Case study · Independent project · 2026
Auditing an online pet store for accessibility
I audited the home page of zooplus.pl, a large pet e-commerce store, against WCAG 2.1 AA. I found 31 issues, 6 of them critical, and traced most of them back to a handful of design patterns that can be fixed once.
This is a non-commercial demonstration audit. I did it independently as the final project of my certified WCAG auditor course; zooplus did not commission it.
Why this audit
Since June 2025, Polish law implementing the European Accessibility Act has required many online stores to be accessible. This audit was the final project of my 160-hour certified WCAG auditor course, done entirely on my own. I chose zooplus.pl for a personal reason: I love animals and shop there myself, so I wanted to know how well the store serves customers with disabilities.
The result is clear: the site fails several Level A criteria, the most basic ones, so it does not comply with the law, however many AA criteria it meets.
31
issues found
6
critical
12 of 37
applicable criteria not met
How I ran it
- Scope: the home page, every module from the top bar to the footer.
- Manual testing: keyboard-only navigation and the NVDA screen reader, on two Windows 11 laptops in Chrome.
- Automated checks: WAVE, Silktide and HeadingsMap, to catch what manual testing might miss.
- Severity scale: 3 = critical, blocks a key task; 2 = serious, forces a workaround; 1 = needs fixing, breaks a criterion without blocking use.
- For each issue: a description, the WCAG criterion, severity, a screenshot or code snippet, and a concrete recommendation.
What blocks real users
The 6 critical issues stop people from completing basic tasks:
| # | Issue | Who it blocks |
|---|---|---|
| 001 Critical | No skip link, so every page starts with the full navigation | Keyboard and screen reader users |
| 003 Critical | The "Mój zooplus" account menu can't be opened and doesn't announce its state | Screen reader users |
| 017 Critical | Promo banners appear 5 times in the tab order and are announced as "empty" or "graphic without label" | Keyboard and screen reader users |
| 019 Critical | Category tiles such as "Cooling mats" are announced only as "clickable graphic without label" | Screen reader users |
| 026 Critical | The newsletter form isn't linked to the banner that explains its purpose and benefits | Screen reader users |
| 028 Critical | Required fields aren't marked, and the Subscribe button stays disabled with no explanation | Screen reader users, people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities |
The most common serious issues were invisible keyboard focus, link texts that don't say where they lead, and screen reader labels in English, or even German, on a Polish site.
A designer's lens: fix patterns, not single bugs
Looking at the 31 issues as a product designer, I saw that most were not one-off bugs. They repeated the same few patterns across the page, so each pattern can be fixed once in the design system.
24 of 31 issues come from 6 patterns that a design system can fix once; the other 7 are single issues.
- Invisible keyboard focus5 issuesFix: One focus style for every element
- Cards and banners as links5 issuesFix: One link per card, with a clear name
- Menus and navigation5 issuesFix: One menu pattern: state, order, keys
- Labels in English5 issuesFix: Polish labels, reviewed with the copy
- Newsletter form3 issuesFix: Field: label, required mark, error
- Inconsistent link styles1 issueFix: Consistent link styles
- Other single issues7 issuesFix: Fixed one by one
For example, invisible focus appeared on the slider, banners, promo tiles and category tiles (issues 007, 010, 015, 016, 018). One clearly visible focus style, defined once as a design token, fixes all five.
What I'd hand the product team
An audit report lists issues one by one. A product team needs to know where to start. I would hand over:
- The full report with all 31 issues, each with a criterion, severity, evidence and a fix.
- A fix order: the 6 critical issues first, then the component patterns above, because each one closes several issues at once.
- Design system changes: one focus style, a card pattern, a form field pattern and consistent link styles.
- A content rule: every accessible label is written in Polish and reviewed with the rest of the copy.
Read the full audit report (PDF, Polish) – opens a PDF document in a new tab
What I learned
As a regular customer, I had few complaints about zooplus.pl. Not everything was perfect UX, but I could browse the offer and order what I needed without trouble. The audit showed me how hard the same basic shopping can be for people with disabilities. That is why I'm glad accessibility is becoming a design requirement, not a nice-to-have.