Why Umbraco accessibility matters in the EU
Umbraco is widely used by European organisations, municipalities and NGOs — exactly the groups already bound by EN 301 549 or moving under EAA duties. Umbraco ships accessible starter behaviour, but Razor views, property editors and packages determine the final markup. Grid/Rich Text content edited by non-technical staff is where most issues creep in.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 Umbraco site
- Open the free EAA/WCAG scanner.
- Paste your Umbraco 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 Umbraco'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 Umbraco
When your scan flags a failing rule, here is where to fix it:
| Issue | Where to fix in Umbraco |
|---|---|
| Missing alt text on images | Umbraco's Media Picker surfaces the Media item's "Umbraco alt text" property if your views render it — check your partials actually output the value, and require it on media types. |
| Low contrast text | Fix in your CSS/SCSS source, not in backoffice-styled content. For brand colours set via settings nodes, validate the palette once against WCAG ratios. |
| Missing heading structure | Rich Text Editor heading styles depend on your rte.css configuration. Restrict formats so editors choose real H2/H3, and ensure view templates emit one H1 per page. |
| Missing form labels | Umbraco Forms: configure a label per field in the form definition and check your theme renders it visibly. Placeholders alone fail WCAG 1.3.1. |
| Generic link text ("read more", "click here") | In list/grid views append the item name to the link via aria-label or visually hidden span. |
| Missing page language | Set the culture on each language/domain in Settings, and confirm your master template outputs the culture on . |
| Grid/Block List layouts breaking keyboard order | Custom grid renderers sometimes produce DOM order that differs from visual order. Keep the rendered order aligned with the editor's logical content order. |
Umbraco-specific tools & resources
Umbraco ships with useful foundations — these approaches take you further:
Lighthouse + WAVE
Free scans of rendered pages; catches contrast, labels and structure issues quickly.
Umbraco Forms validation settings
Enable built-in required-field and error-message rendering so forms announce errors to screen readers.
Backoffice editor guidelines
A short editorial checklist (alt text, heading levels, meaningful links) prevents most content-side regressions.
Maintaining EAA compliance on Umbraco
Accessibility is not a one-time fix — sites change through content edits, theme updates and new pages. Keep compliance sustainable:
- Re-scan after upgrading Umbraco or packages — rendering helpers change between versions.
- Audit new document types and block previews for heading semantics before editors start using them.
- Public-sector operators: keep the accessibility statement and feedback channel current (Directive 2016/2102).
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.