We scanned 41 independent online stores. 93% failed accessibility.
Of the 41 independent UK and EU online stores we were able to scan against WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA, 38 — 93% — had at least one violation serious enough to block or frustrate a real customer. More than half (56%) had a critical one. The median store scored 60 out of 100 on our compliance-risk scale; the average was 52. These aren't obscure shops — they're the independent Shopify and WooCommerce storefronts that make up the backbone of online retail.
This matters more in 2026 than it did a year ago: the European Accessibility Act became enforceable on 28 June 2025, and consumer e-commerce is squarely in scope. The barriers below aren't just bad UX anymore — for a store selling to EU consumers, they're compliance risk.
How we did this (and what it can't tell you)
We took a list of independent UK/EU online stores from public brand roundups and ran each through the same engine our free scanner uses: a real browser loads the site, and axe-core checks it against WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 level AA — the standard behind the EAA and US ADA suits. Three pages per store, automated, no manual testing.
Two honest limits, stated up front because a statistic is only worth as much as its method:
- This is what an automated scan catches — a meaningful subset, not everything. Automated testing reliably finds mechanical failures (contrast, missing names, unlabelled controls) but cannot judge whether alt text is meaningful or a custom widget is usable. The real numbers are a floor, not a ceiling — the true picture is worse, not better.
- We could only scan the stores that let an automated tool in. We attempted 91 stores; 41 scanned cleanly and the rest blocked the scanner or failed to render — overwhelmingly the large enterprise retailers behind bot-protection. So this is a study of independent stores, not the high street. (That the biggest retailers block accessibility tools outright is its own uncomfortable finding, for another day.)
So: 41 stores, WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA, automated, three pages each, scanned July 2026. Every figure below is measured from that set.
What we found
93% of the stores we scanned had at least one WCAG AA violation. Only 3 of 41 came back clean. 41% landed in our worst risk band — 17 of 41 stores scored “critical”, meaning failures likely to stop some users from completing a purchase, not just annoy them.
The failures clustered around a handful of ordinary, fixable issues:
| Issue | Stores affected | What it does to a shopper |
|---|---|---|
| Text fails colour contrast | 56% | Sale prices, muted labels and buttons a low-vision customer can't read |
| Links/buttons/dropdowns with no accessible name | 61% | A screen-reader or keyboard user hits “link”, “button” — no idea what it does |
| Tap targets too small | 41% | Swatches and controls too small to hit on a phone — where most shopping happens |
| Images missing alt text | 22% | Product photos a screen-reader user can't perceive at all |
Across the 41 stores, the scan flagged 1,223 individual elements — an average of about 30 broken elements per store, the great majority (1,003) rated serious. The top of that list is the quiet one: colour contrast. Not exotic — a sale badge in light grey, a “was £40” in a faint strike-through, a pale “add to basket”. Easy to ship, easy to miss, and on more than half the stores we looked at.
Why it's worth fixing (beyond the law)
Every one of these is a customer hitting a wall on the way to paying you. A contrast failure on a price is a shopper who can't read what something costs. An unnamed “add to basket” button is a keyboard user who can't buy. These aren't abstractions — they're abandoned carts you can measure. The accessibility fix and the conversion fix are the same fix.
And the regulatory floor has moved. Under the EAA (enforceable since June 2025) a store selling to EU consumers — unless it's a microenterprise, under 10 staff and under €2M turnover — is expected to meet WCAG-level accessibility. In the US, thousands of ADA website-accessibility lawsuits are filed every year, with online retail the most-targeted sector. “We didn't know” has stopped being a defence.
The good news: a floor is cheap to raise
Nearly every issue above is a small, known fix — a colour value, an aria-label, an alt attribute, a larger tap target. Many are content you control in your store admin; the rest are a short job for whoever maintains your theme. The hard part isn't fixing them. It's finding them — knowing which page, which element, which rule, in language a human can act on.
Want to know where your store stands? Run a free scan — see your own version of this report: every issue in plain English, where it is on the page, and how to fix it. No account, no card, no overlay.
Run a free scan →
FAQ
- How many e-commerce sites fail accessibility?
- In our July 2026 study of 41 independent UK/EU online stores we could scan, 93% had at least one WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA violation serious enough to block or frustrate a customer, and 56% had a critical one. Because automated testing catches only a subset of barriers, the true rate is higher.
- What are the most common accessibility problems on online stores?
- Colour contrast (56% of stores — unreadable sale prices, muted labels), links/buttons/dropdowns with no accessible name (61% — a keyboard or screen-reader user can’t tell what they do), tap targets too small for mobile (41%), and product images missing alt text (22%).
- How was this measured?
- Each store was loaded in a real browser and checked against WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA with axe-core — the same engine as Curbcut’s free scan — three pages per store, automated. We attempted 91 stores; 41 scanned cleanly (the rest, mostly large retailers behind bot-protection, blocked the scanner). Aggregate results only; individual stores are never named.
- Does the European Accessibility Act apply to my store?
- If you sell to EU consumers and aren’t a microenterprise (fewer than 10 staff and under €2M turnover), the EAA has applied since 28 June 2025 and expects your store to meet WCAG-level accessibility. Most of the barriers in this study are exactly what it targets.
- How do I check my own store?
- Run a free scan: paste your URL and Curbcut checks it against WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA and returns your own version of this report — every issue in plain English, where it is on the page, and how to fix it. No account, no card.
Methodology: 91 independent UK/EU online stores attempted; 41 scanned successfully against WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA with axe-core via a real browser, 3 pages each, July 2026. Aggregate results only — individual store results are private. Automated testing detects a subset of accessibility barriers; the true rate of non-conformance is higher than reported here.