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How inaccessible retail websites affect blind and low vision consumers: their perceptions and responses
Journal article   Peer reviewed

How inaccessible retail websites affect blind and low vision consumers: their perceptions and responses

Alex H. Cohen, Jorge E. Fresneda and Rolph E. Anderson
Journal of service theory and practice
28 Feb 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-08-2021-0167

Abstract

Business & Economics Management Business Social Sciences
Purpose This research seeks to fill a gap in the service and retailing marketplace experience literature as well as retailing practice by extending Attribution and Expectancy Disconfirmation Theories to the large and growing market of consumers with vision disabilities. It reveals how accessibility-related service failures with a retailer's website can lead to anti-firm reactions from blind and low vision consumers, including social media sharing, negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) and avoidance of the retailer's other sales channels even if they are accessible. Design/methodology/approach Blind respondents were recruited from national blindness organizations to participate in this study using a within-subjects design to test reactions to accessibility-related propositions in two different scenarios involving varying degrees of effort. Findings In both high- and low-effort conditions, an accessibility-related service failure leads to the anti-firm consequences of NWOM, social media sharing and avoidance of the retailer's sales channels. Additionally, blind and low vision consumers who also feel inaccessible websites are discriminatory develop stronger anti-firm attitudes toward the offending retailers. Further, we aver that the retailer's entire website including all its features, not just the homepage, should be made accessible to the growing market of vision-impaired consumers and thereby obtain substantial competitive advantages. Originality/value This research pertains to the service failure and recovery nomological network. It extends the existing paradigm to include accessibility-related service failures experienced by consumers with disabilities into the specialized category of discrimination-based service failures in instances where service recovery is not easily achieved. Empirical investigations of these experiences have been rare, despite the frequency with which they occur.

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12 citations in Web of Science
9 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Business
Management
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