Disability shouldn’t lock you out of online shopping, the world of e-commerce should be open to all, equally.

The Accessibility Project- a free-to-use tool for e-commerce designers anywhere to create product cards equally usable and aesthetically appealing for people with and without a visual impairment.

The project was created for Procter and Gamble and began on the product pages of one of their leading brands – Ambi Pur.

Over many months, designers and developers explored, applied and challenged the rules and guides for accessibility, working in partnership with people with a range of disabilities.

The final template was created as an open source file with a user guide. Designers and developers could download it for free to create product pages for any brand.

 The project is ongoing and P&G have committed to create more ‘accessible’ open source templates for more of their brands- making shopping online easier for everyone.

Over a 3 month period the design team worked alongside users with varied access issues (sight, mobility etc.) to determine the specifics of the page design, taking on board both the practical and aesthetic side of web page development.

P&G then used these insights to redesign the product pages for Ambi Pur, one of its hero brands. In December 2017 these pages were launched and promoted via PR and on P&G’s social channels, and the design templates were made available to download for free for all.

P&G have committed to applying accessibility to more of their brand in 2018 and 2019, which is a scope of over 1 million e Commerce assets

P&G have committed to applying accessibility to more of their brand in 2018 and 2019, which is a scope of over 1 million e Commerce assets

The project was written about in ad blogs, which is quite a feat for the topic which is generally considered as 'unsexy'.

Research provided us with some startling numbers: in the EU, 80 million people have some form of disability, and this number will only grow as the population ages. In Poland, 15% of people are at risk of exclusion, and 1.5 million internet users are 65 and over. This means there is a very broad target audience, and a large number of potential users. By providing adaptable open source templates, there is the scope for designers to create pages to suit the needs of this varied audience, adding features like lossless 500% zoom, hidden alt tags or embedded keyboard navigation. These additions will open up e-commerce platforms to a vast number of people previously excluded either completely, or left to feel marginalized by their poorly designed special versions.

The project is intentionally ongoing, with the open source nature of the templates inviting constant innovation.

As e-commerce an increasingly popular way to shop, the issue of accessibility has become much more relevant. Many e-commerce sites are either inaccessible to those with visual, hearing or mobile disabilities, or they require ‘switching’ to specially made versions.

These involve a compromise on design standards, and create an unnecessary division between the ‘normal’ and the ‘disabled’ UX.

Our goal was to create a free open source design template to suit the needs of multiple target groups. This template would be available to download and adapt by anyone- designers, brands etc. The resulting pages would be equally accessible to all users, both those with and without disabilities, show few obvious visual differences and maintain high design standards.

Our ultimate objective was to emphasize the idea of equality of access, and to make sure e-commerce pages were accessible to all.