Retailer Accessibility Ratings: Which Big Stores Actually Work With a Screen Reader

Shopping online is supposed to be the great equalizer for blind and low-vision people. No aisles to navigate, no shelves out of reach, no waiting for a sighted helper. But most retail websites are built for eyes first and screen readers as an afterthought — and the damage is worst exactly where it hurts most: the final steps of checkout, after all the effort is spent. This guide rates ten major retailers on what actually works, what breaks, and the workarounds that get your order through. Every claim below was verified against live sources in October 2026. Where evidence was thin, we say so plainly.

Why this matters: the final-checkout trap

The signature complaint of blind online shoppers is that a site can work fine through browsing, searching, and loading the cart — and then fail at the very last step. The checkout submit button can’t be activated with a screen reader, the payment form’s fields aren’t labeled, or the delivery scheduling widget is a wall of unlabeled controls. You discover the site is unusable only after all the effort is spent.

This is not a corner-case problem. AudioEye’s 2025 Digital Accessibility Index scanned 85,966 pages across 2,543 retail websites and found retail had the worst accessibility of any industry it measured:

• 350.1
  accessibility issues per page on average — the highest of any industry
• 14.0
  inaccessible product images per page on average
• 73
  elements per page failing color-contrast minimums
• 9.5
  keyboard-navigation violations per page
• 8
  inaccessible links per page

The legal system has noticed. More than 5,000 digital-accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025, and roughly 70 percent of them targeted online stores, according to UsableNet’s filing data reported by accessibility trackers (seen October 2026). The most famous case remains Robles v. Domino’s: a blind man, Guillermo Robles, could not order a pizza with his screen reader on Domino’s website or app, sued, and courts ruled the ADA covers websites and apps — a ruling the Supreme Court declined to disturb. Blind developers discussing the case on Hacker News describe the familiar pattern: everything works until the final submit step, where an inaccessible control stops the order cold.

These numbers are why a guide like this exists. A store with 350 barriers per page doesn’t have to mean 350 barriers in your checkout — some retailers have done the work, and some haven’t. Here is what we found.

How to read these ratings

• Works — the full journey, from search to checkout to payment, is reliably usable with a screen reader.
• Works with caveats — you can get an order through, but you’ll need to know the rough edges and the workarounds.
• Unverified — we could not find enough current evidence to rate it either way. We tell you what we did find instead of guessing.
• Avoid — the evidence says this one is not worth your time. None of the retailers below earned this rating; blind shoppers successfully order from all ten, with very different levels of friction.

Evidence comes from blind-user reports (AppleVis forums, r/Blind discussions), the American Foundation for the Blind’s AccessWorld shopping guides, academic research, and the retailers’ own published accessibility pages — all seen in October 2026. Individual experiences vary by device, screen reader, and how recently an app updated. App versions matter: several retailers have a habit of breaking accessibility in one update and fixing it in the next.

Amazon

Works with caveats

What works

• Amazon runs a dedicated screen-reader-optimized site that strips out the clutter of the standard page — fewer promotional modules, cleaner headings and landmarks, easier navigation by heading and button commands. The American Foundation for the Blind has documented how this mode makes it practical to find links and controls with screen-reader shortcuts.
• The full buying flow has been independently verified: accessibility researchers at Deque walked the entire process with NVDA — accessible search, picking size and color variants, adding to cart, choosing shipping and payment options, and completing the purchase. Color and size pickers were announced correctly.
• The shopping app works with VoiceOver (iOS) and TalkBack (Android), includes voice search, and supports one-tap ordering if you enable 1-Click Ordering, which skips several checkout steps entirely.

What breaks

• The standard website is cluttered: hundreds of links, promotional carousels, and “customers also bought” modules that turn navigation into a slog.
• Recent blind-user reports on AppleVis describe VoiceOver focus getting stuck on the site in Safari on Mac — one shopper’s focus locked while editing addresses, and others report the app layout has become more cluttered.

Workarounds

• Use Amazon’s cleaned-up screen-reader version of the site instead of the standard cluttered homepage.
• Use Alexa voice commands to add items to cart and track orders without touching the site at all — this needs a one-time setup in the Alexa app (ask a helper to enable it once if you can’t find it).
• Enable 1-Click Ordering (under Your Account settings) to collapse checkout into a single step — ask a helper to set it up once if you can’t locate the setting.
• If the website misbehaves with VoiceOver on Mac, blind users report the site works better in Chrome or other Chromium browsers than in Safari.
• For a fully screen-reader-built shopping experience, blind users on AppleVis also recommend InnoSearch.ai, an AI shopping portal built specifically for blind and low-vision users (more on this in Workarounds that work anywhere).

Walmart

Works with caveats

What works

• A blind shopper writing for UsableNet reported an overall positive experience: the site includes skip-navigation links, alt text on product images, concise button labels, and direct links to specific spots on product detail pages — including jumping straight to item descriptions or customer reviews.
• The AFB’s review of the Walmart groceries app found shopping workable end to end: search, department browsing, filtering and sorting results, and item detail pages with calorie counts, unit prices, and nutrition information.
• Walmart offers free access to Aira — live, trained visual interpreters — in all U.S. stores and on Walmart.com. Open the Aira app and connect; Walmart covers the cost (announced December 2024).

What breaks

• The date/time picker for scheduling delivery orders is not accessible — a dealbreaker step if you rely on scheduled grocery delivery.
• Adding and removing payment methods and shipping addresses is described as “always tricky.” Account management is the weak zone.
• Search-result lists pair each product with both an “Add to Cart” and a “Favorite” button, which can leave a screen-reader user unsure which button belongs to which product; and dismissing search on the iOS app requires finding an invisible, unlabeled control near the top of the page.

Workarounds

• When browsing results, activate the item name first and make your decision on the product page, rather than trying to match paired buttons in the list.
• Set up payment methods and addresses with a sighted helper or via the free Aira session once — then reordering is smoother.
• Use the free Aira access for the hard parts: reading labels, checking prices in store, or getting help on Walmart.com.

Target

Works with caveats

What works

• The Target mobile app includes a dedicated mode for screen-reader users that strips out irrelevant clutter and focuses on the basics — praised by a blind shopper as “refreshing” and excellent.
• Target offers free Aira visual-interpreter access both in stores and online at target.com (see Target’s accessibility help page).
• Target is rolling out what it calls the first accessible self-checkout in retail, designed with the National Federation of the Blind: braille and high-contrast buttons, a headphone jack with adjustable volume, physical navigation buttons, and spoken instructions. Rollout began in the 2025 holiday season and continues into 2026 — bring wired earbuds with a standard 3.5 mm connector and plug your earbuds into the headphone jack on the kiosk (near the keypad) to activate the audio checkout.

What breaks

• The desktop website experience lags far behind the mobile app — the same blind shopper called it “miles behind.”
• Target’s marketing and account-service emails have been reported as not screen-reader accessible, which makes using coupon codes and changing passwords difficult. (This report is from UsableNet’s blind-shopper series; we could not confirm whether it has been fixed.)
• The accessible self-checkout is still rolling out store by store, so yours may not have it yet.

Workarounds

• Shop on the mobile app, not the desktop site.
• Use the free Aira sessions for reading shelf labels and signage in store, or for help on target.com.
• If your store has the new self-checkout, carry wired earbuds so you can activate the audio checkout independently.

Macy’s

Unverified as of October 2026

We could not find current, independent reports from blind shoppers about Macy’s website or app — no AppleVis threads, no r/Blind discussions, no recent accessibility reviews surfaced in our October 2026 search. So we are not rating it.

What the company claims

• Macy’s published European Accessibility Act statement (seen October 2026) says it provides alternative text for product images, compatibility with popular screen readers, text resize up to 200% for users with visual disabilities, logical headings and landmarks, and keyboard accessibility, plus ongoing accessibility training and third-party audits.
• Accessibility statements are marketing as much as they are engineering. Without blind-user reports, treat these claims as unverified.

Workarounds

• If you try Macy’s and hit barriers, Macy’s says it maintains feedback channels for accessibility issues — use them, and report back to the community on AppleVis or r/Blind so a rating becomes possible.
• As a backup, use the general workarounds below — particularly a live visual interpreter for the final checkout step.

Best Buy

Works with caveats

What works

• The American Foundation for the Blind’s AccessWorld shopping guide walked a full purchase as a blind shopper: browsing, sorting, adding to cart, choosing between store pickup and shipping, entering a zip code for shipping costs, and checking out. Checkout offers manual entry, Apple Pay, or PayPal — the tester used Apple Pay and reported it “worked perfectly,” with a confirmation email arriving within minutes.
• Best Buy has a dedicated assistive technology landing page that gathers hearing aids, walkers, adaptive controllers, and voice-controlled tech in one browsable place.

What breaks

• Geek Squad phone support was the failure point in the AFB test: the agent repeatedly told the blind customer to “click on graphics” that were unlabeled, the call dropped twice with no callback, and a paid support tier was pushed before the problem was solved. An in-store Geek Squad desk fixed the same problem in under two minutes for free.

Workarounds

• Check out with Apple Pay or PayPal to skip the manual shipping/payment forms — the fastest, most accessible path through the final step.
• For tech-support problems, go to the in-store Geek Squad desk rather than calling; phone agents showed no training in assisting screen-reader users.

Costco

Unverified as of October 2026

The only detailed blind-user account we found is from 2021, and it is not encouraging — but it is old, so we are not issuing a rating on it.

What we found

• A blind writer documented his Costco account-verification experience: the verification email was composed entirely of an image with no alt text, so no screen reader could read it. Phone support staff had no concept of what a screen reader was; he was escalated to managers twice and ultimately told to visit a warehouse in person.
• Recent general app reviews (seen October 2026) describe a clunky app with checkout bugs — including losing all checkout progress if you switch away from the app mid-checkout. These reviewers were not necessarily blind, but checkout fragility hurts screen-reader users most.

Workarounds

• Complete account setup and membership verification with sighted help or a visual interpreter before relying on the app alone.
• Copy any addresses or payment details you need before starting checkout, since leaving the app can wipe your progress.
• If you shop Costco successfully with a screen reader, consider sharing your experience on AppleVis — the community needs current data.

eBay

Works with caveats

What works

• Buying and selling with a screen reader is possible: the AFB’s guide to eBay describes it as “more difficult to use than the typical online shopping site, but it is possible to participate in both the buying and the selling.”
• eBay publishes an accessibility commitment aiming at WCAG 2.1 AA, with an accessibility feedback email (accessibility@ebay.com).
• For CAPTCHA verification, eBay documents a text-challenge alternative: open the hCaptcha widget menu (announced to screen readers as “Get information about hCaptcha and accessibility options”), choose the text challenge, and answer the questions instead of solving a visual test.

What breaks

• Item condition is often only evident from photos — researchers found eBay shoppers struggling because “it’s all about images” with inadequate descriptions, and product detail varying wildly between sellers.
• Auction time pressure plus dense, seller-written listing pages makes bidding the hardest part of the journey.

Workarounds

• Use the hCaptcha text challenge instead of visual verification.
• Ask sellers questions before bidding — legitimate sellers answer, and the answers become text you can read.
• See How to read clothing listings blind for tactics that apply double on eBay, where every listing is written by a different person.

DoorDash

Works with caveats

What works

• Orders can be completed, and DoorDash has shipped an AI text-to-order agent inside Apple Messages (announced September 30, 2026): U.S. iPhone users can join a waitlist, then text what they want — the agent searches local restaurants, builds a cart, and handles checkout inside the text thread, no app navigation required.
• DoorDash publishes a customer support line: 855-431-0459 (listed on DoorDash’s own help center accessibility page, seen October 2026).

What breaks

• AppleVis forum members report the app can go effectively unreadable after selecting a restaurant — screens full of unvoiced or jumbled elements.
• Updates break accessibility without warning; one member who got a support agent to test with VoiceOver found the agent couldn’t reproduce the problem and was “blown off.” Reporting bugs can feel like shouting into the void.

Workarounds

• Phone ordering: +1 (855) 300-8985 — reported by AppleVis forum members as an unpublicized line where blind customers can place DoorDash orders by phone. You need a credit card already on your DoorDash profile, and no proof of disability is required. (Seen October 2026; it is unpublicized, so it could change — if it stops working, report it.)
• DoorDash’s published support line 855-431-0459 for order issues.
• Join the waitlist for the Apple Messages text-to-order agent if app updates keep breaking the interface for you.

Uber Eats

Works with caveats

What works

• Between breakages, the app is usable: blind users do order successfully, and the ordering flow is generally operable with VoiceOver.
• Uber Eats is also available inside the main Uber app’s Eats tab — clunkier, but an independent fallback interface when the standalone app breaks.

What breaks

• The “yo-yo effect”: AudioEye’s analysis of Uber’s accessibility record notes that the U.S. Department of Justice’s September 2025 $125 million lawsuit against Uber cited app updates that repeatedly broke accessibility for blind users — one update works with screen readers, the next locks blind users out, then it gets fixed, then it breaks again.
• AppleVis threads document the decline concretely: a restaurant list that used to be one focusable item per restaurant became three or four separate elements per restaurant (name, delivery time, rating each its own stop), making scrolling the list tedious.
• Some controls announce as “dimmed” to VoiceOver when they aren’t, including options to message or call a driver.

Workarounds

• If the standalone Uber Eats app breaks after an update, try ordering through the Eats tab in the main Uber app.
• Uninstalling and reinstalling the app has resolved broken states for blind users (keep your password handy).
• Report accessibility regressions in the App Store reviews as well as to Uber — public reviews are seen by the company and warn other blind users.

Instacart

Works with caveats

What works

• The iOS app tested well for blind reviewers: one Blind Bargains reviewer created an account, signed in, chose a store, added items to the cart, and successfully ordered groceries. A Supersense review describes the app as “highly accessible on a smartphone with clearly labeled buttons and tabs.”
• Instacart publishes an accessibility commitment aiming at WCAG 2.0/2.1 AA and invites feedback by email; see a third-party accessibility review of Instacart for one blind shopper’s experience.

What breaks

• In testing, testers could not remove items from the shopping cart using a screen reader — on either the website or the app. A wrong item in the cart can mean starting over.
• The website is a patchwork: some screens work, some don’t. An academic usability study with blind participants found mislabeled images and buttons and a lack of audio cues for completed actions.

Workarounds

• Prefer the iOS app over the website.
• Double-check quantities before adding items, since removing them later may not be possible with a screen reader.
• Instacart has faced ADA lawsuits over app accessibility (as have DoorDash and Lyft) — if you hit a wall, you are not alone, and feedback to their accessibility email helps build the record.

How to read clothing listings blind

Clothing is the hardest category to buy blind, and the research backs that up. A 2023 academic study of visually impaired online clothes shoppers (arXiv 2305.11559, by researchers at the University of Sheffield) found that most retailers rely on images to present clothing features and often provide no alternative text — leaving blind shoppers unable to determine colour, pattern, graphics, or fit from the listing alone. Here is how experienced blind shoppers work around that:

• Read the full text description first, not the title. Look for explicit statements of colour, pattern, fabric, and fit. If the listing never says these things in words, treat the listing as incomplete — because for you, it is.
• Watch out for “culture-dependent” colour names. The study found retailers naming colours “teal,” “sky blue,” or “royal blue” — names that mean nothing without vision. If the colour name is unfamiliar, ask a sighted person, an Aira agent, or a Be My Eyes volunteer what the colour actually looks like before you buy.
• Mine the customer reviews. Blind participants in the study reported reading customer reviews to extract product details the retailer left out — reviewers often describe fit (“runs small”), fabric feel, true colour, and quality in plain language. Reviews are frequently more informative than the official description.
• Ask the seller questions. On marketplaces like eBay, use “ask the seller” before bidding or buying. Legitimate sellers answer, and their answers are text you can read. On retail sites, check the Q&A section on the product page.
• Verify colour and pattern with a human or AI. If the listing photo is all there is, point Be My Eyes, Aira, or Seeing AI’s colour and scene tools at the product image (or have a helper look) to confirm the colour and pattern before committing.
• Favor retailers that describe in words. When the same item is sold in multiple places, buy from the listing with the most complete textual description — it is the one that was written with you in mind, even if unintentionally.

A note on customer review photos

For sighted shoppers, customer review photos are the most trusted content on a product page — they show how the item looks in a real home, not a studio. For blind shoppers, they are almost entirely wasted. Wayfair’s own accessibility research team investigated this and found that the typical alt text on review images is non-descriptive wording like “customer image” or “summary of review” — which tells a screen-reader user nothing about what the photo shows (Wayfair tech blog, “Bringing Review Content to Life for Blind and Low Vision Consumers”).

This matters because review photos often contain the most honest visual information about a product: true colour, real-world size, how it wears over time. Wayfair’s team concluded that product-page photos are at least backed up by written specifications, but review imagery is user-generated and varies wildly — and its descriptions are the thinnest. Their project to generate real descriptions of review images is ongoing.

What to do about it: treat review text as your source of truth and review photos as bonus content you can unlock with a visual interpreter (Be My Eyes, Aira) or an AI describer pointed at the image. If a review says “see photo for the true colour,” that photo is doing work the text isn’t — get eyes on it before you buy.

Workarounds that work anywhere

When a retailer’s site or app fights you, these options don’t depend on any single store:

• InnoSearch.ai — an AI-powered shopping platform launched in March 2024 and built specifically for blind and low-vision users, with over a billion products in its catalog. Be My Eyes partnered with InnoSearch on Global Accessibility Awareness Day to offer accessible shopping inside the Be My Eyes app. Blind users on AppleVis praise its accessibility and customer service. If a mainstream retailer’s site defeats you, shopping the same products through InnoSearch is a real alternative.
• Aira — live, trained visual interpreters over video call. Free at Walmart (in stores and on Walmart.com) and at Target (in stores and on target.com); available by subscription elsewhere. Ideal for the final checkout step, reading unlabeled buttons, and confirming colours and patterns.
• Be My Eyes — free volunteers for quick visual questions, plus the InnoSearch shopping integration.
• Keyboard-first navigation. On desktop sites, learn your screen reader’s quick-navigation keys (headings, buttons, form fields, landmarks). Many checkout failures are easier to diagnose — and sometimes bypass — with a keyboard than with touch exploration.
• App vs. website. Retailers often have wildly different accessibility between their app and their site (Target’s app beats its site; the reverse is true elsewhere). If one is broken, try the other before giving up.
• Public reviews. When an update breaks an app, leave an App Store review describing the accessibility failure. Companies read them, and they warn other blind users.

What we could not verify

Honesty is the policy here, so here is what we could not confirm as of October 2026:

• Macy’s and Costco — no current blind-shopper reports surfaced; both are marked unverified rather than rated. Macy’s publishes an accessibility statement claiming screen-reader compatibility; Costco has a documented 2021 accessibility failure but nothing current.
• Phone numbers — we publish only two: DoorDash’s unpublicized phone-ordering line +1 (855) 300-8985 (reported by AppleVis forum members) and DoorDash’s published support line 855-431-0459 (from DoorDash’s own help center). We found a Walmart support number in a 2017 AFB article but could not confirm it is still current, so we left it out.
• Day-to-day breakage — app updates change the picture constantly. A retailer rated “works with caveats” today can break tomorrow (the Uber Eats yo-yo effect is the textbook case). Treat every rating as a snapshot of October 2026, and check recent AppleVis forum threads before depending on any single app.

Sources

All sources below were seen live in October 2026.

• AudioEye, 2025 Digital Accessibility Index: Retail industry report — 85,966 pages across 2,543 retail sites; 350.1 issues per page; 14.0 inaccessible images; 73 contrast failures; 9.5 keyboard violations; 8 inaccessible links.
• UsableNet, ADA Web Lawsuit Trends for 2026 — 5,000+ digital accessibility lawsuits filed in 2025; and accessiBe’s summary of UsableNet data, Accessibility Lawsuits & eCommerce — ~70% targeting e-commerce.
• Hacker News discussion: Supreme Court allows blind people to sue retailers if websites aren’t accessible — the Domino’s (Robles v. Domino’s) case.
• Alluqmani et al., “The Barriers to Online Clothing Websites for Visually Impaired People” (arXiv 2305.11559, 2023) — retailers rely on images with no alt text; blind shoppers can’t determine colour, pattern, graphics, or fit; “teal”/“sky blue”/“royal blue” colour names.
• Wayfair tech blog, “Bringing Review Content to Life for Blind and Low Vision Consumers” — review-image alt text typically “customer image” or “summary of review.”
• American Foundation for the Blind, Accessible Shopping at Amazon for People with Visual Impairments — amazon.com/access screen-reader mode.
• Deque, 3 Things to Learn from Amazon — full NVDA walkthrough of Amazon checkout.
• AppleVis forum, An accessible shopping experience — blind users on recent Amazon friction and InnoSearch.ai.
• UsableNet blog, Web Accessibility Examples from a Blind Shopper — Walmart (positive overall; delivery picker and account management issues) and Target (app screen-reader mode; desktop and emails lagging).
• AFB AccessWorld, The Walmart Groceries App — app review with search and button-pairing quirks.
• Disability Scoop, Walmart Enhancing Accessibility for Shoppers with Disabilities (Dec 2024) — free Aira in stores and online.
• Target, Accessibility help page — free Aira; accessible self-checkout rollout with 3.5 mm headphone jack.
• Target corporate, Focus on Inclusive Design and Guest Experience (Jul 2026) — self-checkout details, NFB partnership.
• Macy’s, Inc., EAA accessibility statement — claimed alt text, screen-reader compatibility, 200% zoom.
• AFB AccessWorld, 2021 Shopping Guide: Best Buy — full purchase walkthrough; Apple Pay checkout “worked perfectly”; Geek Squad phone-support failure.
• Best Buy corporate, assistive technology landing page.
• IAccessible, Accessibility feedback is very hard to provide for consumers (2021) — blind user’s Costco verification-email and phone-support experience.
• eBay Inc., Accessibility statement — WCAG 2.1 AA goal; accessibility@ebay.com.
• eBay help, eBay for users with special access needs — hCaptcha text-challenge alternative.
• AppleVis, Difficulty with the DoorDash app — phone-ordering line +1 (855) 300-8985 reported by forum members.
• DoorDash, Accessibility help center — support line 855-431-0459.
• TechCrunch, DoorDash launches an AI agent you can text to order food (Sep 2026) — Apple Messages text-to-order beta.
• AudioEye, What Uber’s Lawsuit Teaches Every Brand About Accessibility Accountability — DOJ’s Sept 2025 $125M suit; app updates repeatedly breaking accessibility (“yo-yo effect”).
• AppleVis, Uber Eats regression on iOS — declining accessibility, fallback via Uber app’s Eats tab.
• Supersense, Accessible Shopping: An Instacart Review — “highly accessible” iOS app with clearly labeled buttons and tabs.