[blindlaw] Southwest Airlines Website no longer accessible

[tim at timeldermusic.com]

Nijat 

Assuming we are looking at the same site, I've used the website successfully to book tickets several times over the last few months.  I did notice that they changed the layout and approach to accessibility labels.  There is an object to move to the cart, but it has a bunch of other explanatory text attached with it.  While the labeling isn't as intuitive and efficient as the previous version, I'm not sure if it would be inaccessible based on a web access technical standard.  Big caveat: I don't know if our different experiences are based on browser variations or even different versions of the website.  I'm noticing that some companies are now rolling out web changes in increments so that some users can be operating on one version of the website while others are operating on a different version.  It is an incremental beta approach to rolling out new changes to a site.  Maybe file a complaint with Southwest and ask that they walk you through the process.  Perhaps that will get their attention on the poor usability aspect of the site.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nijat Worley <nijat1989 at gmail.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2019 7:01 AM
To: blindlaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [blindlaw] Southwest Airlines Website no longer accessible

Greetings all,

I have noticed that in the last six months or so, the SouthWest Airlines website has become unusable with a screen-reader. The last two times I have purchased tickets from SouthWest, I have had to call and purchase my tickets over the phone. For some reason, we are able to select the tickets and add them to the cart, but then it’s impossible  to find the cart with your tickets in it, so that you can check out and purchase the tickets.

	This is a recent phenomenon. The website used to be mostly accessible, and I used to be able to purchase tickets online without having to call the customer service line.

	Is anyone aware of any complaints about the website inaccessibility to SouthWest in the recent months?


--
Nijat Worley
J.D.

Twitter: @nijatworley