Website Accessibility: The Platforms Offer vs What Retailers Need To Own

Image Credit: Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash

Web Accessibility: What Ecommerce Merchants Are Actually Responsible For

Full disclosure: I audited my own site before writing this. It scored 6.5 out of 10 on WAVE. I’ve fixed what I can — some contrast issues relate to my brand colour and platform limitations I’m working through. Point being: this stuff is harder than it looks, and nobody’s starting from perfect.

I went through this process as part of my B-Corp certification journey, committing to WCAG 2.1 Level AA on this site. Here’s what I wish someone had told me — with a specific focus on the bit most guides skip: what your platform handles and what you, as a merchant, actually own.

What accessibility means — and why it’s a commercial issue

Web accessibility means your site can be used by everyone, including people with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments. But it’s broader than most people realise. Bright sunlight on your phone, navigating with one hand, a slow connection — situational limitations affect all of us. Good accessibility improves the experience for everyone.

In the UK, around 1 in 5 people have a disability. If your site doesn’t work for them, they leave — and they won’t tell you why.

The standard most organisations aim for is WCAG 2.1 Level AA — built around four principles. Content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR). AA is what regulators, B-Corp assessors, and the incoming European Accessibility Act reference.

Platform vs merchant: the split nobody talks about

This is where most ecommerce brands go wrong. Accessibility responsibility is divided between your platform and the choices you make as a merchant — and they’re very different things.

What your platform handles

Shopify, Squarespace, and WooCommerce build accessibility into their core themes. Keyboard navigation on standard elements, semantic HTML structure, ARIA attributes on native components, colour contrast on default typography — the platform owns these. Shopify’s Dawn theme in particular is built with accessibility in mind.

But platforms can only control what they build. Everything you add is on is down to you.

What you’re responsible for as a merchant

• Alt text on every product image — screen readers read this aloud. “Image1234.jpg” isn’t helpful. “A terracotta soy wax candle with a kraft paper label on a wooden surface” is.

• Colour contrast on custom banners — text overlaid on promotional images needs a 4.5:1 contrast ratio at minimum. Check with the WebAIM contrast checker.

• Video captions — any product videos or tutorials need captions and transcripts are always useful.

• Form labels — every checkout field needs a visible label. Placeholder text doesn’t count.

• Link text — “Click here” tells a screen reader nothing. “View our patio rose collection” does.

• Page titles — every page needs a unique, descriptive title tag, not just your site name - this is super important for SEO too.

Three free tools to audit your site

• WAVE — paste your URL and it overlays a visual report directly on your page. Best starting point, no setup needed.

• Google Lighthouse — built into Chrome DevTools (right-click → Inspect → Lighthouse). Gives you a score out of 100 with specific failures listed. Same tool Google uses.

• axe DevTools — an accessibility extension that sites in your browser

A word of warning: automated tools catch around 30–40% of accessibility issues. Try navigating your site using only a keyboard for five minutes. It’s illuminating.

Where to start

• Run WAVE on your homepage, a category page, and your most important product page

• Fix errors first (red flags), then work through alerts

• Audit your product image alt text — quickest win, biggest impact

• Check promotional banners for colour contrast

• Review form labels across your checkout 

You don’t need to fix everything at once. Progress is what matters — and being honest about where you are is more credible than claiming perfection.

And if you still need to argue the case for web accessibility, whatever you do to help Screen Readers, also helps Google & LLMs crawl and make sense of your content, leading to increased organic traffic.

If you need any help, do get in touch!