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

In this series, team members at Passion4Social share personal experiences of inaccessible digital spaces that have left them feeling frustrated, excluded, and even endangered.

Here is our graphic designer Leo’s story.

Ticketmaster’s twelve-minute scramble

My parents experienced difficulty ordering tickets through the Ticketmaster platform and asked for my help to complete their purchase.

You see, in order to access tickets, you are required to download and use the platform’s app.

Given that my parents are retired, not very tech-savvy, and live a fair distance from me, installing an app and creating an account was not something they felt comfortable doing.

In theory, you can buy tickets for someone else and gift them, which I was planning to do, but that still requires the other person to log in to the app.

A definite stumbling block for my parents

The process became even more stressful for me thanks to a distracting countdown timer.

Customers have a very short window to enter all their personal and card details — incredibly unhelpful if they need extra time to check that the information is entered correctly.

As I tried to log in to the app (I don’t use it often), the timer simply ran out.

Neither could I find concrete confirmation that the tickets I was buying were even eligible for gifting — some aren’t.

Feeling anxious and unsure about completing the purchase, I left without buying the tickets in the end.

Soldiering on themselves, my parents were constantly frustrated by the process timing out and pushing them back to the start.

The necessity of downloading an app just to get tickets also confused them.

Eventually, they had to ask someone else, with better access to devices, to help them instead.

As an autistic adult who regularly buys event tickets, I found the experience overwhelming.

This was by far the most frustrating website I have ever encountered. Although I understand Ticketmaster’s push for app-based purchasing and its attempts to limit inflated reselling, the system, in reality, creates enormous access barriers.

The countdown timer feels completely unfair — for people like me, who become anxious under time constraints; for customers with limited mobility; and for those who need extra time to enter details.

Our message to businesses like Ticketmaster

Ignoring accessibility shows a lack of care for people’s right to participate fully in society, be it enjoying live music or making everyday purchases.

Forced reliance on apps and relentless countdowns are only costing you sales, harming your brand reputation, and robbing people of life-enhancing cultural experiences.

Reflecting on the experience, Leo says:

“If Ticketmaster forces a customer like me to give up, what chance do my parents, or anyone less confident with technology, really have?”