Marketplace All-in-One

Cyber Monday has become one of the busiest — and most lucrative — online shopping days of the year. The National Retail Federation estimates that almost 64 million people will be looking for deals today. But for shoppers with disabilities, it can be a lot harder to take advantage of sales and promotions online. A significant number of the biggest retail websites are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which lay out best practices to help make sites easier to navigate by people who are, for example, blind or hearing-impaired. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke with Josh Basile, community relations manager at tech accessibility company accessiBe, as well as a quadriplegic who uses assistive devices to help him navigate the internet, about how accessibility issues impact him when he shops online.

Despite inflation and rising interest rates, consumers are still spending as if they were awash in cash. But now they’re using credit cards, spending more on necessities and less on luxuries. Want more economic data? Plenty will come out next week. Plus, what melting ice means for Greenland, a day care center that saved itself by temporarily closing, and the Weekly Wrap.

As holiday shopping kicks off today, we check in on what could await consumers and retailers alike. Most of the people responding to a University of Michigan survey think it’s a bad time to buy a house. There’s a new gold-oriented currency making its way around four states, but is it a worthy venture?

The week of Thanksgiving is typically the busiest in terms of travel, but remote work has found ways to take the pressure off. Then, we look into the importance of the final two months of the year when it comes to holiday retail. Also, we speak to a New York Times reporter about a special way countries are fighting both debt and climate change.

From the BBC World Service: South Korea’s capital, Seoul, is offering cash rewards of around $150/month to people who leave their cheap basement properties. The city is trying to phase out these out after four people drowned during severe flooding last summer. A new type of flu vaccine, which could offer protection against all known strains of flu, could soon begin human trials. And as Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season, retailers across Europe worry it could be the worst season in at least a decade.

Actor and producer LeVar Burton is famous for many things. His iconic roles on “Star Trek” and the miniseries “Roots,” for instance. But many of us got to know him as host of the PBS show “Reading Rainbow.” His run with the show ended in the mid-2000s, but Burton is still promoting literacy for kids. He’s now the “chief reading officer” at ed-tech company Byju’s Osmo. Together, they’re launching a reading program for kids ages 5 to 7 that uses an iPad and the Osmo app’s artificial intelligence and speech recognition to help kids grasp the fundamentals of reading. That program is set to launch next month. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke with Burton earlier this year about the unique reading challenges facing kids today. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

As central banks around the world raise interest rates to fight inflation, it’s taking a toll on real estate markets far and wide. Today, we’ll map out where housing markets are stalling and where they’re finding buyers. Plus, retailers cautiously mark down goods, a classic chair gets an eco-friendly redesign and a novelist charts how humans would respond to an environmental catastrophe.

“Life Kit” host Marielle Segarra asks friends and family for advice on how to overcome her new-job jitters, meet new colleagues at NPR and stay confident.

“Life Kit” was produced by Summer Thomad.

First, the BBC checks in on China, which is facing more COVID-related challenges. More homeowners are getting thankful for HELOCs – we’ll explain. A avian flu epidemic is one reason your turkey may have cost more than usual, and the issue is even worse in other parts of the world.

The aviation industry argues that 5G cell phone network will mess with altimeters. The BBC reports from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, which is still mostly without power following Russian attacks. We speak with the CEO of an atypical food business about what it’s been like to navigate an unpredictable economy.