I need a list of several sites that serve as  shopping portals or
directories and are usable by the visually-impaired. Section 508
compliance or W3C/WAI compliance would be a major plus. The sites
should not be limited to just stores that sell items of interest for
the visually-impaired, but general merchandise of interest to anyone. 
It would be especially good if the directory indicated which stores
you linked to were also accessible to the visually-impaired. The sites
should be based in the US and index mainly US stores.

Hi tniccum,

I was unsuccessful in finding a shopping portal to meet your needs.I'm
posting what I found, in the form of a comment, in hopes it will be of
some help!

 This was a fascinating question to research, however! Thank you for
expanding my own knowledge of the problems visually impaired folks
have using the internet. While I have a VI family member, I never took
notice of the difficulties involved in navigating a web site with a
screen reader, or the intricacies of designing a web site, accessible
to all! I am sadly astounded that so few companies have considered
site functionality for the visually impaired. Read what one reader
says about the Wal-Mart site on this Interactive Tools forum:
http://www.interactivetools.com/iforum/General_C1/Off_Topic_Conversations_F9/Visualy_Impaired_and_YOUR_Site_P1416

Section 508 calls for web designers to abandon some site building
tools such as dynamic linking, tables, Flash animation, and more. Many
older screen readers are unable to read text  on sites utilizing such
tools. Interestingly, I ran several sites, such as  
http://www.acb.org/  and
http://www.nfb.org/  through Bobby, a free site tester (  
http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp   ) and neither
they, nor for that matter, any site I tested, pass the U.S. Section
508 Guidelines! The 508 guidelines are even lighter than W3C/WAI
guidelines! One problem, common to all sites I tested, was the lack of
a warning to denote an impending page timeout.

I was unable to find a single shopping portal in the US, meeting your
needs. It seems England and Canada are ahead of the US in developing
such portals. I contacted my cousin, who is visually impaired, who
tells me she is unaware of any shopping portals in the US. One problem
with developing a portal of shopping sites for VI, would be collecting
a sufficient number of compliant sites. The portal site itself may be
Section 508 compliant, but it would be difficult (in the US) to find
many links with which to fill the portal!

Not exactly a shopping portal, but periodicals, music and books.
Mostly books and magazines on tape, but a few sites offer streaming
music, and bibles.
http://www.seidata.com/~marriage/rbbook.html

Don?t let the name fool you - ChristmasGifts.com has links to online
merchants selling cosmetics, books, baby gear, sports equipment,
wines, gifts, electronics, and more. This link was found on a site
dedicated to VI.
http://www.christmasgifts.com/

Ringsurf links to many sites that do indeed sell items intended for
visually impaired folks. Some sites are merchants, many are special
interest, and items for visually impaired people.
http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=blindandvi;action=list


AmazonAccess - A division of Amazon.com    I am delighted to have
informed my family member about this site. She currently utilizes an
updated version of JAWS as a screen reader, and she is unable to
navigate the primary Amazon site. She can, however, get around the
link below!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/dt/upda-1.0-i/subst/aa/upda/home.html/104-5758728-4845545


Two shopping sites, recommended by VI sites:

Drugstore.com
http://www.drugstore.com/default.asp?i=o&aid=333840&aparam=.GnbZVWUAWs-RA3Jch9H9l4EBjy_xzYfUw

Games for Visually Impaired
http://www.gamesfortheblind.com/

Search Terms
Text only shopping sites
text only online shopping
Section 508 compliant shopping portals
e-commerce sites for visually impaired
shopping portals visually impaired
online shopping for visually impaired


Best of luck,
crabcakes-ga

Of no practical use for the questioner, but out of interest. Tesco is
one of the UK's largest supermarket chains and was the first (may
still be the only) to offer home shopping for groceries using an
accessible website, at
http://www.tesco.com/access/  (Note: You would have to register for
the grocery service with a UK postcode before you can use the store.
This is so they can check that you have a delivery address within an
area that they cover for this service.)

They also refer to the Royal National Institute for the Blind "See It
Right" campaign - www.rnib.org.uk

Owain