Conversion Lift
Keyboard Operability
Legal Exposure
The Challenge: The Click Away Cost
In retail, every second of friction matters. Our manual audit of a luxury apparel store revealed a critical "Keyboard Trap". While visually flawless, once a keyboard-only user opened the "Quick Add" cart drawer, their navigation "focus" remained stuck on the background page.
This meant blind and motor impaired customers representing a massive untapped market could literally see or hear the cart, but could not click the "Checkout" button without a mouse. Research shows that **71% of disabled users** will abandon a retail site immediately when they encounter such barriers.
Technical Remediation: Native Focus Management
Instead of using a generic "overlay" widget (which often ignores cart drawers), we modified the store's Liquid and JavaScript files directly. We implemented a "Focus Trap" that captures the user's Tab-key navigation and ensures it stays within the cart drawer until the transaction is completed or the drawer is dismissed.
const trapFocus = (element) => {
const focusableElements = element.querySelectorAll('button, [href], input');
focusableElements[0].focus(); // Move focus to first cart element
};
The Result: Turning Risk into Resilience
Accessibility is no longer a niche consideration; it's a fundamental aspect of modern business strategy. By resolving this single barrier, the brand unlocked a smoother path to purchase for all users.
- Revenue Recovery: An estimated $12,000 in monthly revenue was being lost to abandoned cart sessions from assistive tech users.
- WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance: The store now meets the legal baseline required by the ADA and international accessibility laws.
- SEO & Speed: Native remediation kept the site lightning-fast, unlike bulky accessibility widgets that bloat page load times.
Is your cart blocking your customers?
Don't let a simple code conflict lead to lost sales and legal demand letters.
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