Accessible checkout: the European Accessibility Act for online shops

01What the Act asks of e-commerce

Annex I, Section IV, point (g) adds three requirements for e-commerce services:

• Provide information about the accessibility of the products and services you sell, when the economic operator responsible for them provides it.
• Make the identification, security, and payment functions of the service perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
• Make identification methods, electronic signatures, and payment services perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

And, like every covered service, your website and app have to be accessible under Section III, which in practice means WCAG 2.2 AA.

02Where checkouts usually fail

WebAIM's 2026 analysis of the top million home pages found detectable WCAG failures on 95.9% of them. The most common were low-contrast text, missing alternative text, missing form labels, and empty links and buttons. Checkouts have all of these, and a few of their own:

• Form fields with a placeholder instead of a label, so the label disappears as soon as people start typing.
• Error messages that only show in red, or aren't announced to screen readers.
• A payment form in an iframe from the payment provider that can't be used with a keyboard.
• A time limit on the basket or the payment step, with no warning or way to extend it.
• A CAPTCHA puzzle with no accessible alternative.

03The payment step

The payment step is often the part you control least, because it comes from your payment provider. The Act still applies to it, so ask your provider for their accessibility conformance information, and test their component in your checkout with a keyboard and a screen reader. If 3-D Secure or another authentication step opens, test that too.

04Accessibility information about what you sell

If the products you sell come with accessibility information from their manufacturer, like whether a device works with a screen reader, the Act asks you to pass it on. Add a place for it in your product data, and show it on the product page.

05How to test your checkout

1. Complete a purchase using only a keyboard, from the product page to the confirmation.
2. Do it again with a screen reader, like VoiceOver or NVDA.
3. Make a mistake on purpose in every field, and check the errors are announced and explain how to fix them.
4. Zoom to 200% and check nothing is cut off or overlapping.

Our Accessibility Audit tests up to five key journeys by hand against WCAG 2.2 AA, including checkout, in two weeks from €2,500, with a ranked issue list and a draft accessibility statement.