Did you know that it is illegal to have an inaccessible site in Norway – that is, a website that has not invested in accessibility? As technology improves and new legislation managing accessibility is implemented, accessible design is no longer optional.
With the advent of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) coming into force in 2025 in the European Union, specific requirements will be set for products and services to ensure that they can be used by people with disabilities . We have already talked about this in our two previous blogs dealing with accessibility.
If you missed them, you can find the blogs here:
You can also watch a brief summary of the first blog post below!
Accessibility as a legal obligation
In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines an e-commerce site as a place of public accommodation. This means that brands and retailers can become targets of lawsuits for failing to provide an accessible shopping experience.
Between 2017 and 2022, more than 14,000 digital accessibility lawsuits were filed in U.S. federal courts. All costs added up, penalties can reach up to $150,000 – and more if the lawsuit ends up being brought under parallel domestic human rights laws.
If you are an international business, your legal obligations regarding accessibility extend beyond your home country. With the European Accessibility Act coming into force very soon, companies operating in the European Union will have to comply with its requirements or face fines and penalties.
Financial benefits of investing in accessibility
Accessibility isn’t just nice, it’s a necessity. The digital market is diverse, with customers of all ages and abilities. Ensuring your online store is accessible to everyone isn’t just a matter of social responsibility: it’s also a smart business decision.
From a business perspective, ignoring your product’s accessibility features can cut you off from a significant portion of your audience. Accessibility benefits everyone. You might not think about it, but features like dark mode and closed captions are common accessibility features that everyone uses every day – it’s the curb-cutting effect explained in more detail in our previous blog.
When it comes to e-commerce, investing in accessibility can increase revenue. According to LevelAccess’s Latest Digital Accessibility Survey85% of retail professionals report improvements in personalized acquisition and 81% in customer retention. With these figures, it is not surprising that 91% of respondents believe that digital accessibility gives them a competitive advantage.
A Nucleus Research 2019 Study Businesses without accessible sites are estimated to lose up to $6.9 billion annually. What’s important to note here is that customers who need accessibility when shopping online don’t abandon their purchases: they find accessible sites that allow them to complete their purchases. This means money is lost to competitors whose sites offer accessibility features.
Beyond all that, creating an approachable brand builds customer trust and loyalty because it showcases your value and willingness to include every customer.
How Hyvä helps achieve accessibility
We have already covered some best practices for achieving accessibility in e-commerce in our previous blog. Another factor that can help you when approaching this topic is using solutions that have accessibility features already built-in, such as the Magento 2 Hyvä front-end theme.
Modern frontend framework for Magento 2, Hyvä places great importance on accessibility. One of the things it seeks to improve is user experience, making it easier for customers to comply with standards and create inclusive digital experiences.
In order to improve its accessibility features, Good partnership with Snowdoga Magento agency from Poland. The primary goal of this effort was to provide a more inclusive experience for all users, as well as compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the European Accessibility Act (EAA).
The team focused on several factors:
Front-end code accessibility – The team worked to ensure that all elements, features, and actions of the theme were accessible and understandable for assistive technologies and systems.
Alt text and descriptions – To improve perception and understanding, the team added alt text for all meaningful interactive elements that lacked visual labels. This feature enabled users who rely on assistive technologies to understand and interact with content effectively.
Design Considerations – Elements such as font size and spacing to ensure legibility and readability across devices have been improved with the aim of creating a visually inclusive experience for all users.
Keyboard and assistive technology support – Another important aspect of accessibility was ensuring that all Hyvä theme features and interactions were keyboard accessible and compatible with assistive technologies.
Additionally, Hyvä achieves the reduction effect by reducing energy consumption because it makes website pages lighter to load and can reduce merchants’ server requirements by 25%.
The value of accessibility
And that’s it! Across our three blogs, we’ve covered the importance of accessibility in e-commerce, the basic resources and practices that can help you implement it, and the business value of investing in accessibility.
By now, it’s clear that there are many benefits to ensuring your online store is accessible. Not only from a legal and financial point of view, but from an empathetic point of view, making your customers aware of your brand values and wanting to make its experience accessible to everyone.
Above all, building a reputation as a company that values accessibility and inclusion is as important as meeting all the requirements related to its implementation and will promote loyalty among your customers.
