Building Accessible E_comemrce Sites With Magento

By Author: Ravindra Singh
Total Articles: 11
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Let us understand the accessibility requirements in an e-commerce shop. One very pertinent doubt that arises is that whether one can optimize and existing site or one has to build a website from the scratch. The solution lies in understanding the different solution scenarios. There are times when one has created web-based applications in conformation with the web standards. In such a case, one just needs to optimize the website or the e-commerce portal. In another case, there are times when a developer builds an application or a website as per his understanding without conforming to any standards, thus leading to a duplication of effort by having to rebuild the e-commerce portal from the scratch. For example, if the e-commerce shopping cart portal is built keeping in mind the international web standards, there are chances that an online merchant will be saved from the trouble of even incorporating a small change. One such example of an e-commerce shopping cart portal is Magento. If an enterprise plans to adopt the highly accessible Magento software, then one has to hire a Magento developer ...
... who is aware of the Magento architecture that has all the accessibility features incorporated into it.


Web page template is an important component that comes handy in making a site extremely accessible. There are 14 WCAG 1.0 guidelines that a developer needs to take care of while building an e-commerce portal. These are:


1. Offer relevant alternatives to audio and visual content.

2. Build the site as per the colour contrast algorithm.

3. Refer to markeup and style sheets.

4. Clarify the language usage.

5. Create transformable tables.

6. Create web pages with new technologies that can transform easily.

7. Offer user control of time sensitive content changes.

8. Provide direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.

9. Ensure a design that is design independent.

10. Leverage interim solutions.

11. Confirm to W3C guidelines and technologies.

12. Offer content and orientation information.

13. Incorporate clear navigation mechanisms.

14. Provide a clear and simple documentation.


It is interesting to note that Magento templates have been built using the markup language that confirm to technical specifications. It is not only important to know these features and guidelines, but also one should be able to work with these guidelines.