magento accessibility and how to make your online business as inclusive as possible.
What Is Magento?
Magento is one of the leading eCommerce platforms. According to different statistics, the use of Magento varies, but one thing is sure – more than 130 000 e-commerce websites use the platform.
Magento was acquired by Adobe Commerce. The platform comes with built-in PHP and programmers use it to create online shops and sell goods online. In a sense, Magento gives developers an easier way to construct online shops.
Source: Pexels
Understanding Accessibility Compliance Requirements
When talking about accessibility, there are many rules, guidelines and laws out there. Based on your geographical location, you may have governing laws and guidelines that you need to meet in order to have an accessible website.
Without compliance with the law, you as a business owner are vulnerable to web accessibility lawsuits. Those can be expensive and even if you strike a deal with the plaintiff, you will probably have to spend even more money on making your website accessible.
To comply with the law, it’s best to seek professional consulting from an accessibility expert or a lawyer that understands how the legislation works.
All laws about accessibility are based on universal web content accessibility guidelines given by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Magento accessibility makes no exception. Since these guidelines are considered the golden standard in accessibility, making sure you comply with them will probably lead you to compliance with the local laws.
How Accessible Is Magento Already?
Adobe Commers gives the opportunity to customize your online shop as much as you like. But Magento and other platforms already have accessibility features built into them from the start.
When using the Magento platform, Adobe encourages you to make your online store compliant with ADA or Americans with Disabilities Act. ADA compliance is mandatory if you operate on the US market.
It also encourages developers to conform to the W3C guidelines.
Source: Pexels
Accessible Websites in Magento
We advise adding accessibility features early on in the development process. It will take some time to make an accessible site, but in the long run this is the best solution. If you design your Magento website with accessible features from the start it will be easier to maintain it and conform to newer versions of accessibility standards.
Here we will outline some of the key guidelines based on W3C recommendations and give a checklist for Magento accessibility. If you are familiar with accessibility already, then you will find that these are basic accessibility features.
Checklist and Guidelines
The guidelines of W3C make sure that all content online is perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. With achieving this, your Magento store will reach a bigger audience and ultimately drive more revenue your way. And there is also the moral obligation to provide accessible features – people with disabilities shouldn’t be left out from.
In the table below you will see some key guidelines in achieving Magento accessibility from all key principles.
W3C principle
Guideline
Example
Perceivable
Have text alternatives for other content.
Adding captioning, subtitles and transcripts enables disabled users to navigate and understand your web store more easily.
Be careful with time-based media.
People with motor disabilities can’t complete tasks with the same speed as other people. Make sure to give an alternative.
Adaptive design
All design has to be adaptable to different types of screens and formats.
Operability
Keyboard accessibility is a must!
We can’t stress this enough! Making your web operable via keyboard and special hardware used by people with disabilities is crucial in achieving Magento Accessibility.
Again, be careful with time-based media.
Be aware at all times that people with disabilities need more time to navigate your website and finish tasks.
Intuitive and easy navigation
Your online store should have logical ties between pages and content. People with learning disabilities, for example, sometimes can’t understand complex tasks and lose track of what they are doing.
Understandable content
Readability
Make sure that all text in your Magento store is easily read. Consider the font, size and color of text. Watch out for contrast.
Make it predictable.
Your content should be organized in a predictable way. This is also crucial for disabled users who use special software and hardware to surf online – predictability makes it easier for the accessibility tools to work.
Assist users with input.
Your Magento store has to have proper labeling in all fields that require information. This not only assists with the input of data, but it also helps specialized software work.
Robust
Special hardware and software
To make your Magento website robust you have to incorporate the use of different disability software and hardware.
Things such as text-to-speech software, braille displays, screen readers and others are crucial for people with disabilities.
More than one audio and video player
You have to make sure that your Magento store has a wide variety of different players. Not all are compatible with the use of disabled users, so you have to give them options to choose.
Explainers
If your online store involves explainers, make sure to offer different versions of them to the clients.
All working laws concerning disability are based on the golden set of rules by the W3C. They are divided in 3 levels – A, AA and AAA. Most laws consider Level AA to be enough for very high accessibility compliance.
So, when developing your Magento website it’s best to make it compliant with Level AA guidelines from the start.
Benefits of Making Your Magento Website Accessible
The benefits in website accessibility are a lot.
First and foremost, this makes your business inclusive to all kinds of people. Accessibility leads to an increase of trust, which in turn leads to a satisfied customer.
For Magento stores, making them accessible can be the thing that sets your business apart from everyone else. This will surely drive more revenue your way, because of the sheer amount of people you are able to connect to.
Also, another major benefit is that by making your Magento website accessible and keeping it that way, you are immune to lawsuits.
Source: Pexels
How Can I Test My Website?
There are numerous checklists and guidelines out there on how to achieve Magento accessibility. But the best way is to test your website.
One way you can do that, you can use the services of consultants and law firms.
But the easier way is to use an accessibility software checker like ours at Qualibooth. We provide robust and understandable information about your website’s compliance level. We also provide information on your website in compliance with the current governing laws.
Conclusion
In our opinion, accessibility features are a must in the modern world. So much so that it’s best to implement them early on in the development process. This also includes Magento-based stores.
By adhering to the current accessibility standards, you make sure that your business is protected, but most of all – your moral obligation to disabled communities is fulfilled.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Magento Accessibility Different From Normal Accessibility?
No. Magento accessibility follows the same rules and guidelines as all other website platforms.
Is It Hard to Achieve Magento Accessibility?
No and yes. If you plan early on to include accessibility features, it’s easy to follow any updates in the future. If you don’t do that – it will be harder later on to make your online store accessible.
How Can I Be Sure That My Magento Store Is Accessible?
You can hire an accessibility consultant or use specialized software to check it.
How Does the Text-To-Speech Accessibility Feature Work?
How to Make Your Website for Screen Reader Accessibility?
