Summary
Online shopping was first premiered in the 1980s, as a way for people who couldn’t shop in-person to easily make purchases. But how far we’ve come! In this talk, Fable’s Accessibility Evangelist Sam Proulx will walk you through some of the key factors to create an online shopping experience that is accessible to everyone. From his perspective as a full time screen reader user, and drawing on Fable’s thousands of hours working with people with disabilities, Sam will highlight how consistency, convenience, confidence, and customizability enable a smooth experience for all users, disabled or not. Let’s bring online shopping back to its accessibility roots!
Key Insights
-
•
Consistency in the checkout process enables users with disabilities to learn one workaround and reuse it, greatly reducing cognitive load.
-
•
Autofill and autocomplete features depend on properly labeled form fields, improving convenience for users with physical and cognitive challenges.
-
•
Session timeouts that do not save user progress disproportionately affect users with disabilities and hurt conversion rates.
-
•
Confidence is key in retail checkout because users entrust their money; inaccessible flows cause users with disabilities to abandon purchases sooner.
-
•
Providing multiple payment methods and purchase pathways (like app, web, voice) increases customizability and accessibility.
-
•
People with disabilities often prefer brands with consistent experiences enough to pay more rather than switch to cheaper, less accessible competitors.
-
•
Inaccessible checkout experiences lead users to assume the product or service itself will also be inaccessible.
-
•
Accessibility is a journey, not a one-time project; ongoing involvement of people with disabilities in testing is critical.
-
•
Frequent, bite-sized training for frontline staff is often overlooked in accessibility for in-person service environments.
-
•
Leading companies like Apple and Microsoft exemplify accessible shopping experiences by blending ease of use, security, and customizability.
Notable Quotes
"When you design for the edges, you make things better, more fluid, more customizable for everyone."
"Consistency is so important that sometimes even consistency in failure works if it means I only have to learn the workaround once."
"If you have to learn a workaround, you want to learn it once and reuse it again and again."
"We often say don’t make me think. When that’s not possible, reuse and recycle those learnings."
"I’ve nearly bought products in my sleep because I memorized the key presses from consistent checkout flows."
"Timely interactions that log users out without saving progress cause abandonment, especially for people with disabilities."
"Confidence is a higher burden in retail because people are giving real money; inaccessible flows cause quick abandonment."
"More ways to contact support—chat, email, phone—are essential because different disabilities require different options."
"Accessibility isn’t a checkbox you run automated tests for; you must involve people with disabilities to benchmark success."
"Frequent, bite-sized training is crucial so staff actually remember how to support customers with disabilities."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We are truly in a golden age for our profession."
Doug PowellClosing Keynote: Design at Scale
November 8, 2018
"Kids are not little adults. You can’t just simplify the text and call it for kids."
Mila Kuznetsova Lucy DentonHow Lessons Learned from Our Youngest Users Can Help Us Evolve our Practices
March 9, 2022
"Artifacts of the future help us envision and grasp the change that we’re hoping to have—it’s not just bullet points or vision statements."
Sarah GallimoreInspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
November 18, 2022
"Operations tends to be something companies only think about when they are scaling rapidly, but investing early is essential."
Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne RogondinoTheme 1: Discussion
January 8, 2024
"AI is just a better version of the tools you’re already using to refine ideas and express thoughts."
Alnie FigueroaThe Future of Design Operations: Transforming Our Craft
September 10, 2025
"Meaningfulness is linked directly to what your organization cares about in terms of goals and priorities."
Landon BarnesAre My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?
March 10, 2022
"Every workaround is a mini story of somebody overcoming an obstacle."
Emily EagleCan't Rewind: Radio and Retail
June 3, 2019
"Re-platforming is transformative not just for the product but also for the people, teams, and organization."
Malini RaoLessons Learned from a 4-year Product Re-platforming Journey
June 9, 2021
"Building rapport and rituals helped our remote team foster camaraderie and trust."
Asia HoePartnering with Product: A Journey from Junior to Senior Design
November 29, 2023
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What role does visualizing funding distributions (like 'sausage' diagrams) play in improving portfolio management?
What new content was added in the second edition relating to organizational change?
How can national development agencies strategically manage their innovation portfolios to balance risk and impact?