For More Lifestyles - Zojirushi Mahobin's Official Online Store Enhances Web Accessibility

2025/02/17

What prompted you to consider web accessibility compliance?

When we learned that "private companies will be obligated to provide reasonable accommodation" under the revised Law for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities starting in April 2024, we felt that our official online store, "Zojirushi Direct," needed to respond as well.

Since our company's inception, we have had a philosophy of "Creating Lifestyles" and a desire to "make our customers enjoy shopping comfortably" in their daily lives. one of our efforts to do so is to ensure and improve web accessibility more in line with the recent revision of the Law for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities.

 

Have you considered implementing web accessibility in-house, such as with your own engineers?

However, we felt that it would not be realistic for us to cover all aspects of web accessibility, since we would need to do so for each page, and since the content would vary so widely that it would be difficult to secure the resources to do so.

 

Did you consider other accessibility tools like Uniweb?

We did not do a comparative study; the primary reason was that we needed to respond quickly to the legal changes and wanted to prioritize early implementation.

In addition, while viewing the pages of other companies that had already implemented UniWeb, we were able to see that they had sufficient accessibility for our needs.

 

Please tell us how you learned about Uniweb and the reasons for its implementation.

We had previously proposed the "proteger" extended warranty service, and it was through that relationship that we were introduced to UniWeb.

We chose UniWeb because of the ease of implementation and our confidence that we would be able to achieve sufficient accessibility support.

 

Zojirushi Mahobin is proactive in employing people with disabilities. What was the reaction within the company after the introduction of UniWeb?

At first, the response was simple, "What are those new icons on the screen?

 

Please tell us the number of days and man-hours until you adopted Uni-Web.

The installation took less than half a day, as all we had to do was insert the code into the management screen.

Personally, I think the smooth implementation of UniWeb was the best part of the project.

 

Were there any barriers to advancing the implementation internally? We would appreciate it if you could share how you progressed.

As mentioned at the beginning, we had the revision of the Law for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities in mind, so there were no particular barriers to our decision-making process.

 

Do you have any future goals?

Initially, we were only thinking about advancing web accessibility support, but as we implemented and used UniWeb, our resolution regarding web accessibility support increased, and although we now meet the standards, we wanted to verify to what extent we are providing effective support for our users.

We believe that Zojirushi-Direct can convey the appeal of our products in a unique way that cannot be conveyed through product pages alone, and that our ideas and thoughts can be presented in the same way that we display our products in our physical stores.

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Zojirushi Mahobin Co., Ltd.
Marketing Department Sub-Manager Wataru Tatsuno

2011 Joined Zojirushi Mahobin Co.
After joining the company, he was in charge of sales system operations in the systems department.
In the Sales Promotion G (now Marketing Department) since 2018
Web sales promotion ・Responsible for managing product information website and planning in-store sales promotion materials.
We will open an e-commerce site (Zojirushi Direct) in November 2020 and
He is currently in charge of planning, operation, and sales management of Zojirushi Direct.

 

《Uni-Web Implementation Site》

Introduced in the official online store (*operated by Zojirushi Fresco Ltd.)

By clicking on the icon, an accessibility menu appears, allowing users to switch text-to-speech features and screen contrast with just one button.

ZOJIRUSHI DIRECT, the official online store of Zojirushi Mahobin:https://www.zojirushi-direct.com/

 

◾️ About Zojirushi Mahobin Co., Ltd.

Zojirushi Mahobin Co., Ltd. promotes the corporate slogan 'Cherishing Today' and delivers products and services that resonate with many customers.
We also aim to become a solution brand for food and lifestyle by developing various businesses other than products, such as "Zojirushi Shokudo" (Zojirushi Restaurant), which serves rice cooked in our top-of-the-line rice cooker "Flame Dance Rice", and "Mimamori Hotline", a service to monitor the safety of elderly people.

Representative: CEO Noriaki Ichikawa
Location: 1-20-5 Tenma, Kita Ward, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture
URL :https://www.zojirushi.co.jp/
Business Description: Manufacturing and sales of cooking appliances, living appliances, and living products, as well as related businesses.

 

◾️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.

Official site:https://hellouniweb.com