Case Study | Accessible Retail
Accessible Home Store: When Accessibility Is the Architecture
Two buyers, one platform – when your storefront must work as well as your products.
INDUSTRY
Accessible Home / Aging-in-Place
PLATFORM
Magento
MODEL
B2C + B2B
FOCUS
ADA Compliance, Dual-Channel Architecture
The accessibility paradox
A poorly built platform creates the obstacles your products eliminate
Accessible Home Store’s customers navigate mobility challenges, vision impairments, and physical limitations. But many needed to buy from websites with accessibility barriers. A poorly built eCommerce platform doesn’t just lose sales – it creates the exact obstacles their products are designed to remove.
Beyond that, the business served two completely different buyer types. Individual consumers browsing for grab bars and safety fixtures. Commercial buyers – contractors, architects, healthcare facilities – managing bulk orders, project quotes, and account-based purchasing. These aren’t the same journey, but maintaining two separate platforms wasn’t viable.
Generic eCommerce templates fail specialized audiences. They don’t serve the actual way those customers buy, and they compound the barriers your products solve.
Architecture approach
Accessibility built in, not bolted on
We built Magento from the ground up with WCAG 2.1 AA standards baked into core architecture: checkout flows, product search, navigation, form handling, screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, clear labeling. Not a separate “accessible version” – it’s the only version.
Product taxonomy was redesigned to bridge technical and common language. Customers looking for “grab bars” find what they need without knowing “ADA-compliant toilet safety frames.” Layered search lets buyers filter by use case and category.
What we delivered
Two journeys, one accessible platform
Full WCAG 2.1 AA compliance
Keyboard-accessible checkout flows, screen reader compatibility, color contrast compliance, proper form labels, semantic markup throughout. Accessibility is the architecture, not an overlay.
Retail consumer experience
Customers with low vision or mobility challenges navigate, search, filter, and check out without barriers. No mouse required. No separate accessible version.
Commercial B2B workflows
Contractors and healthcare facilities access project management, bulk quotes, tiered commercial pricing, and recurring orders through account dashboards with the same accessibility standards.
Accessibility-focused product discovery
Product taxonomy bridges technical and common language. Layered search by use case (“bathroom safety,” “mobility aids”) and category helps both consumer and professional buyers find products fast.
The bottom line
Your platform is part of the solution or part of the problem.
When you serve customers who face barriers, there’s no middle ground. Accessible Home Store proved that one platform can serve retail and commercial buyers with accessibility as a non-negotiable requirement, not a compliance checkbox.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bolting accessibility onto an existing template creates inconsistent experiences and misses edge cases. Building it into core architecture – checkout, search, navigation, forms – ensures every customer interaction meets accessibility standards without workarounds.
Same product catalog with different visibility and pricing rules. Retail customers browse by use case with full keyboard and screen reader support. Commercial buyers access project management, bulk quotes, and tiered pricing through accessible account dashboards.
If your customers need a platform that works as well as your products, let’s build it with accessibility as the foundation.
Ready to build a platform that removes barriers?
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