Website accessibility: can your customer complete the task they came to do?

Most companies test their websites in pretty much the same way: does the page load, do the buttons work, can the form be submitted? The tester is usually someone who knows the environment well, has good vision and uses a mouse or touchscreen.

The real customer’s experience can be very different. They may need to zoom in, only to find the text disappearing or overlapping. They may rely on a keyboard or screen reader to navigate, but the website may not support this properly. The task they came to complete is left unfinished.

For an online store, this can mean an abandoned purchase. In a self-service environment, an application or payment may never be submitted. On a service website, the client may be unable to find the document or contact option they need. 

Does the website work, or can the customer actually use it?

These are not always the same thing. An environment that appears to work may still contain barriers that ordinary testing does not reveal.

For example, the shopping cart may work with a mouse but not with voice control. A form may display an error message in red, but a screen reader may not announce it. A page may look well structured visually, but the hierarchy and relationships between elements are not correctly represented in the code.

Companies often start looking at accessibility when a specific problem or external requirement arises. Automated tests can identify some technical issues, but many accessibility problems remain undetected. At the same time, the development team’s backlog may already be full, and the user journey may involve third-party authentication or payment platforms, making it unclear who is responsible for resolving which accessibility issue.

To improve accessibility, you first need to assess the digital environment and identify where the problems are. This does not always mean testing the entire environment at once. You can start with the most important user journey. 

Which user journey’s accessibility should you assess first?

If assessing an extensive website in one go is not practical, start with a journey that the customer must be able to complete.

For an online store, this will often include searching for and selecting a product, using the shopping cart and making a payment. In a self-service environment, logging in or submitting an application may be critical. On a service website, the key task may be completing a form, booking an appointment or finding essential information.

When choosing the first user journey to assess, you should consider three things.

First, what is the customer actually trying to achieve when visiting the website? The most important part of the site is not necessarily the page with the most traffic, but the one where its core function is carried out.

Second, what happens if the journey is interrupted? Can the customer complete the same task through another channel, or is the purchase, application or booking abandoned?

Third, which components make up the journey? Does the customer need to accept cookies, authenticate themselves or use search before they can complete the main task? Some of these components may be provided by an external partner, but the organisation providing the service to the user is still responsible for the accessibility of the overall user journey.

This approach helps you define a sensible scope for the accessibility assessment. Instead of trying to identify and fix every possible issue across the entire website at once, you can start with the areas where barriers have the most direct impact on both the customer and the organisation. 

What questions arise when assessing and improving accessibility?

Choosing the first user journey to assess gives a clear focus, but organisations usually have many other questions, too.

Which accessibility requirements apply to your organisation? Is an automated test or AI tool enough? Who is responsible for the accessibility of a third-party platform or payment solution? Can an accessibility plugin or overlay solve the problem? And what should an organisation receive from an accessibility audit?

Mari-Ell Mets, Head of Accessibility at Trinidad Wiseman, answers 10 questions that organisations most often ask, in Teataja, the magazine of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The article explains, among other things:

What should an accessibility assessment give your organisation?

Whether you start by assessing one important user journey or the entire digital environment, the assessment result should give your team enough concrete information to move forward with improvements.

The development team needs to know where an issue occurs, which requirement it conflicts with, what causes it and how it can be fixed.

Based on the assessment, the organisation should be able to decide:

This makes it possible to integrate accessibility work into the ongoing development plan instead of treating it as a separate project that brings everything else to a halt.

If you need a comprehensive view of whether your digital environment meets accessibility requirements, rather than an assessment of a single user journey, as well as a concrete improvement plan, the next step is a more thorough accessibility audit. 

What can you do today?

Choose one task on your website, online store or self-service environment that a customer must be able to complete. Try completing it without using a mouse, navigating only with the keyboard Tab key. Then zoom the browser view to, for example, 200% and check whether all content remains visible and usable.

This quick check can help you spot places where some users will definitely encounter barriers, but it is not enough to determine whether a website or application meets accessibility requirements. That requires testing the environment on different devices with different assistive technologies, such as voice control and screen readers, as well as understanding how these technologies behave and how accessibility standards apply.

If you are unsure how to start with assessing the accessibility of your digital environment, or whether barriers you have already noticed indicate non-compliance with accessibility requirements, email me at mari-ell.mets@twn.ee. I can help you define an appropriate scope for the assessment and decide on the next step.

You can also read more on our accessibility services page about how we have helped different organisations make their digital services more accessible.