Potential Pricing Discrimination Due to Inaccessible Web Sites

Abstract

Abstract. Although tools and design guidelines exist to make web sites accessible, a majority of web sites continue to be inaccessible. When a web site offers special prices that are available only on the web site (not the physical store), and the web site itself is inaccessible, this can lead to discriminatory pricing, where people with disabilities could end up paying higher prices than people without disabilities who can access the web site and take advantage of the online-only prices. This research examined whether 10 of the top ecommerce web sites which offer online-only price specials are accessible. The results revealed that there were multiple categories of accessibility violations found on all of the evaluated web sites.

Progress on Website Accessibility?

“…While the guidelines are very thorough, this thoroughness makes them difficult for developers who are not accessibility experts to understand and thus implement. While WCAG 2.0 was designed to make the guidelines more understandable and testable, recent studies continue to show that nonexperts and even experienced Web accessibility experts have trouble agreeing on their use [Brajnik et al 2012;Lazar et al 2011]. The success criteria we tested represent those for which experienced accessibility auditors agree on conformance [Brajnik et al 2012].…”

Connecting government, libraries and communities: Information behavior theory and information intermediaries in the design of LibEGov.org

“…Additionally, two experts in interface accessibility individually used a structured, 3-phase approach to assessing the accessibility of LibEGov: listening to a web page with a screen reader while visually viewing the page, using typical non-visual navigational techniques, and code inspections to ensure compliance with each paragraph of the Section 508 interface regulations. This widely accepted approach ensures compliance with the law, addresses different types of disabilities (for instance, since the keyboard access required by screen reader users is also what users with motor impairments need), and allows for multiple viewpoints of the accessibility features of the website Lazar, Wentz, Biggers, et al, 2011;Lazar, Wentz, Bogdan, et al, 2011). In anticipation of a wide release of the resource during the summer of 2013, the next phase of the project will include field testing of LibEGov through workshops at which additional feedback regarding content and design will be solicited from public librarians and employees of government agencies.…”

The discriminatory impact of digital inaccessibility

“…When the web site is inaccessible, people with disabilities will not be able to independently take advantage of these web-only prices. In a 2011 study of the 10 largest US companies that offered web-only specials, all 10 companies had web sites with major accessibility barriers [24]. Similar problems arise on aggregator sites-sites that allow an individual to compare products/services and prices across multiple web sites.…”