Why accessibility matters for a store
People with disabilities shop online for the same reasons everyone does, and often more, because getting to a physical store can be harder. When a store works with a screen reader, a keyboard, voice control and zoom, those customers can browse, compare and pay on their own. When it does not, they leave, and they rarely come back to tell you why.
The same fixes help every shopper: clearer product information, readable prices, forms that autofill and error messages that say what went wrong.
Selling to customers in the EU
The European Accessibility Act has applied since June 28, 2025 to many ecommerce services offered to consumers in the EU, including by sellers based outside it. Microenterprises (fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover or balance sheet of 2 million euros or less) are exempt for services. The EU standard behind it references WCAG level AA. If you ship to the EU, ask your counsel how it applies to you.
The pages that matter most
- Product pages. Photos without alt text, variant pickers (size, color) built from clickable divs, prices in low contrast, quantity buttons without names.
- Cart. "Remove" buttons that do not say which item they remove, totals that update without being announced.
- Checkout. Unlabeled fields, card and address fields that block autofill, errors shown only as red borders, payment iframes without titles.
- Navigation and search. Mega menus that open only on hover, filters that can not be reached with a keyboard, search fields with only an icon.
- Popups. Newsletter and discount popups that steal focus and can not be closed with the Escape key.
Issues we often find on online stores
- Buttons without names: cart, search, account, menu, slider arrows, quantity steppers.
- Product images without alt text, or alt text that is only a file name.
- Form fields without labels in newsletter signups, search and checkout.
- Low contrast on sale prices, badges and "out of stock" labels.
- Links without names on product cards and social icons.
What a free check covers
Our checker scans your home page on desktop and mobile against WCAG 2.2 level A and AA and emails you a private report with issues sorted by severity. It never adds products to the cart, logs in or places orders.
Automated tools find only part of the issues. A full audit adds manual testing of the whole buying path, from search to order confirmation, with a keyboard and a screen reader. We can also fix what it finds in your theme or custom code.
Last updated October 18, 2026. This page is general information, not legal advice.