A WCAG accessibility audit for Reiss
Reiss asked us to audit their website against WCAG 2.1 AA standards. We tested every user journey, catalogued every barrier, and delivered a prioritised remediation plan their development team could act on immediately.
Understanding the gaps
Reiss needed a clear picture of where their website fell short of WCAG 2.1 AA, and a practical plan for fixing it.
Accessibility regulations are tightening across Europe, and Reiss recognised they needed to understand where their digital experience stood. Their website serves as both a shopfront and a brand platform, handling everything from product browsing and checkout to editorial content and store lookup.
Automated scanning tools had flagged some surface-level issues, but Reiss wanted a thorough manual audit that went beyond what automated tools can catch. They needed someone to navigate the site the way a real user with a disability would: with a keyboard, a screen reader, magnification software, and without relying on colour alone.
The goal was not just a list of failures. Reiss needed actionable guidance: what was wrong, why it mattered, who it affected, and exactly how to fix it.
Visual and colour contrast
Checked every page for text-to-background contrast ratios, focus indicators, and colour-dependent information that would be invisible to users with colour vision deficiencies.
Keyboard and focus management
Tested full keyboard navigation across the site, including menus, modals, product filters, and the checkout flow. Identified traps, missing focus states, and illogical tab order.
Screen reader compatibility
Ran the entire site through multiple screen readers to verify that headings, landmarks, form labels, images, and dynamic content were announced correctly and in a meaningful order.
Tested against every WCAG principle
We audited the site against all four WCAG 2.1 principles, testing real user journeys rather than just running automated scans.
Perceivable
- Images missing alternative text across product listings and editorial pages
- Insufficient colour contrast on promotional banners and sale badges
- Video content without captions or transcripts
- Text embedded in images with no fallback
Operable
- Dropdown menus not accessible via keyboard alone
- Focus trapped inside the mobile navigation overlay
- Interactive elements too small to meet minimum target size
- No skip-to-content link for bypassing repeated navigation
Understandable
- Form error messages not programmatically associated with their fields
- Language attribute missing from the HTML document
- Inconsistent labelling of similar controls across pages
- No visible instructions for required form fields
Robust
- ARIA roles and properties used incorrectly on custom components
- Duplicate ID attributes causing screen reader confusion
- Dynamic content updates not announced to assistive technology
- Custom dropdown components not exposing their state correctly
More than a report
Reiss received a complete remediation package designed to be picked up by their development team without any further interpretation.
Full issue register
Every accessibility barrier catalogued with its WCAG criterion, severity, affected pages, and a clear explanation of the impact on users.
Code-level remediation guidance
Each issue paired with specific code examples showing exactly what needed to change, not just what was wrong.
Priority matrix
Issues ranked by severity and effort, giving Reiss's development team a clear order of operations for remediation.
Executive summary
A non-technical overview for stakeholders covering compliance status, legal exposure, and the business case for remediation.
Need an accessibility audit?
We test websites against WCAG 2.1 AA and deliver remediation plans your team can act on. Let's talk.