EAA compliance for PrestaShop: WCAG 2.1 AA checklist & fixes

What the EAA actually requires from a PrestaShop site

PrestaShop's default Classic theme passes most basic checks, so under the EAA the obligation lands on its large, uneven module ecosystem and on the theme's specific weak points. EN 301 549 conformance forces you to fix one-page-checkout modules that strip programmatic labels, and currency and language switchers that render as image-only links or generic "click here" text. Because PrestaShop uses Smarty templates, the requirement is met by overriding module markup in your child theme rather than editing core, and by keeping the shop AA with your installed modules active.

PrestaShop is concentrated among French, Spanish, and Portuguese SMBs, and France in particular has a strong digital-accessibility enforcement track record under its RGAA standard, which references WCAG. That makes PrestaShop stores a realistic audit target even before the EAA, with the EAA adding a hard AA requirement for all consumer shops from June 2025. Most of these merchants are small enough that exposure is a fixed national fine rather than a turnover-percentage penalty, but the enforcement culture in their home markets makes the probability of being audited unusually high.

Remediation is handled by a PrestaShop developer using Smarty template overrides in the child theme to add aria-labels to switcher controls and restore checkout field labels, plus a CSS override for focus styles. Disable any one-page-checkout module before auditing to isolate whether a failure is core or module-introduced, then re-enable and re-test. For a typical Classic-theme store this is a contained developer engagement, provided the installed modules do not each bring their own regressions.

Top WCAG failures we see on PrestaShop sites

Across hundreds of PrestaShop scans, the same handful of issues show up over and over. None of them require ripping the theme apart — most are fixable in a few hours by someone comfortable in the platform's editor or template files.

• One-page checkout modules without proper labels

  Third-party checkout replacements often strip programmatic labels.

  1.3.1, 3.3.2

• Currency and language switchers as <a> tags with bad text

  Switchers often render as image-only links or generic "click here".

  2.4.4

Concrete code fixes for PrestaShop

Below are copy-paste fixes for the most common PrestaShop issues. They assume you have access to your theme code or the platform's custom-code injection panel. If you cannot edit code directly, share these snippets with whoever maintains the site — every one of them is a ten-minute change.

{* themes/classic/modules/ps_languages/views/templates/hook/ps_languages.tpl *}
<select aria-label="{l s='Choose language' d='Modules.Languages.Shop'}">
  ...
</select>

Tools and plugins worth installing first

• Classic theme as baseline

• Disable any one-page checkout module before audit

How to scan a PrestaShop site without missing anything

Automated scanners catch about 30–40% of WCAG issues; the rest need manual review. The good news is that the 30–40% includes the most expensive issues to remediate after the fact, so an automated scan is the cheapest way to get unstuck. Run one before you change a line of theme code.

• Audit / and /index.php?controller=cart explicitly