E-Commerce Accessibility – A Practical Guide for Online Stores

A recent audit of 250 leading e-commerce websites found that 94% had inaccessible checkout journeys. This means most online stores still create barriers at the most critical stage of the buying process, leading to lost customers and missed revenue.

Accessibility is therefore not just a technical consideration.

It directly affects who can buy from your store, how easily they can complete a purchase, and whether your business meets legal standards. For e-commerce brands, accessibility is closely tied to revenue, compliance, and long-term growth.

In this guide, you will learn why accessibility in e-commerce is essential and how to make your online store more inclusive and compliant.

Why you should make your online store accessible

Short answer: It is the right thing to do. Also, it helps you improve your sales, reduce legal risk, and attract more customers through search.

Long answer:

1. It increases revenue

Accessibility is directly connected to sales growth.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1 billion people worldwide live with a disability. That is about 1 in 6 people globally. Many rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, voice commands, or other assistive tools to shop online.

And this community holds significant spending power.

Research from the Return on Disability Group shows that the combined spending power of people with disabilities and their friends and family reaches $18.3 trillion worldwide. This includes direct spending and the influence they have on household purchasing decisions.

When your online store is accessible, it opens the door to a larger share of this market. Instead of losing potential buyers due to technical roadblocks, you enable them to complete their purchases independently. Each removed barrier increases the chance of a successful transaction.

2. It reduces legal risk

E-commerce websites are the top target for accessibility lawsuits in the U.S. and beyond.

In 2024, over 4,000 ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed in U.S. courts. The trend continued in 2025, with filings rising to more than 5,100. A large share of these lawsuits targeted e-commerce websites and online retailers, making the sector one of the most affected.

Most lawsuits focus on common issues such as missing alt text, inaccessible forms, and checkout processes that do not work with a keyboard. These are basic failures that directly block access to goods and services, making them strong legal claims under the ADA.

ADA website accessibility settlements for e-commerce businesses often range between $5,000 and $20,000. And that is only the settlement amount. It does not always include attorney fees, internal resources, or the cost of fixing the website under tight deadlines.

For many small and mid-sized online stores, this is a serious financial hit. It can wipe out months of profit and strain limited resources. Therefore, investing in accessibility early is a far more practical and cost-effective approach than dealing with legal action after the fact.

3. It improves SEO and online visibility

Accessibility and SEO are closely connected.

Search engines crawl websites by reading the structure and content of pages. Accessible sites use clear headings, semantic HTML, descriptive alt text for images, and meaningful link text. These features help crawlers interpret what each page is about and index it more accurately.

Studies also show accessible sites tend to perform better in search. One large analysis by Semrush found that accessible websites see around 23 % more visitors on average and rank for more keywords compared with less accessible sites.

In short, making your online store accessible helps search engines understand and rank your pages more effectively. Better structure and clearer content lead to stronger visibility, which means more potential customers can find your products online.

What does it mean to make an online store accessible?

Making an online store accessible means ensuring that people with disabilities can perceive, navigate, understand, and complete purchases independently using assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice control software, or keyboard navigation.

But how is that achieved in practice?

It starts by following established technical standards that define what web accessibility actually means. The globally recognized standard is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

WCAG sets clear, testable requirements that websites must meet to be considered accessible. It is structured around broad guidelines and specific, measurable “success criteria” used to assess whether a website conforms to accessibility standards.

Most digital accessibility laws use WCAG as the reference standard.

In the U.S., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires equal access to goods and services, and courts often use WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark for website accessibility. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires certain digital services, including e-commerce, to comply with EN 301 549, which aligns with WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

As a result, aligning your online store with recognized WCAG standards is the most practical way to meet legal expectations.

How to make your online store accessible

Improving accessibility in e-commerce starts with understanding how customers experience your store and where barriers occur. From there, the process involves evaluating key shopping flows, addressing issues that block purchases, and maintaining accessibility over time.

The steps below provide a practical framework you can apply to any e-commerce platform, helping you approach accessibility in a structured and manageable way.

Step 1: Understand your customers and the barriers they face

Start by understanding how different customers experience your store.

Not all users browse and shop in the same way. Some rely on screen readers that read content aloud. Others navigate using only a keyboard. Some use voice control software. Others may have low vision and depend on sufficient color contrast and scalable text.

Accessibility issues occur when your store assumes everyone can see the screen, use a mouse, distinguish colors, or interact with complex layouts. In online stores, these assumptions often create barriers at critical steps in the buying process.

Common barriers in online stores include:

• Menus that cannot be navigated with a keyboard, blocking access to categories or key pages.
• Missing or vague product image descriptions, such as unclear text alternatives.
• Filters that trap keyboard focus, preventing users from moving through the page.
• Product options (size, color, etc.) not announced to screen readers, making selections unclear.
• Icon-only buttons without clear labels, such as cart or wishlist icons announced as “button.”
• Dynamic content that updates without notification, like cart totals or validation messages.
• Checkout forms that do not clearly identify and explain errors.
• Low color contrast, making text difficult to read.
• Popups or cart drawers that do not manage keyboard focus properly.

For customers who rely on assistive technologies, these barriers can disrupt the shopping process at any point, from browsing products to completing payment. When essential steps are inaccessible, customers may be forced to abandon their purchase or seek assistance.

An accessible online store should remove those barriers and support the full buying journey. A customer should be able to:

• Navigate categories and menus independently
• Search and filter products without difficulty
• Understand product details and pricing
• Select variations such as size or color
• Add items to the cart and review their selections
• Complete checkout and correct any errors

In practical terms, every customer, regardless of disability, should be able to browse products, select options, and complete checkout independently.

If you or your team lacks accessibility expertise, consider working with a specialist to evaluate your store and prioritize improvements.

Step 2: Test your store for accessibility issues

Once you have a clear understanding of what an accessible shopping experience should look like, evaluate your store to identify where barriers exist.

Start with an automated accessibility audit. An automated tool scans your entire store and detects common accessibility issues such as missing alt text, low color contrast, empty links, incorrect heading structure, and form label errors.

WebYes Accessibility is an automated accessibility testing tool you can use to scan your online store at scale, identify accessibility issues, and see exactly where problems exist. It also provides AI-powered fix suggestions to help you resolve issues faster.

However, automated testing alone is not enough. It cannot detect all usability barriers, so manual testing is essential.

You should test your store using only a keyboard and a screen reader to ensure navigation, product selection, and checkout are usable without a mouse. Since manual checks take time, sampling high-impact pages across the buying journey helps uncover critical barriers.

Focus on key pages and flows such as:

• Homepage navigation and menus
• Category and filter functionality
• Product detail pages
• Add to cart actions
• Cart review page
• Checkout and payment process
• Account login and registration

If you need step-by-step guidance, we have created a detailed guide on manual accessibility testing that walks you through the full process.

Step 3: Fix accessibility issues and prioritize by impact

After testing, move into remediation.

Take a structured approach. Do not try to fix every issue at once. Start by grouping issues based on severity and business impact. Focus first on barriers that prevent users from completing essential actions like browsing products, adding items to cart, or finishing checkout.

Address critical issues in core flows:

• Navigation and menus
• Product pages
• Add to cart functionality
• Cart and checkout
• Login and registration

Then move to common accessibility problems such as missing alt text, unlabeled form fields, low color contrast, incorrect heading structure, and buttons that are not keyboard accessible. Follow WCAG guidelines to ensure your fixes meet recognized standards.

If you used WebYes Accessibility for testing, use its AI-powered fix suggestions to guide your remediation. This helps your team implement fixes faster.

Work in phases.

Fix high-impact issues first, then verify each fix through automated re-scans and manual checks before moving to medium and lower priority items. Confirm the issue is resolved in code and works properly in real user flows like navigation and checkout. You can use a free color contrast checker to validate that your colors are accessible.

Step 4: Publish an accessibility statement

Once you begin improving accessibility, publish an accessibility statement on your website. You can create one easily for free using an accessibility statement generator.

Your statement should:

• Confirm your commitment to digital accessibility
• Reference the standard you aim to meet, such as WCAG
• Outline actions taken
• Provide a way for users to report issues
• Mention ongoing monitoring efforts

An accessibility statement improves transparency and reduces legal exposure. It shows regulators and customers that you are actively working toward compliance.

Step 5: Monitor and maintain accessibility over time

Accessibility is not a one-time project. New products, theme updates, plugin changes, or design edits can introduce new issues.

That is why ongoing monitoring is essential.

The same automated testing tool you used for your initial audit can also support ongoing monitoring. For example, WebYes Accessibility lets you schedule recurring scans at your preferred frequency, helping you detect new accessibility issues as your store evolves.

Regular automated scans should be combined with periodic manual reviews of key pages, shopping flows, and checkout processes. Continuous monitoring ensures accessibility remains part of your store’s long-term maintenance strategy, not just a one-time fix.

Wrapping up

Accessibility in e-commerce is no longer a nice-to-have. It is a business necessity.

An accessible online store helps you unlock real spending power, reduce legal risk, and improve your visibility in search. It also ensures that every customer has a fair opportunity to browse, add to cart, and complete a purchase.

The good news is that accessibility does not require a complete rebuild. With the right approach, you can strengthen your store’s foundation, remove barriers that block sales, and create a more resilient business for the long term.

When your store works for everyone, your business grows stronger.