What the European Accessibility Act is and when it applies
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European law that sets common accessibility requirements for a range of digital products and services. Among the services it covers, e-commerce services aimed at consumers are explicitly included: if your PrestaShop store sells to consumers in the European Union, it falls within the scope of the directive.
The key date is 28 June 2025: from that day the directive applies to the services concerned. This is not a future deadline to keep an eye on, it is an obligation that is already in force. In Italy the directive has been transposed by Legislative Decree 82/2022 (D.Lgs. 82/2022), which brings the European obligations into national law.
The purpose of the law is straightforward: a person with a visual, motor or cognitive disability must be able to browse your catalogue, read product pages, add items to the cart and complete a purchase without barriers. For an online store this translates into concrete technical requirements affecting the theme, the content and the checkout.
Who is covered and who is exempt
The obligation applies to businesses offering e-commerce services to consumers in the EU. There is however an important exemption: microenterprises providing services are excluded from the service obligations. A microenterprise is a business with fewer than 10 people and an annual turnover, or annual balance sheet, of up to 2 million euros.
A few practical points before relying on this exemption:
- You must meet both criteria, the headcount one and the financial one. If you exceed even one of the two thresholds, the exemption does not apply.
- The exemption needs to be reassessed over time: if your store grows and you cross the thresholds, the obligations kick in.
- Even if you are exempt, accessibility remains a commercial advantage: an accessible site can be used by more customers and is usually better built for everyone else too.
What WCAG 2.1 AA means in practice for an online store
The directive does not describe in detail how a website must be built. The technical reference for the web is the EN 301 549 standard, which in turn points to WCAG 2.1 level AA, the international guidelines for web content accessibility.
Translated into concrete requirements for a PrestaShop store, these are the typical areas to cover:
| WCAG 2.1 AA requirement | What it means for your store |
|---|---|
| Sufficient contrast | Text, prices and buttons need adequate contrast against their background, so they remain readable for people with low vision. |
| Keyboard navigation | Menus, filters, cart and checkout must be usable with the keyboard alone, with no step that strictly requires a mouse. |
| Alternative text | Meaningful images, starting with product photos, must carry an alternative text describing their content. |
| Visible focus | As the user moves through the page with the Tab key, it must always be clear which element is currently active. |
| Labelled forms | Registration, address and payment fields need correct, properly associated labels, not just placeholder text. |
| Screen reader friendly content | The page structure must allow a screen reader to announce headings, prices, product variants and error messages in a way that makes sense. |
Note the central point: almost all of these requirements touch the store's theme and content, not just the platform. An up to date PrestaShop is a good starting point, but a theme with poor contrast or product pages without alternative texts is still your problem to fix.
How to check your store
Before making changes, find out where you stand. Several checks can be done on your own, with no special tooling:
- Try keyboard navigation. Put the mouse aside and try to search for a product, add it to the cart and reach the checkout using only Tab, Enter and the arrow keys. Wherever you get stuck, there is a barrier.
- Watch the focus. During the same test, check that you can always see which element is selected. If the focus indicator disappears, anyone not using a mouse is lost.
- Review your images. Open a few product pages and check that photos have a meaningful alternative text, not an empty one and not a file name.
- Inspect your forms. Registration, login, addresses and checkout: every field needs a visible label properly associated with it.
- Assess contrast. Light grey text on a white background, buttons that barely stand out and prices in muted colours are the usual suspects.
- Listen to your site with a screen reader. Operating systems ship one: have it read your homepage and a product page and check that the content makes sense by ear alone.
Write down everything you find and separate theme issues, content issues (alternative texts, labels, descriptions) and missing user-facing features, such as the ability to increase contrast or text size.
How the Accessibility Toolbar & WCAG Helper module helps
For the user-facing tools and WCAG aids you can rely on a dedicated module. Accessibility Toolbar & WCAG Helper (EAA / WCAG 2.1 AA) adds an accessibility toolbar to your PrestaShop front office, letting visitors adapt the site to their needs, for example by adjusting contrast and font size, and includes WCAG helpers for the front office. It is compatible with PrestaShop 1.7 through 9, so it covers both long-running stores and recent installations, and costs 59.99 euros.
One honest note, which applies to any product of this kind: no module, on its own, makes a website 100% compliant. A toolbar genuinely helps users and covers part of the requirements, but the theme and the content still need work: baseline contrast, alternative texts, form labels and page structure remain your job or your developer's. Treat the module as one building block of compliance, not a shortcut that replaces it.
For installation and configuration, the module guide is available on the shop (in Italian). If accessibility is one of several EU obligations you need to cover, multi-module carts pay off: the volume discount applies automatically, 10% above 150 € and 15% above 250 € (minimum 2 products).
Frequently asked questions
When does the European Accessibility Act apply?
Directive (EU) 2019/882 applies from 28 June 2025. For consumer-facing e-commerce services the obligation is therefore already in force.
Does the EAA apply to my PrestaShop store?
Yes, if you sell to consumers in the EU: the directive explicitly covers e-commerce services aimed at consumers. In Italy it has been transposed by Legislative Decree 82/2022.
Are small businesses exempt?
Microenterprises providing services are exempt from the service obligations: these are businesses with fewer than 10 people and an annual turnover or balance sheet of up to 2 million euros. If you exceed one of the thresholds, the exemption does not apply.
Which technical standard should my website follow?
The technical reference for the web is EN 301 549, which points to WCAG 2.1 level AA: sufficient contrast, keyboard navigation, alternative texts, visible focus, labelled forms and content that screen readers can announce properly.
Does an accessibility module make my store compliant?
No, no module on its own makes a website 100% compliant. An accessibility toolbar helps users and covers part of the requirements, but the store's theme and content still need to be taken care of.
Which PrestaShop versions does the Accessibility Toolbar & WCAG Helper module support?
The module is compatible with PrestaShop 1.7 through 9 and costs 59.99 euros. With the automatic volume discount, buying it together with other modules saves you 10% above 150 euros and 15% above 250 euros (minimum 2 products).