Initiatives for Accessibility Expansion Triggered by Legal Revisions - Case Study of Komehyo Holdings

2024/12/20

What prompted you to consider addressing web accessibility?

Around February 2023, during a business meeting with a partner, the question 'Are you aware of any legal revisions?' came up, and at that time, we were informed that a webinar explaining specific countermeasures would be held. Additionally, I was encouraged to 'please consider joining us if you are interested', which prompted me to think deeply about how this legal change might affect our business and how we should prepare.

After receiving this information, I thought that this is not only an issue for Komehyo, the operating company, but it may also affect the entire holding company, so I quickly shared the information internally. We considered how the legal revision would impact our business operations and what actions each department should take, concluding it was important to implement wide-ranging measures.

*အင်္ဂါးမားနိုင်ငံရပ်ခြားအများအကျိုးစီးပွါးနိုင်မှုအပန်းဖြေခြင်းဥပဒေအပေါ်ကျပ်တည်းခြင်းများ: 2024 ခုနှစ် ဧ ပြီးလျော့ကာအပျက်ပြားပြင်ဆင်ခြင်း

 

Apakah Anda mempertimbangkan untuk menangani aksesibilitas web secara internal menggunakan insinyur perusahaan sendiri?

Initially, I was unaware of the existence of services like Uniweb, so I was searching for what we needed to do to address our website in-house. For example, I received various basic instructions such as, 'This part is essential and requires addressing' and 'There are levels of accessibility, and the minimum standards need to be met. Additionally, it's possible to address higher standards.' With this information, I understood that addressing the issue was essential, but I was very troubled about how exactly to proceed.

In particular, there were concerns that significant renovations might be necessary for the e-commerce site. Consequently, there was anxiety about potentially incurring substantial costs, and I was at a loss as to how far to go with modifications and how much cost would be appropriate.

I have had several opportunities to hear from multiple companies regarding web accessibility. However, the focus has primarily been on site renovations, and the situation continued where I felt it was not something that could be decided immediately. Large-scale renovations of the site require careful judgment, as they can significantly impact not only technical responses but also costs and resources.

In this situation, there is a need to repeatedly discuss internally when to advance our responses and to what extent we should carry out renovations. While I understand the importance of addressing accessibility, I feel that further information and specific policies are needed to actually take action.

 

Apakah Anda mempertimbangkan alat aksesibilitas lain seperti Uniweb?

Regarding accessibility tools from other companies, I mainly received proposals from consulting firms stating that they would provide 'total support.' There were also several proposals from legal channels for services similar to Uniweb through our partners, but honestly, I was unsure how to proceed at that stage. Furthermore, if we were to handle it ourselves, it seemed likely that we would only address our corporate site at a minimum level.

 

What were the reasons for choosing/implementing Uniweb?

Layanan Uniweb sangat sederhana, hanya perlu memasukkan tag tanpa pilihan lain. Saya merasa bahwa dalam perbandingan dengan layanan tipe yang sama, UI-nya lebih unggul dalam hal kemudahan penggunaan layar manajer dan respons saat tombol ditekan, sehingga saya memilih Uniweb.

Also, it's extremely important that those who have used the site continue to be able to do so or that the usability remains intact. I believe it is not appropriate to prioritize one over the other with significant changes. In that sense, the method of introducing Uniweb was very smooth and acceptable for us. I feel that it was very good to have successfully implemented it.

It was truly helpful to encounter the optimal solution at the right time.

 

Please tell us about the number of days and man-hours involved in implementing Uniweb.

Since it's just a matter of adding tags, I've asked an external vendor to handle the work, and it was completely burden-free. Therefore, there were no stumbling blocks at all, and it was truly done very quickly.

 

Saya percaya perusahaan Anda mempromosikan perekrutan penyandang disabilitas, tetapi dapatkah Anda memberitahukan tentang kegiatan spesifik yang sebenarnya dilakukan?

Since around 2012, we have been supporting a wheelchair basketball team and actively working on initiatives related to sports for people with disabilities. When we received discussions regarding accessibility, we coincided with the timing of establishing a special subsidiary, and we are focusing on creating an environment where people with disabilities can work together without discrimination. Therefore, the entire group is participating positively in such support activities.

We have also cooperated with in-store fundraising activities, such as conducting fundraising together with guide dogs, and have continued various forms of support within our capacity. As a result, when the Disability Discrimination Act was revised, we recognized the need to consider web accessibility and the approach store staff should take towards people with disabilities. Therefore, we can smoothly proceed with the necessary measures.

 

Adakah respons dari perusahaan sejenis setelah kami melakukan penyesuaian aksesibilitas web?

At the time of its introduction, many companies were either unaware of web accessibility or had not made progress in addressing it. Therefore, there wasn't much feedback from other companies in the same industry. However, there were several agents who were unaware that we had introduced Uniweb, and they were surprised to learn that fact. Particularly, we often received responses like, 'While many companies only address their corporate sites, you are also expanding to an e-commerce site.'

 

Were there any barriers when advancing the implementation internally? I would appreciate it if you could also share how you progressed.

In reality, I feel that the costs involved in implementation are not that significant. If this can be achieved by adding just one line of tag at this cost, I believe it's definitely worth pursuing. Therefore, we were able to proceed smoothly.

 

Apa yang Anda harapkan ke depan?

Tentu saja, tujuan utama adalah menciptakan situs yang mudah digunakan oleh berbagai macam orang. Misalnya, situs korporat holding sudah menggunakan Uniweb, tetapi implementasi di situs IR dan situs promosi keberlanjutan yang sedang dikembangkan belum berlangsung. Oleh karena itu, ke depan, saya pikir kita perlu mempertimbangkan untuk melanjutkan sesuai dengan laporan pelanggan yang telah menggunakan Uniweb jika diperlukan.

Additionally, since our business is store-focused, the connection between online and brick-and-mortar stores is very close. Online acts as a catalog, and I feel that many customers come to the store because of it. Conversely, it is also crucial how well store staff understand the web accessibility features online. If customers with disabilities or elderly customers feel that 'the site is difficult to see', it is essential to convey whether they can use Uniweb's features to access the site more comfortably.

Therefore, when implementing Uniweb, we are making an effort for all staff to understand its features and to be able to recommend it to various customers. Additionally, we want to ensure that not only people with disabilities but all users understand that there are convenient features available, so that we can enable more people to use the site comfortably. We believe that this approach will lead to improved convenience for more people.

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Kamehyo Holdings Co., Ltd.
Hiroyuki Yoshida, Director of IR & Public Relations (right in photo)

Saat ini, saya menjabat di departemen IR dan humas sekaligus departemen promosi keberlanjutan, bertanggung jawab atas penyusunan dokumen pengungkapan keuangan, komunikasi dengan investor, humas grup, dan aspek berkaitan dengan keberlanjutan termasuk penanganan perubahan iklim.

Komehyo Co., Ltd.
Shinji Kai, Online Business Division Manager and Customer Success Manager (left in photo)

I am mainly responsible for operating the e-commerce site, while the marketing department handles advertising and promotional measures, so I manage everything else. Specifically, I work on planning and executing e-commerce business strategies, implementing tools, and improving UI/UX.

 

《Situs Implementasi UniWeb》
Corporate website and KOMEHYO ONLINE operated by Komehyo Holdings Co., Ltd. and Komehyo Co., Ltd. have introduced the web accessibility tool 'Uniweb'.

Apabila anda klik ikon, menu aksesibilitas akan ditampilkan, dan bagian pembaca yang membacakan teks, serta penggantian kontras layar dapat dilakukan hanya dengan satu tombol.

• Laman Korporat Komehyo HD:https://komehyohds.com/
• Laman Korporat KOMEHYO:https://www.komehyo.co.jp/
• KOMEHYO ONLINE:https://komehyo.jp/

 

Kamehyo Holdings Co., Ltd.

Wakil Ketua ： Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Ishihara Takuji
Alamat ： 25-31, Chome 3, Osu, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Prefektur Aichi
URL:https://komehyohds.com/
Ruang Lingkup Bisnis ： Merencanakan manajemen dan mendukung promosi bisnis kelompok yang bergerak dalam bisnis merek & fashion serta bisnis ban & roda.

 

Komehyo Co., Ltd.

Wakil Ketua ： Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Ishihara Takuji
Alamat ： 25-31, Chome 3, Osu, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Prefektur Aichi
URL:https://www.komehyo.co.jp/
Ruang Lingkup Bisnis ： Pembelian dan Penjualan barang bekas dan baru seperti perhiasan, logam mulia, jam tangan, tas, pakaian, kimono, kamera, dan alat musik.

 

Tentang Uniweb

Uniweb menyediakan fungsi aksesibilitas web pada 'hari pengenalan' hanya dengan menambahkan satu baris kode ke semua layanan web.

Kami ingin menciptakan kondisi di mana pengguna, termasuk mereka yang memiliki gangguan penglihatan, serta mereka yang telah mengalami cedera dan tidak dapat menggunakan tangan sementara, dapat memahami informasi yang akurat dengan cara menggunakan berbagai fitur seperti pembacaan suara dan pengubahan kontras, dalam upaya untuk mencapai situs web dan layanan yang setara bagi semua orang.

• Situs：https://hellouniweb.com