What the European Accessibility Act requires
Since 28 June 2025 the European Accessibility Act (EAA) applies across the EU. Businesses that offer products or services to consumers must make their digital offerings accessible. That covers online shops in particular and everything that leads to a contract online: product pages, cart, checkout, customer account, appointment booking.
Micro-enterprises with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover of at most two million euros are exempt for services. Pure information sites without a contract usually fall outside the act, but they benefit just as much from fewer barriers.
The yardstick is the harmonised standard EN 301 549, which refers to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at level AA for websites. On top of that comes an accessibility statement describing how the offering meets the requirements.
What the check tests
A real Chromium loads the page like a visitor, with JavaScript and all stylesheets. Then axe-core, the most widely used accessibility testing library, runs against the rules of WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 at levels A and AA. Typical findings:
- Images without alternative text: screen readers read out the file name or nothing at all.
- Too little contrast between text and background: normal text needs at least 4.5 : 1, large text 3 : 1.
- Form fields without a label: a placeholder alone is not enough, it disappears while typing and is not reliably announced.
- Links and buttons without a recognisable name, such as a cart icon without text or aria-label.
- Missing language on the html element: screen readers then read German text with English pronunciation.
- Misused ARIA attributes and roles, duplicate IDs, too small touch targets and an illogical heading structure.
How to read the result
Every violated rule is listed with its impact, the WCAG criteria concerned, the number of elements and an example. The impact comes from axe-core:
- Critical: people using a screen reader or keyboard cannot continue here, for example a nameless button in the checkout.
- Serious: the page is noticeably harder to use, typically contrast and missing labels.
- Moderate and minor: obstacles worth fixing with the next revision.
- Critical and serious violations count as warnings, moderate and minor ones as hints. Almost every website has some findings; what matters is starting with the serious ones.
Limits of an automated test
An automated test only finds part of the barriers, a third to a half depending on the study. Whether the page can be fully operated with the keyboard, whether texts are understandable, whether the reading order makes sense or whether an alt text really describes the image is beyond what software can judge reliably.
A result without violations therefore does not mean the page meets the European Accessibility Act. It means the machine-testable errors are fixed. Conformance also takes a manual review with keyboard and screen reader and the accessibility statement.
Fixing barriers
Most findings sit in the theme or template, not in individual content. Fix them there and they are fixed on every page.
- WordPress: choose an accessible theme and maintain alt texts in the media library; page builders often produce nameless buttons.
- Shopware: check the contrast of the primary colour in the theme and label icon buttons (cart, wish list, search).
- Colours: check contrast with a contrast calculator before they make it into the corporate design.
- New barriers appear with every deploy, plugin or banner. That is why a regular check pays off more than a one-off audit.
<html lang="en">
…
<img src="/logo.svg" alt="Example Ltd – go to homepage">
<label for="email">Email address</label>
<input id="email" type="email" autocomplete="email">
<button type="submit" aria-label="Open cart">🛒</button>Monitor accessibility continuously
On request, DomainWarn tests the homepage of every client domain daily with the same check and reports as soon as a new serious barrier appears, for example after a theme update or with a new cookie banner. The monitor is included from the Freelancer plan and is switched on per domain.
Frequently asked questions
- Does my website meet the EAA if the check finds nothing?
- Not automatically. The check finds the machine-testable errors. It does not test keyboard operation, understandable text, meaningful alt texts or the accessibility statement. A result without violations is a good starting point for the manual review.
- Which page should I test?
- The pages through which contracts are concluded: homepage, a typical product page, cart, checkout and contact form. Each address is tested on its own; one check tests exactly one page.
- Why does the check find different errors than my browser extension?
- Many extensions also use axe-core, but with other rule sets (best practices on top of WCAG A and AA, for example) or they test the state after clicks and input. The check tests the page as it stands after loading.
- How often can I test?
- Five tests per hour, because each one starts a real browser. For regular checks there is the monitor in the dashboard, which tests the homepage daily.