Scan results · September 2026
We Scanned 30 Independent UK Skincare & Soap Shops for Accessibility — Here's What Failed
Short answer: not one of the 30 scored a perfect 100. The average was 71/100, and 23 of 30 shops had low-contrast text. The good news: most failures come down to a few one-line fixes.
How we ran this
We took independent UK online shops selling handmade skincare, soap, deodorant and grooming products, and ran each homepage through the AbleScan scanner (WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the standard the European Accessibility Act relies on). We picked the shops from search results before scanning, and we kept every shop that returned a score — whatever the score — so the sample is not filtered toward good or bad.
We looked at 41 shops. 30 returned a usable score. The other 11 are left out: 5 showed no issues at all (we cannot tell whether they are genuinely clean or whether bot protection showed our scanner a simplified page), 5 returned no usable report, and 1 failed to scan.
Limits: homepages only, one country and one product niche, and automated testing catches only a portion of accessibility barriers. This is a snapshot, not a ranking, and we do not name individual shops.
The numbers
| Shops with a usable score | 30 |
| Average score | 71 / 100 (median 78) |
| Highest / lowest score | 95 / 28 |
| Scored 80 or below | 19 of 30 (63%) |
| At least one "critical" issue | 13 of 30 (43%) |
| Average failing rules per shop | 3.1 |
The five most common failures
| Issue | Shops affected | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Low-contrast text | 23 of 30 (77%) | Text too light against its background, often taglines, banners and captions. |
| Links with no readable text | 18 of 30 (60%) | Icon-only links (social icons, logos, carousel items) that a screen reader announces as just "link". |
| Images without alt text | 10 of 30 (33%) | Product photos and badges that a screen reader cannot describe. |
| Misused ARIA attributes | 9 of 30 (30%) | Attributes such as aria-selected placed on elements that do not support them, which gives assistive technology wrong information. |
| Unnamed frames / disabled zoom | 5 of 30 each (17%) | Embedded widgets with no title, and pages that block pinch-zoom for low-vision users. |
The one-line fix for each
1. Low-contrast text
Text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background. For light-grey text on white, darkening it a shade is usually enough.
color: #595959; /* passes 4.5:1 on white */2. Links and buttons with no readable text
Icon-only links (social icons, a logo link, a carousel arrow) need a name a screen reader can announce.
<a href="/cart" aria-label="View basket">…</a>
<button type="button" aria-label="Search">…</button>3. Images without alt text
Describe what the image shows. Purely decorative images can take an empty alt so screen readers skip them.
<img src="soap-bar.jpg" alt="Lavender soap bar on a wooden dish">
<img src="divider.svg" alt="">4. Misused ARIA attributes
If an attribute like aria-selected sits on a plain element with no matching role, remove it (or give the element the role it belongs to). Wrong ARIA is often worse than none.
<div class="slide is-selected"> <!-- no aria-selected on a plain div -->5. Unnamed frames and disabled zoom
Give embedded widgets a title, and do not block pinch-zoom in your viewport tag.
<iframe title="Customer reviews badge" …></iframe>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">Many of the failures we saw came from third-party widgets — review carousels, sliders and social feeds. Check the widget's settings or update it before editing your theme by hand.
What this means under the EAA
The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 and follows the customer, not the company: if EU consumers can buy from you, you are expected to meet WCAG 2.1 AA — unless you are a micro-enterprise providing services. Penalties are set by each EU member state. Read who is covered in our EAA guide for online stores, and if you run Shopify, our Shopify accessibility checklist shows where each setting lives.
See where your own shop stands
Paste your homepage into AbleScan and you get a plain-English list of exactly which of these issues your shop has, with the affected elements highlighted on a screenshot. It takes about 60 seconds and needs no signup.
FAQ
Does a low score mean my store is breaking the law?
No. The score is a quick automated health check, not a legal verdict. Automated tools detect only a portion of accessibility barriers, so a score cannot prove compliance or non-compliance. Treat it as a prioritised to-do list.
Which issue should I fix first?
Start with the ones that block people outright: buttons and links with no readable name, and images with no alt text. Then work through low-contrast text, which is the most widespread but often the quickest to fix in your theme's CSS.
Are these fixes hard?
Most are one-attribute changes in your theme: an aria-label on an icon button, an alt on an image, a slightly darker text colour. Many of the failures we found come from third-party widgets (reviews, sliders, social feeds), where the fix is often a setting or an update.
Does this apply to my shop if I am based in the UK?
The European Accessibility Act follows the customer, not the company. If EU consumers can buy from you, you are expected to comply. See our EAA guide for who is covered and the micro-enterprise exemption.
This article reports automated scan results and is general information, not legal advice. Automated scanning detects only a portion of accessibility barriers. For obligations specific to your business, consult a qualified professional in the relevant EU market.