Accessibility requirements for E-commerce websites

Regulations that apply

E-commerce sits at the intersection of general digital-accessibility law and sector-specific obligations. The most relevant items to track:

• European Accessibility Act (EAA)

  Mandatory for B2C online stores from 28 June 2025; covers all consumer-facing functionality.

  EU

• ADA Title III

  Applied to commercial websites by US courts; settlements regularly reach $50K–$500K.

  United States

• AODA

  WCAG 2.0 AA for any commercial site doing business in Ontario.

  Ontario, Canada

The accessibility risks specific to E-commerce

Every industry has its own failure pattern. The combination below is what audits, complaints, and lawsuits in this sector keep returning to. Fixing them clears the most-cited issues without touching every page.

• Inaccessible checkout flow

  Form labels, error identification, payment-method radios, and address autocomplete are top failure points.

  1.3.1, 3.3.2, 4.1.2

• Mouse-only product variant pickers

  Color and size swatches that ignore keyboard exclude shoppers who cannot use a mouse.

  2.1.1

• Search results without status announcements

  Filter changes update product lists but do not announce result counts.

  4.1.3

• Image-driven UI without alt text

  Product photos, brand logos, and icon buttons frequently ship with empty or filename-as-alt.

  1.1.1

A short remediation checklist

Most E-commerce teams do not need a 200-item audit before they fix anything. They need an ordered list of the highest-impact moves. Start with these and re-audit after each pass.

• Crawl /, /collections, a representative product, /cart, and /checkout

• Test entire checkout with keyboard only

• Validate every form error is announced

• Audit image alt text in bulk

• Check contrast on sale badges, "Buy" buttons, and out-of-stock states

Frequently asked questions

Other industries