Why PrestaShop accessibility matters in the EU
PrestaShop powers hundreds of thousands of online stores, with a strong footprint among European small and mid-sized merchants. Under the European Accessibility Act (EAA), e-commerce is explicitly in scope: if you sell to EU customers, your storefront must meet WCAG 2.1 AA — product pages, checkout flows and customer accounts alike.
The typical PrestaShop store stacks a purchased theme, a dozen modules and multiple languages on top of the core. Each layer can quietly introduce the exact issues our scanner finds everywhere: missing image legends from bulk imports, filter widgets without keyboard support, and promotional banners that fail contrast requirements.
What gets checked
16 automated rules covering images, links, forms, headings, language, viewport, contrast, ARIA misuse, and more — mapped to real WCAG success criteria.
Instant results
Paste your URL, get a letter grade with every issue listed by severity. No account, no email, no waiting for an audit report.
Built for the EAA
The rule set targets what EU enforcement and enterprise procurement actually look at: WCAG 2.1 AA basics you can document today.
How to check your PrestaShop site
- Open the free EAA/WCAG scanner.
- Paste your PrestaShop URL — any published page: homepage, a product page, or a category listing.
- Read your grade. Each finding shows the exact element and why it matters, so fixes are concrete, not vague advice.
- Fix and re-scan. Most image-alt, heading, and form-label issues are fixed right inside PrestaShop's editor or theme settings. Re-run the scan to confirm.
- Copy the shareable link from the result page — useful when a client or colleague needs to see the findings.
Common fixes in PrestaShop
When your scan flags a failing rule, here is where to fix it:
| Issue | Where to fix in PrestaShop |
|---|---|
| Missing alt text on images | Product images: Catalog → Products → edit product → Photos tab — set the Legend field per language. Theme/logo images: Design → Image Settings or the theme configuration panel. |
| Low contrast text | Design → Theme & Logo → edit the theme's CSS (Advanced → Custom CSS / theme editor). Adjust body text colour to at least #767676 on white, and check button states. |
| Missing heading structure | Product descriptions use the Rich Text Editor — apply Heading 2/3 styles instead of bold paragraphs. Theme templates (.tpl files) control page-level headings; keep one H1 per page. |
| Missing form labels | Most core forms render labels by default. For custom forms built with the Contact Form module or third-party form builders, verify each field has an explicit label in its configuration. |
| Generic link text ("read more", "click here") | Edit category and CMS page content in International → Translations or directly in the CMS pages (Design → Pages) — rewrite links so they describe their destination. |
| Missing page language | International → Localization → configure default language per shop context. Multi-store setups should ensure each store URL serves the correct html lang attribute. |
| Missing alt on logo | Design → Theme & Logo → configure — the logo alt text usually defaults to the shop name; verify it is not empty. |
PrestaShop-specific tools & resources
PrestaShop ships with useful foundations — these approaches take you further:
Built-in foundations
PrestaShop 8 renders semantic templates with the default Classic theme, including proper form markup and responsive viewport handling. Custom themes based on the starter theme inherit this structure.
Audit your theme's .tpl files
PrestaShop themes are template-based — overrides in themes/YOURTHEME/templates/ can silently drop labels, alt attributes or heading levels that the parent template provided. Diff your overrides against the original.
Multilingual alt text
PrestaShop stores image legends per language. If you sell across EU markets, fill the Legend field for every language — a French customer's screen reader should get French alt text.
Faceted search & modules
Filter modules (faceted search) often render interactive controls as plain divs. Verify keyboard operability and ARIA state attributes on any filter UI before going live.
Checkout accessibility
The checkout is where EU revenue lives — test every step with the keyboard only, confirm error messages are announced, and check contrast on price and shipping labels.
Maintaining EAA compliance on PrestaShop
Accessibility is not a one-time fix — sites change through content edits, theme updates and new pages. Keep compliance sustainable:
- Module updates. PrestaShop modules update frequently and can change rendered markup. Re-scan key pages after every significant update.
- Language reviews. New languages bring new translations — including alt-text fields. Audit untranslated or empty Legends when you add a market.
- Content author guidelines. Train staff adding products to write descriptive names, fill the Legend field, and structure descriptions with real headings.
- Scan quarterly. Run the scanner on your homepage, a category page, a product page and the checkout every quarter. Keep result links as documentation for compliance reviews.
Related reading
Dig deeper into the compliance work that comes after the scan:
Go deeper
Automated scanning catches roughly a third of accessibility issues — but it catches the ones that are cheapest to fix first. For the complete picture, our e-book covers the full checklist plus a 14-day fix plan.