Businesses spend millions on cybersecurity, protecting their digital systems from data theft and malicious scams. Yet many neglect an equally harmful risk: poor accessibility across digital products, services, and platforms.

Although still treated as a tick-box exercise by many, poor accessibility can be just as damaging to a brand’s reputation and bottom line as any cyber breach.

In this new series, team members at Passion4Social share personal experiences of times when inaccessible digital spaces left them feeling frustrated, excluded, and even in danger.

A Valentine’s Day to forget

I am Allana, Passion4Social’s Lead Content Writer. I am registered blind and use screen-reading software to navigate the web.

As Cupid was busy firing his arrows on the 14^th February 2024, I got a painful reminder of how access barriers can be much more than an annoying inconvenience.

Having let my romantic side out of the cupboard for the day (I do have one, honest), I tried to order a Valentine’s takeaway for my partner and me through the Just Eat website.

The site was clunky to navigate, with links that seemed to lead nowhere, nameless buttons, and an overall unmanageable structure.

I would normally give up and go elsewhere.

However, on this special occasion, I decided to stick with it and made my choice of a South Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken, or so I thought.

Turns out, the menu items were labelled in such a way that they did not correspond to the logical tick boxes, and the dish I had actually selected was prawn.

That error could have been devastating.

My partner has a severe shellfish allergy, and due to the rich, dark colour of the sauce, it wasn’t immediately obvious what was on his fork.

Luckily, he realised just in time and did not actually ingest the prawns.

Unfortunately, the contact alone was enough to make him feel very unwell for three days, but the outcome could have been so much worse.

This experience was extremely frightening all around. It highlighted again how poor digital design puts people’s health at genuine risk — whether by excluding them from key information or locking them out of virtual appointments.

Our message to businesses like Just Eat

Ignoring accessibility sends a clear message: the needs and wants of your disabled customers don’t count.

This particular experience highlights that accessibility needs to centre care, as well as basic compliance.

Mislabelled menu items and awkward navigation could potentially cost you lives, as well as sales.

Investing in accessibility strengthens trust and, like cybersecurity, helps protect your customers and your business.

As for Allana, it might be another 15 years before she feels like unleashing her romantic side again.