Member-only story
Making chatbots accessible
Chatbots can be one of the most frustrating and inaccessible parts of a website. They can also create a quick and wonderful customer experience. It’s all about how you make them…
Awhile back, I managed all of the warranty and service for an appliance company. If a customer’s appliance broke, they would call me and give me all the information. I would then either contact a service company or their warranty provider to schedule a repairman. In some cases, however, more complications arose and I would have to contact the dreaded manufacturer.
Oh no! Not the manufacturer… anything but that. I’ve spent my fair share of HOURS on hold and — not to mention — wrangling with the chatbots.
From waiting 15 minutes for an unhelpful response to inputting all of my information into a form just for someone to ask me for all of it again.
I have a personal vendetta against chatbots… and that’s as someone without any kind of disability. Navigating chatbots with a screen reader is a nightmare of its own.
Let’s look at a few ways that we can make chatbots accessible for EVERYONE.
