How blind people shop for clothes online
Most blind and low-vision shoppers prefer buying clothes online to buying them in a store. Online, nobody hovers, nobody rushes you, and a screen reader can read every word on the page at your own speed.
The trouble is that the words are rarely enough.
What a screen reader can give you. The product title, the price, the fabric if the store lists it, the size options, a size chart if it's a real table, and the reviews. Many blind shoppers read reviews on every single purchase, because reviews are where people say "runs small" or "the green is closer to olive."
What it usually can't. The product photos. Alt text on clothing images is often missing, or it says something like "model wearing shirt." Size charts are sometimes pictures, not tables, so a screen reader skips them. Colour names are marketing ("storm," "oat") rather than descriptions. And nothing on the page tells you how the garment would look on your body instead of on a model's.
What people do about it. Ask a sighted friend. Use a video-call service to have someone look at the page. Order several sizes and send most back. One blind writer described the experience as "buy six things and return five."
What helps. Real size-chart tables. Honest colour descriptions. Alt text that says what the garment looks like. And tools that answer the question the page can't: what would this look like on me, and should I buy it?
That last question is why we built Dress Aloud. You keep one full-body photo, and on any clothing page Dress Aloud puts the garment on your photo, describes the result for the ear, and checks the size chart against your real height, weight and measurements. It's honest by design. If something looks bad, it says so.
Further reading: Usablenet, How I shop online as a blind person; ACM DIS 2023, The Barriers to Online Clothing Websites for Visually Impaired People; Societies (2025), Beyond Accessibility Compliance.