2012 indeed is a year of loss for me. Many of intimate friends left me alone searching their destinations. In fact that might brought more energy to me to lead an independent life, time to spend few hours on blogs, learn new technologies. However shopping for my house hold groceries and some other tasks became more difficult.
I am in need of some groceries for my home. I am searching for someone who can help me to shop my grosseries. one fine day an e-mail appeared in my inbox. It’s from www.bigbasket.com
I always make my hands dirty looking into the accessibility issues of every website I come across. I never care of WCAG Standards or any legal requirements at that time. I love exploring the ways to use that website. Bigbasket.com is not an exception for it.
In the home page I have found some interesting house hold items which in fact I am looking for. I am just waiting for a friend to assist me to the nearby super market. Taking advantage of online shopping I have hit enter on “Cashew”. A new page is displayed with the varieties of cashews available. Sorry no way to jump to the search results using my screen reader. I need to navigate through all that repeating links. At last I have found the bread crump. The link “Cashew” in the bread crump would have been made level one heading to make the page better in terms of accessibility.
The next few words are quite informative. The weight of the pack, MRP and Bigbasket price. Next to the saving amount I could hear something odd. I read it character by character. It’s “Qty”. My god!! It is quantity proceeded by a text box having 1 as default value. After the quantity text box is the most interesting sound “Javascript:/”. If I am not an accessibility consultant I would have stopped my shopping here. Assuming that it might be “Add to basket” I have hit enter on it.
Oh! The pack is added to the basket. I have not known to me. I found it when I am navigating to the end of the same page. My screen reader could announce something as “My basket 1 Item Expand/collapse Expanded”. The Cashew I have added to the basket previously is here. Good I am in the right track.
In the same above procedure I have added few more grosseries to my basket and hit “Basket” link in the My basket section. I am taken to the next page.
In this page level one heading is “My shopping basket”. No need for me to navigate all the links in the page. The list of all the items I have put in the basket are provided in a linear order under different heads. I have an option to remove any item from here. The remove option is a link. It could have been remove button. After all the items Total amount is provided. Next to Total amount some another number is provided. Found it is the total savings on purchasing with Bigbasket.com. It would have been provided more clearly to attract the customers. I found the “Javascript:/” link again. Hit enter on it again.
I have taken to Slot booking page. Good to see level one heading in this page as well. All the slots are provided as radio buttons. The unavailable slots are clearly announced by the screen reader. Without booking any slots I have hit enter on my favorite “Javascript: /” link. It have provided an error saying “No slot is selected”. The error “No slot is selected” is not indicated to the user unless the entire page is re-navigated. It would have been more appropriate if the error message is identified by the screen reader and the error message is more explanatory. I have selected the required slot and hit enter on “Javascript: /” button again. It have taken me to a page asking me to sign up first. I have opened the registration page and dam struck with CAPTCHA. The registration cannot be completed until an accessible CAPTCHA is provided.
I have asked my friend to solve the CAPTCHA and continue the shopping. It have taken me to the payment method page. This page too have a level one heading. Various radio buttons for payment options are provided proceeded by “Javascript: /”. Submitting the page here will almost end up with the shopping.
Great, crossed the hurdles and placed an order from Bigbasket.com and waiting for the delivery. It is a fantastic experience but The website should be made accessible to attract more customers.
Few Accessibility pointers to be improved
- Accessible CAPTCHA.
- Hierarchical heading structure in every page.
- Appropriate use of input type buttons and values for them.
- Improper link descriptions such as “Images/go_but”, “Images/sis_quick_shop_unit”.
- Labels are provided but they are not associated with for attribute and are not properly coded.
Conclusion
In countries like India the greatest barrier for persons with disabilities is traveling. Facilities such as door delivery benefits for them the most than any other citizens. Making these kind of websites provide independency to shop. On the other hand it increase the business for online shopping companies.