WCAG Compliance Checklist for PrestaShop Stores in Italy

PrestaShop stores are entry points to your business, and an inaccessible checkout or product page locks out customers with disabilities—and increasingly, exposes you to legal risk. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) enforcement begins June 28, 2025, making accessibility a compliance requirement, not an option. This checklist covers the most common WCAG failures found in PrestaShop installations and how to spot and fix them on your own site.

How to Check Each Issue on Your PrestaShop Store

Image Alt Text

Why it matters: Product images are core to e-commerce. A customer using a screen reader hears nothing without alt text, and Google images can't index your products either.

Checklist:

• Open the product image in your browser's Inspector (right-click → Inspect), find the `<img>` tag, and confirm it has an `alt` attribute with descriptive text (not empty, not "image")
• In PrestaShop admin, go to Catalog > Products, edit each product, and fill the Description field under each image tab—PrestaShop uses this for alt text
• Check that alt text describes the product (e.g., "Blue cotton t-shirt with crew neck" not "shirt" or "product photo")
• Test with a screen reader like NVDA (free, Windows) or VoiceOver (built into macOS) to confirm the text makes sense when read aloud

Why to check on PrestaShop: PrestaShop auto-generates alt attributes from the product name by default, but you can—and should—make them more specific in each product's image settings.

Color Contrast

Why it matters: Gray text on a light background, or light buttons on white, are invisible to users with low vision or color blindness. They also fail on phones in bright sunlight.

Checklist:

• Use the WAVE browser extension (free, works on Firefox and Chrome) to run a scan—it flags low-contrast text instantly
• Check your product page text, button labels, and form fields; contrast ratio should be at least 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text (18pt+)
• If you use custom CSS or a custom theme, test links and buttons against your site's actual background colors using a tool like WebAIM Contrast Checker (webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker)
• Pay special attention to hover states on links and buttons—many stores make these even lighter or harder to see

Why to check on PrestaShop: PrestaShop themes vary widely in color choices. Even built-in themes may have contrast issues in footer text, success messages, or disabled form fields.

Form Labels

Why it matters: If a checkout field has no label, screen reader users can't tell if they're entering a phone number or an address. This breaks the checkout flow entirely.

Checklist:

• Open your checkout page and use your browser's Inspector to find each `<input>`, `<select>`, or `<textarea>` tag
• Confirm each input has an associated `<label>` tag with a `for` attribute matching the input's `id` (e.g., `<label for="email">Email address</label>`)
• In PrestaShop, edit your checkout form (usually in Design > Pages, or via your theme's customization panel) and ensure every field has a visible label
• Test with a screen reader: tab through the form and confirm you hear the label name for each field

Why to check on PrestaShop: Custom checkout designs and address-form customizations often strip away labels. Many PrestaShop modules add fields without proper label markup.

Link Names

Why it matters: A link that says "Click here" or contains only an icon tells screen reader users nothing about where they're going or what will happen.

Checklist:

• Scan your site for links with only icons (e.g., social media buttons, navigation arrows) and check the Inspector for the `<a>` tag's text content or `aria-label` attribute
• Look at product category links, footer links, and breadcrumb navigation—confirm each has readable, descriptive text (not "Link", "More", or empty)
• Test your site with a screen reader in "links-only" mode (NVDA: press `insert + F7` to open the links list) and read through—do all links make sense out of context?
• Check that icon-only buttons (like a shopping cart icon in the header) have either visible text labels or hidden text using `aria-label="Shopping cart"`

Why to check on PrestaShop: Many PrestaShop themes use Font Awesome or other icon fonts for navigation and cart buttons with no text fallback. These fail immediately for screen reader users.

HTML Document Language

Why it matters: Screen readers need to know your page is in Italian so they pronounce words correctly. Search engines also use this to serve your site to Italian users.

Checklist:

• Open any page on your store (product, cart, checkout) and view the page source (right-click → View Page Source)
• Look for the opening `<html>` tag at the very top; it should read `<html lang="it">` for Italian sites
• If it says `<html>` with no `lang` attribute, or `lang="en"`, this is broken
• In PrestaShop, go to International > Languages, select your Italian language, and confirm it's set as the default; the `lang` attribute should update automatically on all pages

Why to check on PrestaShop: PrestaShop should set this correctly by default, but multi-language stores sometimes have the wrong language set as the default, or the lang attribute gets stripped by a custom theme or module.

Button Names

Why it matters: A button with only an icon (e.g., a magnifying glass for "Search") is meaningless to screen reader users. They need to know what a button does before they click it.

Checklist:

• Inspect buttons across your site: checkout button, search button, filter buttons, "Add to cart" button, using your browser's Inspector
• Confirm each `<button>` or `<input type="button">` tag has visible text, or if it's icon-only, has an `aria-label` attribute with a clear description (e.g., `aria-label="Search products"`)
• Search buttons should say "Search"; checkout buttons should say "Proceed to checkout" or similar—not just an arrow or chevron
• Test with a screen reader: tab to each button and confirm you hear a useful name

Why to check on PrestaShop: Cart and search buttons in PrestaShop themes are often styled as icons only, with no text label. This requires adding `aria-label` via theme customization or a module.

Next Steps

Fixing these six issues will cover most WCAG 2.1 Level A failures on a typical PrestaShop store. Start with the quick wins: alt text on products, language tag, and button labels. Then move to contrast and forms, which may require CSS changes or theme updates. Many of these fixes are small code tweaks; others require working with your theme developer or a PrestaShop accessibility specialist.

The EAA enforcement date of June 28, 2025, is real. Stores found non-compliant may face legal action or removal from marketplaces. Beyond the legal risk, accessible sites convert better and reach more customers. Make accessibility part of your regular site maintenance now, not an emergency fix later.

This is technical WCAG guidance, not legal advice.