Accessibility Directive for online shops

The Digital Services Act has been in force for some time for public operators and some private organisations. Now, the Digital Services Act will be extended on 28.6.2025 to include online shops for consumers. The aim of the amendment is to make products and services offered in online shops accessible to all without barriers.

Accessibility therefore requires many different aspects to play together when implementing an online store: technical implementation, user interface design and content production are the most prominent of these. In addition, shops covered by the law must have an accessibility statement describing the accessibility status of the service, as well as an accessibility feedback facility to which the retailer is obliged to respond.

After that deadline, you can still derogate from the accessibility requirements, but you may have to justify to the authorities why full implementation of the Accessibility Directive requires disproportionate efforts.

What it's all about

WCAG, officially known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, are designed to improve the technical accessibility of web services. As its name suggests, the guidelines provide guidelines to ensure that, for example, screen readers or other assistive technology for visually impaired users can correctly interpret the content of a page and that the user can take advantage of the functionality of the web service.

Of the three levels of criteria (A, AA and AAA), the first two are mandatory. There are 49 of them, for a total of more than 90 criteria.
In Finland, the law is enforced by the Accessibility Monitoring Unit of the Southern Finland Regional State Administrative Agencies (avi), which carries out monitoring in accordance with its own programme. The agency also investigates any complaints it receives.

Which types of online shops are affected

The official definition could be something like this: an online shop is a service where consumers can buy products or conclude contracts for services. An online shop can be a stand-alone mobile application in addition to a website. Accessibility applies to all parts of the store... e.g. chatbots, appointment calendars, images, videos, audio files, etc.

The law does not apply to small businesses. This means that if you sell your own handicrafts in your online shop, for example, you are unlikely to be affected.
However, it is worth considering that a large part of accessibility issues are also key issues for search engine optimisation. It is therefore worth paying attention to them, at least within the limits of your own resources.

Following the guidelines can also improve the reputation and brand of an online shop, as potential customers may perceive a company that has invested in accessibility as more responsible and/or customer-oriented than its competitors. This can provide a competitive advantage and foster long-term customer loyalty.

Which e-commerce operators should be aware of accessibility

At least the technical developer and content providers are at the top of the list. There are considerable requirements for images and video material, even if they are not considered according to the strictest, AAA criteria. The user interface designer and the brand designer mentioned earlier will also need to be familiar with the issue. The e-commerce operators are already in a real hurry if they are to train their staff to comply with the Accessibility Directive.

When should you start thinking about this

If you consider that it easily takes half a year to complete a (large) online store, you should start to consider these accessibility issues in October-November at the latest. For example, the directive may have an impact on a company's brand image, which may need to be changed. An example of this could be the colours used in the shop if the contrast requirements are not met.

Accessibility assessment for online shops and other websites

Large online stores launched after next summer will therefore have to meet the general accessibility requirements, as well as additional service-specific requirements. Existing online shops and sites that respect themselves should also commission an accessibility assessment to give them a picture of how their service meets the criteria. Of course, you can do that yourself, but interpreting the official guidelines is an art in itself and the accessibility criterion "text must be understandable" is interpreted rather loosely (Trust me... been there - done that).

Outside help can be useful also because good accessibility does not necessarily guarantee good usability or comprehensibility of content. These issues may become more apparent as a result of an external evaluation.
It remains to be seen whether there will be any unfinished online shops published in early June in an attempt to avoid the impact of the directive.

If you are at all concerned, contact us, let's put things right.

PS:
While writing this, an interesting thought occurred to me... What if search engines started to more than today favour shops that meet accessibility criteria.