Accessible websites and stores

It depends on the service you provide and the size of your business. In Italy, Legislative Decree 82/2022 covers e-commerce, banking services, passenger transport, electronic communications, audiovisual media and e-books, among others, and an online store also used by consumers must comply in full. Your legal adviser can assess your case; we tell you where the site stands technically.

Under the Italian decree, micro-enterprises that provide services are exempt: fewer than 10 people employed and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million. If you are close to these thresholds, check with your adviser; an accessible site is still easier for all your customers to use.

For services covered by Italy's Decree 82/2022, the provider has to prepare accessibility information about the service and explain, in its general terms and conditions or an equivalent document, how the service meets the requirements. The accessibility statement filed on AgID's website is a different thing: according to AgID's FAQs, companies that had to file it and provide services covered by the decree no longer need to. We prepare the information with you, starting from the audit; your legal adviser checks the legal wording.

Automated tools, free ones included, only find part of the problems. You also need manual tests, with the keyboard and a screen reader, on typical pages and on the journeys that matter: search, product page, basket, payment, sign-up. We run them against WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 AA and finish with a report saying what to fix, where and in what order.

No. Widgets sold as a quick fix, known as overlays, do not make a site compliant on their own: AgID, in its FAQs on Italy's Decree 82/2022, states that they do not automatically guarantee conformity, and the European Commission considers them an inappropriate solution. Headings, form labels, contrast, alternative text and keyboard navigation have to be put right in the code and the content: that is why we work directly on the site and verify the result with automated and manual tests.

The EN 301 549 standard, which gives a presumption of conformity, points to the WCAG 2.1 level A and AA criteria for the web. WCAG 2.2, published by the W3C in 2023, keeps those criteria and adds more, for example on focus hidden by other elements and on the minimum size of buttons: we already check these too.

In Italy, AgID supervises the services covered and checks can start from user reports. It first asks for explanations and fixes; if the business does not comply it moves on to penalties, which for some breaches can reach €40,000.

When its pages, journeys and documents meet the WCAG 2.1 level A and AA criteria referenced by the EN 301 549 standard, which gives a presumption of conformity, and keep meeting them over time, including when the site changes. That is why at the end of the work you receive a report that can be checked, and we suggest checks after major changes.