WCAG & EAA

Everyone who makes purchases online does it differently. Shoppers make decisions at their own pace, they can use different devices, in fact, they interact with webstores in the ways they find the most comfortable for them.

For some shoppers, the process of visiting a webstore or purchasing products is vastly different than webstore owners might expect. Some users with visual impairments can rely on a screen reader which is software that reads digital text aloud. Some users can navigate with a keyboard due to the inability to reliably use a mouse. People with hearing impairments use assistive devices. Some users can simply need help when they are placing an order, because they feel more comfortable providing their billing information over the phone.

Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. Apart from this, a user’s ability to access, visit or shop in an online webstore can be affected by external factors such as speed of the internet connection, or availability of computer hardware. Also, it can be affected by temporary factors, like a broken arm or aging.

When webstore owners design a webstore and fill it with content, they should think about how to make and maintain the webstore accessible to everyone, no matter users’ age, skill level, location, or presence of a disability.

In fact, accessibility is a crucial point to remember as it goes beyond the webstore pages – it encompasses the webstore administrator’s entire online presence.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a guideline (technical standard) developed to provide a single shared standard for web content accessibility. WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Web content generally refers to the information on a web page, for example, text, images, and how this information is structured and presented to the web users. WCAG 2.2 covers a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible. WCAG 2.2 was published on 5 October 2023.

WCAG 2.2 is a stable, referenceable technical standard. The guidelines are organized under 4 principles:

1. Perceivable. It means that information and user interface components must be perceivable to users in ways they can perceive. Website content cannot be invisible to all users’ senses.

2. Operable. It means that user interface components and navigation must be operable. The website interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.

3. Understandable. It means that information and the operation of a user interface must be understandable. Users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface.

4. Robust. It means that the website content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

For each guideline, there are testable success criteria, which are at three levels: A, AA, and AAA. An A rating is the minimum requirement for having an accessible site and AAA is the gold standard of accessibility. Depending on the level, certain requirements can be higher, for instance for the desired contrast ratio.

Following WCAG 2.2 guidelines will make web content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including accommodations for blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensivity, and combinations of these, and some accommodation for learning disabilities and cognitive limitations; but will not address every user need for people with these disabilities. These guidelines address accessibility of web content on desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile devices. Following these guidelines will also often make web content more usable to users in general.

European Accessibility Act (EAA)

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) (Directive 2019/882) is a landmark EU law which requires some everyday products and services to be accessible for persons with disabilities. The Act covers different products and services including e-commerce.

All EU Member States must have by now transposed the European Accessibility Act into national law. As of 28 June 2025, companies must ensure that the newly marketed products and services covered by the Act are accessible.

For more information, see European accessibility act and European Accessibility Act: Q&A.

Roadmap

Sana Commerce Cloud has undergone an external review to ensure compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards, resulting in several enhancements to the webstore. While Sana Admin was not part of this review, it has been designed with WCAG color contrast guidelines in mind.

Sana Commerce is dedicated to providing and maintaining accessible web content for individuals with disabilities. To further this commitment, we are planning another external review by the end of 2024, focusing on WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines to continuously improve our product’s accessibility. Our goal is to meet AA level standards, which are widely recognized as the benchmark for webstore accessibility. We are also working to enhance the Sana Commerce Cloud product to better accommodate keyboard and screen reader users.

Regulations

Web accessibility regulations to which a webstore should comply differ per country. To check specific web accessibility rules per country, see Web Accessibility Laws & Policies.

Screen Readers

Since there are many different screen readers on the market, we cannot test a Sana webstore in every web browser with every screen reader. We decided to use Mozilla Firefox in combination with the NVDA screen reader to test the Sana webstore because this combination of a web browser and screen reader provides a wide range of accessibility features and is the most commonly used.

Content and Design

Aside from the users’ ability to easily navigate through the webstore, purchase a product and complete an order in the Sana webstore, WCAG covers a wide range of recommendations for making webstore content and design more accessible. For example, for people with color blindness, meeting the requirements for the color contrast ratio is highly important. In this sense, Sana Commerce cannot guarantee compliance with the WCAG rules because all webstore content and its design are manageable through Sana Admin. Sana’s content management system allows content managers to create and design content the way they like. Using themes, design managers can control all aspects of the webstore appearance, such as colors, fonts, sizes, backgrounds, etc. Therefore, it is significant for a webstore owner to keep the WCAG and EAA guidelines in mind when creating their webstore design and content to give all users the best experience possible regardless of limitations or disabilities.