AccessiCart

We help eCommerce sites with web accessibility for people with disabilities (ADA & EAA compliance) -- which improves user experience for ALL users and helps SEO. We provide ongoing testing & reporting plans for all eComm platforms; accessibility consulting for development projects; and project management and testing for remediations. As CEO, I lead operations and sales.

Bet Hannon Business Websites

BH specializes in websites for thriving businesses, focusing on developing WordPress websites, including ecommerce and membership sites. We value inclusivity, so we build websites that are ADA accessible. We provide managed WordPress hosting and content management services.

I’m the CEO of AccessiCart, a services agency that specializes in web accessibility and eCommerce.

We help brands improve user experience, conversions, and SEO, broaden their audiences, and meet legal requirements by delivering strategic accessibility testing and consulting.

AccessiCart offers testing/auditing, consulting, project management and reporting for website accessibility. 

We feature Accessibility Maintenance Plans (testing and reporting, consulting, managing ongoing accessibility planning) on any eCommerce platform including Shopify, Magento, SiteCore, Woocommerce, or SaaS apps.

Away from work, I love: hiking, snowshoeing, blue or extremely sharp cheddar cheese, and red wines of all types.

I had a great time today hanging out with the Tech Law Section of the Oregon Bar Association at their continuing education event. Thanks Maddi Neustadt, for inviting me to speak today about digital accessibility!

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Web Accessibility & eCommerce | CEO AccessiCart | CPACC

I loved talking to Kurt about web accessibility for eCommerce on The Unofficial Shopify Podcast! The YouTube video is short highlights, the audio verisons are longer with a lot more details.

Bet Hannon built AccessiCart after watching stores hemorrhage money to accessibility lawsuits—settlements they could have avoided.

But here's the brutal part: 35% of those lawsuits now target sites that already installed "quick fix" overlay plugins.

The store owners thought they were protected. They weren't.

"These tools rely on automation that only catches 30% of issues," Bet told me. "And for blind users with screen readers? The overlays often conflict with their assistive tech—making the site *harder* to use."

We spent 50 minutes breaking down what actually works:

→ The 4 fixes that prevent 80% of accessibility complaints (alt text, color contrast, link text, heading structure)

→ Why 25% of all adults require some accommodation when shopping online (and how that's money you're leaving on the table)

→ The European Accessibility Act penalties: up to €100K fines, 5% of global revenue in Italy, 18 months jail time for CEOs in Ireland

→ How continuous monthly testing creates legal leverage if you do get sued

→ The keyboard navigation bugs that stop checkout dead (one store couldn't tab out of the final form field—imagine filling out payment info and being unable to hit submit)

And ultimately, why accessibility isn't just compliance theater—it's conversion rate optimization for a demographic the size of China.

If you're running a Shopify store, this is required listening.

If you've ignored accessibility because it felt abstract or distant, this will change your calculus.

Just dropped. Check replies for links.

Have you tested your search feature with a screen reader? If not, you may be losing sales.

Multi-award winning values-based engineering, accessibility, and inclusion leader

Many teams think accessibility only matters when content exists, not when it doesn’t. But that moment after a search returns no results can define whether users with disabilities trust the software. Silence is not neutral. It’s uncertainty disguised as completion.

If a system can tell sighted users “nothing found,” it can tell screen reader users the same thing. When it doesn’t, it’s not a technical gap; it’s a communication failure. Accessible design isn’t just about showing success.  It’s also about confirming when nothing happened, so users aren’t left in limbo.

This article explains why those few words — “no results found” — matter so much, and how missing them can turn a simple search into a dead end for someone using assistive technology.
Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/eZ4Wekj8

Subscribe to my newsletter if you want first access to my thoughts on accessibility and disability inclusion https://lnkd.in/eq9nrdYs

#AccessibilityMatters #InclusiveDesign #AssistiveTechnology #DigitalInclusion #A11y

I'm also happy to answer questions about how the "serial plaintiff" (one plaintiff with a disability and their attorney who sue many sites) lawsuits work for eCommerce. Comment or DM with questions.

Curious about how website ADA cases work, and the most common issues in lawsuits? Here's a great post by Nat Tarnoff sharing his experience and recommendations.
https://buff.ly/yh0nARV

Got accessibility barrier revenue leaks? Like the person who depends on keyboard navigation, but can't ever get your product in the cart? The first time that happens for them, they bounce and won't return. 

People with disabilities that find smooth sailing on your site? That's such a rare occurance for them, they tend to be incredibly loyal.

Ignoring accessibility could be costing you revenue. Barriers for some people who may not be able to complete a sale are a revenue leak that you can fix.
https://buff.ly/OmwnPj2

Info you might have to turn over in a web accessibility (ADA) lawsuit is eye-opening. This is why we help clients not just with the technical fixes, but with their documentation. 

Everyone should be reviewing their supporting documentation — if you don’t already have an accessibility plan and evidence trail, now’s the time to get one in place.

The below is not legal advice, but having done this for as long as I have, it constantly astonishes me how little people on accessibility teams understand about the innards of litigation.

Once a lawsuit is filed, there is a process called "discovery" where the opposing party can request documents on various topics.  What is required to be produced during the discovery phase of accessibility disputes does not stop at formal audits. If the information is not protected by attorney client or work product privilege and it contains relevant facts about accessibility knowledge or decisions, the company (or its employees!) can be compelled to turn it over.

Items that can be ordered to be produced include:

1) AI queries to Claude, ChatGPT, Bard or any other generative AI about accessibility defects or remediation
2) Prompts and output from code generators that created or “fixed” inaccessible code
3) Free accessibility scans, even if your organization said it did not rely on the results
4) Slack and Teams threads discussing accessibility defects, waivers, or “workarounds”
5) Email threads about deferring or accepting accessibility risk
6) Spreadsheets that tracked accessibility issues outside of the official backlog
7) User research notes showing accessibility barriers were known and accepted
8) Meeting minutes and slide decks that mention accessibility
9) Training records showing that employees did (or didn't) complete accessibility training related to their role.
10) Procurement files disclosing known accessibility risk in vendor and product analysis and the decision to proceed
11) Customer support calls and transcripts that show disabled users reported barriers that were not addressed
12) Zoom, Teams, or Meet recordings where accessibility risk was acknowledged or deferred.
13) Private messages on personal phones when used for work-related accessibility discussions. 

People constantly misjudge what is discoverable in US litigation because they think draft status or the fact that a communication was personal, individual, or unofficial means the documents are "out of scope." 

Courts care about content and relevance, not the app it was associated with or the device it is contained on.

If you do not want something related to accessibility at your organization discoverable, the only lawful path is to work through counsel under privilege and follow their advice. 

Calling something a draft or putting it on a personal phone does not make it safe.

This is just one of the reasons accessibility litigation is so high-risk.  Imagine having to turn over your personal phone for months (or longer - the Domino's case took 6 years to resolve) because you had a kvetch-fest with a friend about a bad accessibility issue at work.

#Accessibility #Disability #Litigation

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