7 replies to this topic

[rmccarley]

I have a client who is blind selling a product for people with visual disabilities and I'm looking for suggestions for the ecommerce system. What we've found so far breaks with audio browsers or is Flash-powered (and just doesn't work for those users). We have found some solutions that would work... but they require the user to create an account for the check-out which is a bit complicated for the product being sold (currently 2 products at $7 each with a couple more products coming eventually). We're hoping for something the client can manage, and that his market can use and that is just really simple and strait-forward for checkout (as in, no extra clicks). Any advice is appreciated.

PS. Great to think that even though I haven't been around much in the last few years, Cre8 is still the first place I look for help with problems like these! You all rock!

Rand

[cre8pc]

I have someone in mind...will see if I can hook you up!

[AbleReach]

Have you looked at sites that serve the visually impaired and have shopping carts? They may have other problems, but if they don't crash what you need, maybe the rest can be worked with.

http://support.perki...=store_homepage
http://www.seedlings...owse.php?cat=11


Seedlings doesn't require registration before putting things in a shopping cart.

[cre8pc]

Response from a cart programmer friend....

You'd probably have to go full out custom to make it work because the vast majority of carts ask for things that would be ridic to ask a blind person—CVV, etc. I can't even read that stuff.

Since this stuff is legislated—accessibility—but not enforced reliably on smaller folks, wouldn't PayPal and Google have to comply? If so, why not force them that way?

[joedolson]

It really depends what you want to accomplish with the cart - how complicated it should be, how many and what kinds of payments it'll take, etc.

For what it's worth, accessibility is *not* legislated for web sites, and there is no guarantee that Paypal or Google's eCommerce systems would comply. I haven't reviewed them recently, so I don't know their current status, but there's no guarantee that they'd stay accessible.

That said, trend-wise, it's far more likely that they'll become more accessible than less.

There's at least one ecommerce plug-in for WordPress - eShop - which is specifically constructed to be fully accessible.

[SEOigloo]

:miniwave: Just saying hey, Rand. It's nice to see you here! It would be cool to know what you've been doing lately.

[MaryKrysia]

Here is a super simple solution that should work well for a very small number of products.

Formmail.pl can be customized to work with simple PayPal basic payments. I think that PayPal basic is accessible to the blind. No ecommerce software or custom programming required (except for customizing the Formmail.pl forms handling program).

[rmccarley]

FYI the client found mals-e (dot com) which he says works great for him and ties with Google or PayPal. (Not sure how yet since he set it up)

And Miriam, it's good to see you too! Your "Charlatan’s Web" post was awesome!