European Accessibility Act for online shops
This is general information, not legal advice.
On a shop, the European Accessibility Act shows up on the product page, the cart and the checkout. Fix those templates. This page does not read national law for you.
Where themes fail
Uploads copy the file name into alt text. Collection tiles bake the category name into a JPEG, so it cannot be read, resized, or translated. Colour dots have no text. The sale price is grey on white and falls under 4.5:1. The mobile menu is a div with a click handler, so the keyboard never reaches the catalogue.
Checkout adds another set. Themes hide WooCommerce labels and leave a placeholder. Custom Shopify sections add a newsletter field with no label. CSS removes the error text and leaves a red outline. A countdown threatens to empty the basket. All of that is theme work. A widget drawn on top does not touch it.
A ten-URL pass
List home, two collections, two products, the cart, checkout, contact, delivery, and one page with video. If you sell in a second language, repeat the product and checkout in that language. A pass in English says nothing about a separate French theme.
Load each URL at phone width. If the buy button sits off to the right, the layout does not reflow. Tab from the logo. If there is no skip link, keyboard users repeat the header on every page. Use the contrast checker on the price, the button label, and any text on a photo. Then scan those URLs.
Change the template, then retest
Put offers in real headings and buttons. Give informative images an alt that names the product and the variant. Give decorative images an empty alt. Restore visible labels and a visible focus style. Add a skip link as the first focusable control. Caption product video that contains speech.
Retest the same ten URLs, including at 200 percent zoom. On Shopify, do colour in the theme editor and alt on the media. On WooCommerce, keep the error list. On Wix and Squarespace, use the element settings so the next editor can find the change.
How AltGrade fits
The report names the screen to open, so the person who does not live in the theme can still ship the fix. The £49 audit raises the cap to 50 pages and dates the PDF. Monitoring from £19 a month tells you if a later publish brought the empty button back. No tax is added.
Whether Directive (EU) 2019/882 applies to your company is an adviser's question. The text is the EUR-Lex copy linked from the main European Accessibility Act page. Use this page to clean the shop.
A short list that moves revenue
Name every option. A colour swatch that is only a circle fails the moment someone cannot see it. Add the colour name in text. Write alt text that includes the variant, not the file name from the studio.
Checkout labels are the other half. If a theme hid the shipping labels to look cleaner, put them back. Error text must say what to fix, not only turn a border red. Then rescan the cart URL and the checkout URL, not just the homepage.
Questions
Does the scan open checkout?
It opens the public start of checkout when it can find the URL. Steps behind a login or a payment provider may not load. Walk those yourself.
Does the Act name a tool to buy?
No. A scan finds barriers. It is not a badge, and the Directive does not mention AltGrade.
What does automation miss?
Automated scans cannot catch every WCAG issue. They miss a false alt and a checkout that fails when someone listens to it.