December 14, 2001
Blind Shopping
Last Friday, Amazon.com revealed it's new shopping site for the visually impaired. While the new site may look sparse and uninteresting to you, it may be just the thing to allow a blind person access to the world of online shopping. This streamlined site contains no graphics and the choices are simple and clear. But without access to a text reader, I can't comment on the design from a usability standpoint. However, I will note that I generally dislike the use of dropdown lists as menus. They can be tricky to navigate - and it's always better to see all of your choices in one glance. But a text reader may be able to use this type of menu without a problem. Oddly enough, some disabled users have complained that Amazon's new page 'ghettoizes' the visually impaired. Blind users are no longer welcome to use the original version of Amazon.com because a scaled-back version is available. Is this just a case of people playing devil's advocate, or is there really a problem with creating a specific site area for non-standard users? Others complain that while Amazon has made strides for blind visitors, they have left the handheld users in the lurch with missing ALT tags and other lacking features. If you have a comment about Amazon's new look, you can join the discussion on the CRM Daily forum.
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