Latest / The Retail Podcast / How Accessibility Impacts Bounce Rate, Basket Value, and Brand Trust

Transcript

How Accessibility Impacts Bounce Rate, Basket Value, and Brand Trust · The Retail Podcast

• 0:22
  Hello, and welcome back to the Wonderful Retail Podcast.
• 0:26
  Now, as you know by now, all of the episodes that I record, I
• 0:30
  start by saying they're really special.
• 0:31
  They're really wonderful. But that's because for me, every
• 0:34
  single show that we do has its own unique approach and value to
• 0:38
  the world. And as you know, we focus on the
• 0:41
  problems that need to be solved. And when I first came across
• 0:45
  Marion, I knew I'd get it wrong. Marion, Marion, that we need to
• 0:53
  have. Let me ask you a really tough
• 0:55
  question. Why should retailers or people
• 0:58
  in the digital sphere care about inclusivity?
• 1:02
  But before you tell us that, before you tell us that, how
• 1:06
  about you just start yourself with telling us a little bit
• 1:08
  about who you are, the Content Square Foundation, and how you
• 1:12
  ended up being here. Yeah, thank you.
• 1:14
  Thank you, Alex, for having me. So I'm Manuel Hovie, Executive
• 1:18
  director of the Content Square Foundation.
• 1:20
  I John Content Square five years hours ago after the acquisition
• 1:24
  of my company and now I'm lead the philanthropic of Content
• 1:29
  Square, which was which was created to promote digital
• 1:32
  accessibility for all. And I think Alex, it's important
• 1:36
  to start with the scale of the issue and remind that more than
• 1:40
  one people worldwide live with disabilities, that almost 15% of
• 1:46
  the global population and yet today over 80% of the web is
• 1:51
  still not accessible. And what does it mean?
• 1:54
  It means that people who rely on assistive technology simply
• 1:58
  cannot read, understand or use digital content properly.
• 2:03
  And maybe let me give you a concrete example.
• 2:05
  On an e-commerce website, someone who can see clearly sees
• 2:10
  a button labelled add to bag. And this action is very clear
• 2:15
  and very obvious. But if that button is not
• 2:18
  properly labelled for accessibility, a screen reader
• 2:21
  will announce something like button, button, button.
• 2:25
  And in that situation the user has no idea what what the action
• 2:31
  is and they cannot complete the purchase or they leave the
• 2:36
  website and very often they never come back.
• 2:38
  So I think my answer is that digital accessibility is auto
• 2:43
  pick and very important topic and it's not and not a marginal
• 2:46
  problem. And the data also clearly shows
• 2:50
  it in our recent e-commerce accessibility reports, because
• 2:54
  we found that 84% of Europe's top e-commerce website have
• 3:00
  inaccessible checkout flows. We also found that only 4% are
• 3:04
  close to be EAA ready, meaning they're actually complying with
• 3:09
  the minimum accessibility requirement that are no legally
• 3:13
  mandatory across Europe since June 2025.
• 3:16
  And I think what is important to understand is that this
• 3:20
  accessibility issue, not only excluding users, but they're
• 3:25
  also directly hurting conversion, retention, brand
• 3:30
  trust and image. And I'm, I think the biggest
• 3:33
  accessibility gap we see today is not about awareness, but it's
• 3:38
  about execution on the most critical user journey,
• 3:42
  especially for e-commerce and for checkouts.
• 3:44
  OK. So I want to unpick that, but
• 3:47
  just quickly, in terms of the content Square foundation, what,
• 3:50
  why did they, why did they buy you?
• 3:53
  What does the foundation hope to achieve?
• 3:55
  Like what? What's its objective?
• 3:57
  Yeah, maybe just to give you some context.
• 4:00
  So I've truly started my my company because I'm dyslexic
• 4:05
  myself, so I'm very sensitive about this topic.
• 4:08
  So I wanted to create a tool that I could use to adapt web
• 4:12
  content and digital document to my own needs.
• 4:16
  And I think my my first meeting with Jonathan Sherkey, the
• 4:22
  founder and CEO of Content Square, I shared with him the
• 4:26
  number I already share with you that 1,000,000 people in the
• 4:29
  world have some disability and in the meantime, 80% of the web
• 4:33
  content are not accessible. And his reaction really struck
• 4:37
  me and he said, Mayun, I've been working on UX for many years now
• 4:42
  and I have never heard accessibility explained like
• 4:46
  this. And if I didn't know, I'm sure
• 4:49
  many brands don't know either. So we need to do something to
• 4:53
  raise around us on this topic. So yeah, few few months after my
• 4:57
  company was a career by Content Square and shortly after that,
• 5:01
  the Content Square Foundation was created with a very clear
• 5:05
  mission and vision to promote digital accessibility at scale
• 5:09
  by raising around us, educating teams and influencing our
• 5:14
  organisation things about user experience.
• 5:17
  Sure, there's a lot of research about how bad things are or what
• 5:22
  is bad, but how do you turn those sort of the research that
• 5:25
  you know into practical guidance?
• 5:28
  Because you you do have lots of research partners that sort of
• 5:32
  will tell you thing, but how is that?
• 5:34
  How is that research turn into insights for for users and an
• 5:38
  organisation? Yeah, it's very good question.
• 5:41
  And I think it's important to, to, to make accessibility
• 5:45
  accessible and understandable by everyone.
• 5:48
  And so with the foundation we, we working on three pillars.
• 5:51
  So education 1st to educate team and also students research and
• 5:56
  innovation and advocacy and the research innovation we partner
• 6:01
  up with Institute de la Vision European or French institute.
• 6:06
  And this partnership was designed as a long time research
• 6:10
  collaboration with a clear objective.
• 6:13
  And the objective was to better understand the real online
• 6:17
  behaviour of people with accessibility needs.
• 6:19
  Not assumption, not average, but a real, real research.
• 6:23
  And we created a research project where people with visual
• 6:28
  impairment were were followed at different stage of their digital
• 6:32
  journeys across different type of actions to observe all their
• 6:38
  actually navigate online. And what we discovered was very
• 6:43
  interesting and often quite different also from what teams
• 6:47
  consider as a normal user behaviour.
• 6:50
  I mean, and I can give you some examples, but we found that
• 6:54
  people with accessibility needs use zoom above 200% most of the
• 7:00
  time, also rely on keyboard navigation instead of mouse
• 7:06
  around 80% of the time. The highlight text very
• 7:10
  frequently, especially when pages are not contrasted enough.
• 7:14
  And we also mean that the time before first click is up to
• 7:19
  seven times longer for people with accessibility needs.
• 7:22
  And this insight give us very strong behaviour patterns to
• 7:27
  better understand all people with access, with disability,
• 7:30
  sorry experience the web. And to make it actionable, we,
• 7:35
  we try based on this research, we create a beta accessibility
• 7:40
  segment inside content Square and we test it on the real
• 7:45
  website with beta clients. And today we see that more than
• 7:50
  2% of global traffic naturally falls into these segments.
• 7:55
  And what what we see when the the accessibility issue are
• 7:59
  corrected, of course, the the segment perform better.
• 8:02
  But what we see is that we have a better bounce rate.
• 8:05
  The time on sites increases and most importantly the average of
• 8:11
  basket value increases too. So I think it's very important
• 8:15
  to to talk to e-commerce and to businesses to have this kind of
• 8:18
  insight to give them the opportunity to to understand the
• 8:22
  important some on accessibility, but but through business matrix.
• 8:27
  Understood. So when you think about the
• 8:28
  European Accessibility Act that was passed last year and now
• 8:33
  companies are looking at the 90 day sort of plan in terms of
• 8:37
  having an accessibility plan and they may be behind where, where
• 8:41
  would they start? How should they start?
• 8:43
  What should they be focused on? Yeah.
• 8:45
  So I think first of all, it's important to say that no one
• 8:49
  expects companies to become a fully accessible as regulators,
• 8:55
  but also users aspect is a credible plan, real progress and
• 9:00
  clear ownership. So if a company is behind but
• 9:03
  serious about catching up, a smart 90 day plan could look
• 9:08
  like, I think first step, a clear picture of the reality.
• 9:12
  So you can start with an accessibility audit, for
• 9:15
  example, conducting by external and specialised A specialised
• 9:20
  provider. And this audit gives you an
• 9:23
  objective view of where you stand and where the main issue
• 9:28
  are. And it's very important.
• 9:30
  And I think in the same time, and it's very also important for
• 9:34
  me, but start training your teams if it's not already done.
• 9:37
  And I will prioritise design and development teams first because
• 9:43
  most accessibility issue are created or prevented at that
• 9:47
  level. And once the audit is done, you
• 9:50
  usually receive an accessibility and detailed list of, of issues.
• 9:55
  And and it's it's not the end goal, it's the starting point.
• 9:59
  So at this stage, understood. Yeah.
• 10:01
  So at this stage, what is key? I think it's a prioritisation
• 10:05
  which accessibility issues affect the most critical user
• 10:09
  journeys and which which ones have the, I guess impact on user
• 10:14
  businesses too. And they're the issues that
• 10:16
  should go first into your product road map.
• 10:19
  And yeah. And if I may also, I just want
• 10:22
  to one very strong signal of seriousness for me also
• 10:28
  transparency. And my recommendation is to
• 10:31
  publish an accessibility statement on your website.
• 10:34
  It's a public page where you clearly explain who you
• 10:38
  accessible accessibility provider is, your current
• 10:41
  accessibility score and the road map of improvements you are
• 10:44
  actively working on. So I think it's important also
• 10:47
  to show to your end user, your client, your prospect to partner
• 10:51
  that you are working on it and you have a clear, clear vision
• 10:55
  and what map to correct accessibility, accessibility
• 10:58
  issues. I love it.
• 11:00
  I love the fact that you, you, you have this practical lens
• 11:03
  that it's not, you know, a checklist if you like, but some
• 11:06
  practical advice. My final two questions are
• 11:10
  centred around the, the future in, in terms of actually, let me
• 11:15
  start with this because I'm not an expert.
• 11:17
  Is there a question I should have asked you?
• 11:19
  All customers that you meet with ask you that I haven't asked
• 11:23
  you. I think you asked me, but most
• 11:26
  of the time customer I, I speak Marion, can you help us to
• 11:30
  calculate the array of accessibility?
• 11:33
  And it's very difficult to answer because they have a lack
• 11:37
  of the lack of that around accessibility, but also the,
• 11:41
  the, the behaviour of people with accessibility needs.
• 11:44
  So it's, it's why we, we designed the, the the segment
• 11:48
  into content square. We need to have some actionable
• 11:51
  data to explain to, to, to Browns and to website why
• 11:56
  accessibility is very important and not only on the legal
• 12:00
  perspective, but on, on, on the business perspective.
• 12:03
  And, and show them that if they are not an accessible website,
• 12:07
  they're gonna lost some audience.
• 12:09
  And as I said before, people leave the website, but often
• 12:12
  never come back. So you, you, you lost a
• 12:15
  potential buyer and accessibility.
• 12:19
  It's, it's a man and and I, I, I love this, I really love this
• 12:23
  topic and I, I would love also share an example with you to
• 12:28
  show why it's important to think accessibility 1st and inclusive
• 12:33
  design first because a great example, I don't know if you
• 12:37
  know, but it's a TV remote control.
• 12:40
  It was originally designed for people with a motor disability
• 12:44
  who couldn't reach the button to change the channels on the TV.
• 12:49
  Yeah. And today it's something no one
• 12:51
  ever think twice about. And this shows that when
• 12:55
  accessibility it consider only, it's often become a standard UX
• 12:59
  for everyone. And I think it's a real powerful
• 13:03
  story to to, to, to, to talk about TV control and and why
• 13:07
  it's important to think accessibility first.
• 13:10
  Yeah, you just, you just don't think about it.
• 13:12
  And this sort of leads to my next question in terms of when
• 13:15
  you think about the future. And maybe the answer is there is
• 13:19
  so much work to be done now, but I'm curious of where you see the
• 13:23
  foundation and where you see your in, in the next 5 years.
• 13:28
  Do do you think will we will we look to, because obviously
• 13:32
  everyone's testing now, right? And they'll do the AB
• 13:34
  personalization. But I'm just trying to think
• 13:36
  about the future in terms of, is it the fact that it just becomes
• 13:39
  so commonplace, like the TV control that we all just end up
• 13:44
  having better experience? Is that I, I mean, where do you
• 13:47
  see from five years from now as a leader?
• 13:50
  I'm curious about how you see the future.
• 13:52
  I, I think AI for example, because we, we, we talk a lot
• 13:56
  about AI and I think AI has a huge potential to improve
• 14:00
  accessibility. For example, AI agent could help
• 14:03
  people with disability to consume the web, to consume the
• 14:07
  content more easily, whether it's reading, navigating or
• 14:11
  interacting online. And at the same time, I believe
• 14:14
  that AI will only work well if the website themselves are
• 14:19
  accessible. So it's actually reinforce the
• 14:22
  need to build accessibility from the start.
• 14:25
  And I'm I'm also pretty sure that AI can be a powerful tools
• 14:28
  for developer, for example, to helping them to identify and fix
• 14:32
  accessibility issue faster. But I think one important one
• 14:36
  important thing that company should start now.
• 14:39
  It's also testing with people with disabilities because a lot
• 14:44
  of time company run habitats the and and miss a segment of the
• 14:49
  population because people with disabilities or people who are
• 14:53
  using assistive technology don't fit into this segment.
• 14:57
  And I think it's really important to include people with
• 15:00
  disabilities in the IB testing, for example.
• 15:04
  And just one thing who comes my mind, the the content Square
• 15:08
  Foundation create a prize, the accessibility innovation prize.
• 15:12
  And last year, the company who won the prize is a company who
• 15:16
  democratising inclusive user testing by using AI personas.
• 15:21
  And this personal has been built with 20 years of data from
• 15:27
  disabled community and they are intended to provide detail
• 15:32
  insight why your product or services may be inaccessible.
• 15:36
  So I think both AI and user testing with people with
• 15:41
  disability are very important for me in this, in this moment
• 15:44
  and in the future. I love it.
• 15:46
  Marion Marci Baku. It's been a fantastic window
• 15:51
  into a topic that is is important and the retailers and
• 15:55
  e-commerce or marketplaces need to be focused on and, and thank
• 15:59
  you for taking the time to talk us through the various elements.
• 16:03
  It's been really magnificently eye opening.
• 16:06
  So thank you so much. Thank you so much Alex for
• 16:08
  having me.