Methodology
How the Cirv Accessibility Index scores EU e-commerce stores.
What we scan
We fetch the public homepage of each store and analyse its HTML against a subset of WCAG 2.1 Level A/AA success criteria — the same standard underpinning the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the ADA.
The checks
- Alt text (WCAG 1.1.1) — images carry text alternatives.
- Heading hierarchy (1.3.1) — one H1, no skipped levels.
- Colour contrast (1.4.3) — inline text/background pairs meet 4.5:1.
- Form labels (1.3.1) — inputs have programmatic labels.
- Link text (2.4.4) — links are descriptive, not "click here".
The score
The score is the share of checks that pass, expressed 0–100, then graded A–F. It's a fast signal, not a full audit — a high score means no automated failures on the homepage, not guaranteed conformance.
What we don't do
We respect robots.txt, rate-limit politely, identify ourselves honestly as CirvA11yIndex, and never bypass bot protection. Sites that block automated access are listed as "couldn't scan" rather than worked around.
Limitations
Automated tools catch roughly 30–40% of WCAG issues. Manual testing is required for full conformance. This index is informational and not legal advice.