Fusion of Environmental Consideration and Web Accessibility - Web Accessibility Support by MILLET, a French Outdoor Brand

2025/02/03

What prompted you to consider web accessibility compliance?

We have been developing many products for mountaineering, and our business is unique in that many of our customers are elderly, so we have long felt the need for accessibility support for our e-commerce site.

In such a situation, the "Revision of the Law for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities" in 2024 provided a tailwind and led to the decision to support web accessibility.

 

Your company has a very high awareness of sustainability. Is web accessibility a part of your efforts?

We are headquartered in France, and in Europe, where environmental regulations are strictly enforced, we place great importance on sustainability, and in fact, our customers tend to give preference to environmentally friendly products, and many of our products are now made from recycled materials.

 

Has your company considered web accessibility support?

Since we have no in-house systems or engineering staff, we rely on our partners to implement everything, so when we introduce new tools or services, we try to choose those that work smoothly with our partners and are easy to implement.

 

Have you considered web accessibility tools from other companies?

To begin with, I had the impression that there were not many other options in Japan, and in this context, I had the opportunity to participate in the test when UniWeb had not yet been released.

There were other web accessibility tools made overseas, but after considering the cost and other factors, we finally decided to implement UniWeb.

 

What was your timeline for the man-hours required to implement UniWeb?

The entire implementation process took about a week, and the actual implementation itself took only a day since we only had to insert a single line of code into the website.

 

Were there any internal barriers to implementation?

The introduction of the system was smooth and without opposition from within the company because of the legal obligation and the clear benefit of solving the user's problems.

 

Have you had any internal or external feedback?

At an event related to EC, we had the opportunity to ask questions about UniWeb from our peers, who were particularly interested in and approached us because of our early response to the legal changes.

 

What is your outlook for the future?

As an e-commerce site, we would like to provide a purchasing experience as similar as possible to that of our brick-and-mortar stores, and to this end, we will further enhance product information and focus on improving customer service on the e-commerce site by introducing a chat service.

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Millet Mountain Group Japan K.K.

Department / Position: e-Commerce Manager, Sales Department
Name: Takeshi Okumura
Profile:Joined the company in 2018, in charge of all aspects of in-house EC and EC mall operations and management.

Dept: Sales Department e-Commerce
Name: Hiroshi Matsuura
Profile : Joined the company in 2023, mainly in charge of operation and management of the company's EC.

 

《Uni-Web Implementation Site》

Introduced at the official online store (photo below taken from the official online store).

Clicking on the button labeled "Text-To-Speech and Text Size Adjustment" brings up the accessibility menu, which allows you to read the text out loud, switch screen contrast, etc. with a single button.

Official Online Store:https://www.millet.jp/

 

◾️ Millet Mountain Group Japan, Inc.

The brand Millet was founded in France in 1921, and in 1950, it was Millet backpacks that helped a French team climb Annapurna, the first human ascent of the 8,000-meter peak.

 

About Uniweb

UniWeb provides web accessibility features "on the day of deployment" by simply adding a single line of code to all web services.

In order to achieve equal website services for all, we want to put users in various situations, such as those with visual impairments or those who temporarily lose the use of their hands due to injury, in a position to understand correct information through various uses such as voice reading and contrast changes.

Site:https://hellouniweb.com