If you've ever stood in a crowded supermarket feeling stressed and overwhelmed, pause for a moment to think how much more stressful and overwhelming the experience can be if you have a disability or impairment such as blindness. You may not be able to access assistance when you want it or miss out on special offers.

When supermarkets began to offer online grocery shopping with home delivery it was no wonder that many people, disabled or not, clamoured to get online and be part of the digital revolution.

So why is online grocery shopping better that going to the store?

Firstly, you are spared the stress and anxiety of fighting your way through hordes of impatient shoppers to find what you need. If you have a disability that means you cannot drive, home delivery is a dream come true. You can usually specify when you would like your shopping to be delivered (how convenient is that?). If you have a condition that makes carrying heavy shopping difficult, delivery to your door is just ideal. The supermarket you use may have trained their drivers in disability awareness so they know to tell blind customers which of the tins contains baked beans and which contains dog food (a mistake no-one wants to make).

It is very easy to find the special offers online. Some supermarkets list all special offer items and ingredients for particular recipes together.

But shopping online isn't without its own special problems. You don't get to choose the produce yourself. If you're a cook with strong feelings about the ripeness of your tomatoes you may not be happy with what has been chosen for you.

There can also be a problem if an item you have requested is not in stock. You will have the option to allow the 'picker and packer' to choose a replacement item for you... which can be a bit of a lottery.

There is a small charge for home delivery which some may prefer not to pay and popular timeslots can attract a higher charge.

While many retailers have developed the design of their websites to make the shopping experience as successful as possible, especially if you have a disability, errors and misunderstandings can sometimes occur.  When ordering loose cherries, for example, mistake quantity for weight and you might receive a single cherry rather than a kilo (this happened to a blind friend of mine).

But these problems are small trifles (no pun intended). While orders may occasionally contain items that were not requested (or not intentionally ordered), retailers are very good at putting things right, and the more you use a retailer, the quicker and easier the experience becomes (most sites enable you to compile a 'favourites' list so you can easily re-order the items you need regularly).

Some people find online grocery shopping so vital to their independence that once they've tried it they can't imagine life without out it. For others, a temporary change in mobility, such as an accident, may inspire them to try online shopping for the first time.

I asked my Twitter followers to tell me about their experiences of using grocery websites and got a reply from Sara Christie. Sara was forced to use crutches for a number of weeks following a fall. Unable to get to her supermarket, she decided to try the store’s online grocery service. She said, "the drivers actually took my shopping into the kitchen for me so that I had a minimum amount of hobbling around to do. It made a huge difference to how long it took me to pack away the shopping. They were always incredibly friendly and helpful and when you're stuck at home on your own friendly faces make a huge difference to your day."

Despite this very positive experience, Sara returned to in-store shopping when her foot was better.  It is frustrating when an item can't be provided and you have to re-plan dinner. There is no way that the person shopping on your behalf can know what you were going to make with the missing item. Sometimes the substitutions are completely inappropriate.

Grocery shopping is just one of the chores that the internet has made easier and more pleasant. But beware of getting carried away: the real basket on your arm is a lot heavier than the virtual basket on your computer - keep an eye on the running total to make sure you don't order more than you can afford!

Julie Howell established the world's first online community for people with MS. Since then, Julie has written the first British Standard on web accessibility and has led national campaigns to make the web more accessible to disabled people.

For the basics of online shopping, have a look at our video and article.

BBC Comedy's Misery Bear using a computer in one of his very popular videos

In 1977, you would have heard Mr Smith the grocer ask Mrs Jones whether she'd watched The Two Ronnies on TV the night before (chances are she had). In 2011, such exchanges are more like to run along the lines of 'Have you seen Will Ferrell's 'Landlord' sketch on YouTube? It's hilarious. I'll send you the link.'

So where can you find comedy - and in particular new comedy - on the web?

The simple answer is everywhere.

But let's start with the BBC. Will Saunders is responsible for the content of BBC Comedy, visits to which have increased by nearly 350% over the past 18 months.

Will says that by 'clipping it, blogging it and adding to it' the BBC is helping audiences to discover new comedy online. "Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Buzzfeed, Tumblr) plays an important role in enabling the BBC to talk to audiences about what we make. Social media is about listening as much as telling so we use it to join conversations, source comments and ideas and let people share with us what they find funny (and what they don't)."

I logged onto the microblogging site Twitter just as the first episode of the new BBC1 comedy Mrs Brown's Boys was about to air, and watched as BBC Comedy (@bbccomedy) published a stream of tweets that asked the audience to share what they thought about the new show as they were watching it. The 'feedback loop' that Twitter provides is clearly invaluable to the producers of comedy at the BBC and elsewhere as they develop content that they hope will prove popular among the people they wish to entertain.

There are many places on the web where you can find out what comedy is hot or not. Plenty of sites attempt to provide a definitive guide to all that's funny on the web. There is so much comedy online now, particularly on video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, that sites providing a critical filter are becoming increasingly valuable.

But you don't need the support of critics or corporations to put your own comedy online. Some of the biggest hits of YouTube have managed to propel themselves to internet stardom simply by making us web users laugh hard and often.

More established comedians seem to favour Twitter, with the biggest of the UK comedians attracting an incredible number of 'followers' (Sarah Millican: 360,000, Jimmy Carr: 1,900,000, Stephen Fry: 3,900,000 and counting) through a channel that enables them to have completely uninhibited dialogue with fans and critics alike.

I can't finish this article without mentioning the two sites that tower over all the others in terms of both their popularity and influence. The Onion is cited by many as their favourite satirical site, while Chortle is the home of news and video clips featuring anybody who is anybody on the UK comedy scene.

Where the controllers of TV stations once governed what we watched and when we watched it, the web has made us all producers, editors and controllers of the comedy we watch, share and create. Comedy is no longer served up in strict half-hour slices at set times of the day. It is copied, chopped about and made freely and universally available for anyone to view however and whenever they want thanks to the web, and this digital revolution in how comedy is being shared is helping new comedy to break through into the mainstream.

Julie Howell established the world's first online community for people with MS. Since then, Julie has written the first British Standard on web accessibility and has led national campaigns to make the web more accessible to disabled people.

I know what it's like to experience sight problems, difficulty concentrating, extreme fatigue and the many other gifts multiple sclerosis (MS) has bestowed upon me in the 20 years since my diagnosis.

However, I'm not so different to everyone else. Not only do a great number of medical conditions result in loss of sight, reduced manual dexterity, etc. it's a simple reality that the ageing process will gift to us all some reduction in our sensory capabilities eventually.

I intend to keep enjoying music, shopping and socialising with my friends and family until I breathe my final breath. However, we'll only be able to do that if the web is able to bend and flex to meet the requirements of our ageing bodies.

A decade ago, I was involved in a campaign run by the Royal National Institute of Blind people (RNIB) to make web designers, British businesses and government agencies aware of the needs of disabled web users. The campaign publicised the fact that with more than 10 million disabled people in the UK, the 'disabled pound' is estimated to be worth in excess of £80bn each year.

I wish I could report that our extensive campaigning effort, the huge carrot of £80bn and the enormous stick of litigation has had the desired effect. However, in 2010 access to the web for disabled people is still patchy.

On 7 December 2010, BSI Standards published a new British Standard (BS 7888) that clearly describes precisely what the owners of British businesses must do to ensure they meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act when it comes to the design of their websites.

A British Standard isn't a law in itself, but it can provide guidance to a judge in a court of law should a disabled person wish to take a company to court under the Equality Act 2010 for failure to provide an accessible service. In the UK, BS 8878 is the best guide available to businesses wishing to ensure their websites are fully accessible to disabled people. It doesn't replace any guidance already published by software manufacturers or the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It simply pulls together all the relevant guidance into one publication, so that anyone wishing to make their website accessible to disabled people can discover all they need to know in a single document.

Meanwhile, Citizens Online has launched a new initiative, 'Fix the Web', which encourages ordinary people like you and I to report to them any website we find difficult to use. They promise one of their volunteers will contact the people behind the offending website and get them to sort it out.

There are estimated to be in excess of 80 million websites online today. That's a lot of websites to fix and a lot of website owners to contact. It's a laudable aim and an interesting approach, and I take my hat off to Citizens Online for giving this initiative a go. If nothing else, it will once again raise awareness of the critical importance of web accessibility.

However, if my decade of experience of lobbying the government, businesses and the web design industry has taught me anything: it's this. If you really want to make a lasting difference to the way technologies are designed then you need to exert your influence at the standards level.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

The majority of people I talk to agree that disabled people should be able to use the web. However, many websites continue to be inaccessible. Is this a deliberate action on the part of businesses and web developers to lock disabled people out of the web?

I don't think so. 

I think the greatest enemy of web accessibility is the same old adversary that disabled people have been trying to conquer for centuries: ignorance.

It strikes me that people build inaccessible websites because it is possible to do so. So the solution must surely be to make it impossible to do so by ensuring that all of the web design tools that web designers use to build websites create accessible websites by default.

It is truly my belief that this is the only way to make the situation better. Legislation hasn't worked. Education hasn't worked. Even the business imperative hasn't worked.

I believe anything that makes more people aware of how disabled people experience life is a good thing. However, real change in disabled people's virtual lives will only come about by attacking the root cause of the discrimination through the application of standards.

Julie Howell established the world's first online community for people with MS. Since then, Julie has written the first British Standard on web accessibility and has led national campaigns to make the web more accessible to disabled people.

I can give you just two scenarios where I find it acceptable to be jostled by a large crowd of people. One is the commute to work (tolerated out of necessity). The other is gigs, where close contact with fellow fans is part of the experience.

One situation where I don’t wish to be jostled, shoved or required to stand in a queue for more than three minutes is when I’m Christmas shopping.

As a general rule, I prefer to shop in shops, where I can pick things up and pause for a moment to imagine how ownership of this pair of shoes/lipstick/low calorie breakfast cereal will transform my life and make me a better person.

But let’s be realistic. Life is hectic, the web is fast, and there are more products available online today than you could ever hope to find in the high street. They’re frequently cheaper, too.

Figures just released by IMRG (Interactive Marketing in Retail Group) and Cagemini suggest that the online gifts sector this year grew by 76% in October compared to September, a surge which they say indicates of the start of the Christmas buying period and which is trumping sales on the high street. In other words, online shopping has caught on, big time.

Some people benefit from ‘e-tail’ more than others. I’m slightly hesitant to say that it’s a great alternative to shopping on the high street if you have a disability (I myself have MS), because I strongly feel that everyone should be able to shop in the high street if they want to.

Browsing online is all very well if you’re buying wrapping paper or cards, but sometimes you want to touch the thing you’re buying before you make your purchase. Having a disability shouldn’t stop you from being able to do that. Either way, I guess it’s great to at least have the choice.

If you attempted to buy something online 10 years ago and found the experience frustrating, slow and ultimately disappointing, it really is worth giving it another go today.

It's as if retailers have spent the past 15 years listening to what customers want and developing online stores that take all the hassle out of online shopping. Which, indeed, they have. I recently worked in an agency that designed websites for well know high street stores. You would be amazed to see the amount of effort retailers make to discover the most compelling way to design a website to maximise the possibility that you will make a purchase online. I must say, I welcome this new focus on the customer experience.

A decade ago, I was one of those disgruntled consumers whose dream of online shopping was all but destroyed by poor customer service and slow delivery. Today, I can count the number of bad experiences that I’ve had this year on the fingers of one hand.

The technology of the web has also made online shopping far more satisfying for me. Nowhere is this more obvious than in fashion retailing. You can tell so little from a low resolution image of a dress. But visit many of the top fashion retail sites today and you’ll find catwalk videos and the option to zoom in close to examine clothes in more detail. This gives me greater confidence that I will buy something that will both suit and fit me.

Add to the mix the advent of the social web. I now rarely buy a new or expensive product (such as a holiday or TV) without first checking the online reviews to see what people who have already bought the item think of it. Far from being deterred by bad reviews I use them to get a balanced view which quickly leads to a purchasing decision that I feel more confident about.

There is no doubt that the web has caused a shopping revolution, and it’s getting better all the time. I hope we never lose our high streets and shopping malls, but when the prospect of hauling purchases around shops heaving with grumpy shoppers is too much to contemplate it’s comforting to know an alternative is just a few clicks away.

Sadly, the marriage did not last, and in the late 90s I found myself back on the dating scene, in world that had been revolutionised by the invention of the web. Being to some extent shy around people I don’t know – and a bit of a geek – I perhaps naturally turned to the web with hopes for a new relationship.

While I would never dream of registering with a dating agency ‘in the real world’ (again, too shy) a number of commercial dating sites had sprung up online that seemed to offer a more attractive alternative – the ability to browse profiles of potential love matches from the privacy and comfort of home without the pressure of making contact until I felt ready.

Meeting new people online is easy. When it comes to dating however, maybe the web makes it a bit too easy to make connections that run fast but not deep. Online relationships that are characterised by frequent, frantic email exchanges may burn brightly to begin with, but can quickly burn out.

You can learn too much about a person too soon when you have email and texts and web cams at your disposal. I may be an old romantic, but I still believe true love is a slow burner whereas the web is all about speed (think about it, when did you ever hear anyone praise the web for enabling them to do anything more slowly?!).

Online dating is a lot of fun at first, but before long you may find your initial optimism tempered by cynicism. I registered my profile with a number of dating sites and learnt one thing pretty quickly; everyone looking for love online registers with the same sites so you will inevitably run into the same love matches time and again. Like a school of brightly coloured goldfish swimming round and round in the same murky water, some of the people you will encounter will have distressingly short memories. You may feel you’ve made a connection with someone special on Tuesday, only to discover that they’ve completely forgotten who you are and what you discussed by Thursday.

I never found love through a dating website. But I did make a number of very good friends through such sites and if you approach online dating with friendship in mind I suspect you will be less likely to meet with disappointment. However, I did find love elsewhere online, when I wasn't particularly looking for it. Such is the nature of love. It finds you.

I met a guy in a chat room that had nothing at all to do with dating. We made eyes at each other through our webcams, messaged each other furiously for a couple of days, met up, fell in love and moved in together. Without the pressure of being on a mission to find love the relationship flourished. Or so it seemed.

Unfortunately, I must add a sad epitaph to the story. I soon discovered that my new love was an online infidel, simultaneously involved with a number of women - each believing they were the only woman in his life. Although I was fairly convinced that I was the only one with whom he'd 'taken things offline', the seeds of suspicion had been sown and once the extent of the deception had been uncovered it was goodbye to him and goodbye to online romancing as far as I was concerned.

For some, online dating clearly has worked. A number of my close friends met their husbands and wives through dating websites and are very happily loved up with mortgages and children. But I don’t think it will ever be for me. There is just something about that first lingering look from across a crowded room that online dating cannot, as yet, replace. But the huge commercial success of online dating tells me that that this is an area of life where technology will continue to evolve rapidly.

Perhaps one day the web will be able to deliver the same frisson as that moment when a handsome stranger catches your eye. If it does for you, don’t forget to take it slow.