We tested 20 Chinese brands’ EU stores. All of them fail WCAG 2.1 AA

The sample covers 20 EU storefronts of Chinese consumer brands across 3D printers, power stations, laser engravers, robot vacuums, audio, personal care, smart home and apparel. 19 of them run on Shopify. The result is consistent: all 20 fail WCAG 2.1 AA, and every one has at least one issue rated critical.

Method

• Date: 16 October 2026.
• Pages: each store's home page and the first product page linked from it, at a 1366px desktop width.
• Tool: axe-core with WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 Level A and AA rules only. A failing element is one page element that breaks a rule.
• Selection: stores that would not load or redirected to another region's storefront were replaced with another brand in the same category until we had 20.
• Limits: automated tools catch roughly 30–40% of issues. Keyboard use, screen reader experience and checkout need manual testing, so these numbers are a floor.

Results: all 20 fail

• Failing elements (home plus product page): median 76, minimum 20, maximum 286.
• Low text contrast: 20 of 20 stores.
• Images without alt text: 16 of 20.
• Links without a name: 16 of 20.
• Accessible name not matching the visible label: 13 of 20.
• Buttons without a name: 12 of 20.
• Form fields without labels: 11 of 20.
• Pinch zoom disabled: 9 of 20.

Store-by-store results are below. Brand names are withheld; letters distinguish stores in the same category.

What these issues mean for shoppers

Low contrast is the only issue every store had, usually light grey prices, captions and buttons. Shoppers with low vision cannot read them on a phone or outdoors. The fix is usually a handful of theme colour variables.

Missing alt text and unnamed links and buttons are among the issues US ADA complaints cite most. A screen reader announces a product image as a file name or skips it, and icon buttons such as cart, search or quantity controls are announced only as "button".

A mismatch between the accessible name and the visible label is easy to miss: the button says "Add to cart" but the screen reader announces something else, and voice control users cannot activate it by saying what they see. Disabling pinch zoom stops people who need larger text from reading the page, and it is a one-line meta tag fix.

The two stores with overlays

2 of the 20 stores run an accessibility overlay (Power stations A and Laser engravers B). They have 160 and 109 failing elements, both above the median. Overlays patch the page with a script after it loads, and the problems in the source remain. In 2025 the FTC ordered overlay vendor accessiBe to pay $1 million over claims that its automated tool could make sites WCAG compliant. See do overlays prevent lawsuits.

Only 4 stores link to an accessibility statement

The European Accessibility Act requires service providers to explain how their service meets the accessibility requirements, which online stores usually do with an accessibility statement. Only 4 of the 20 stores had a statement or accessibility link on the home page. See the accessibility statement template.

What this means for store owners

Most of these issues live in theme templates, so fixing a template fixes thousands of product pages at once. A sensible order:

1. Darken theme colours that fail contrast.
2. Name icon buttons and image links, and align accessible names with visible labels.
3. Add product image alt text in bulk, with spot checks.
4. Re-enable zoom and label every form field.
5. Walk from home page to checkout with a keyboard and a screen reader.
6. Publish an accessibility statement with a feedback channel.

The full list is in the WCAG 2.1 AA checklist and the EU rules are in the European Accessibility Act guide. To see where your store stands, run the free accessibility test.