Shoppers Face Accessibility Issues Online Despite Record Back-to-School Spending

Back-to-school spending is projected to reach $146.8 billion in 2026, making it the second-largest U.S. consumer spending event of the year, according to the National Retail Federation. Online shopping is the dominant channel, but a new AudioEye analysis of more than 160,000 pages across 6,100 U.S. and European retail websites reveals that digital accessibility barriers persist at scale.

The study found that interior pages average 62 accessibility issues each, while homepages average 56. WebAIM's 2026 Million report, which scans homepages of the top one million sites, found that 95.9% have detectable failures against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the standard referenced in most accessibility laws. Common problems include unclear link text, unlabeled buttons and form fields, low contrast on interactive elements, and missing skip navigation.

A separate AudioEye survey of business leaders found that 59% believe their organization would face legal risk if audited today, and 52% have already encountered an accessibility-related lawsuit or legal threat. The company's 2026 Web Accessibility Litigation Report noted that 38.5% of defendants sued in 2025 already had an accessibility tool installed when the suit was filed.

The report urges retailers to test entire purchase paths with a keyboard and screen reader, not just isolated pages, because generative AI search increasingly routes shoppers straight to deep product and category pages. Seasonal and promotional pages built quickly for the back-to-school rush are especially prone to new barriers.