This Vitamin A Swim accessibility audit and WCAG 2.1 AA remediation covered a designer swimwear store where look and fit drive every decision. Vitamin A is a United States brand known for sustainable, design-led swimwear and resort wear, sold online across a range of styles, sizes and colours.
A swimwear store leans heavily on imagery and on choosing the right style, size and colour - all through interactive controls. For a shopper using a screen reader or a keyboard, whether those product options, the cart and the checkout are accessible is what decides if they can actually buy.
Table of Contents
Why accessibility is critical for an online store
E-commerce is one of the most active areas of United States web-accessibility law. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III, an online store is treated as a place of public accommodation, and courts and settlements have repeatedly pointed to WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the working standard for an accessible shop. For a design-led retailer the risk is real: product options that a screen reader cannot read, or a checkout that traps keyboard focus, quietly turn away customers - including disabled shoppers who simply wanted to buy a suit.
Scope and standard
Our Vitamin A Swim accessibility audit assessed the store against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, mapped to ADA Title III, across the journeys that matter for a swimwear retailer: the product and lookbook pages, the size, colour and style pickers, the cart and checkout, the account area, and search and filtering.
How we ran the Vitamin A Swim accessibility audit
- Screen-reader testing with JAWS and NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, and TalkBack on Android
- Automated audits with Deque axe, Google Lighthouse and WAVE
- Keyboard-only operation of every step, with attention to focus order and a clearly visible focus indicator
- Colour-contrast analysis, plus 400% zoom and reflow testing for low-vision users
What accessibility means on each part of the store
Because Vitamin A Swim is built around browsing and buying rather than reading, our Vitamin A Swim accessibility audit focused on the controls a swimwear store depends on:
- Size, colour and style pickers need names and states that assistive technology can read, so a screen-reader user knows what is selected, not just what looks highlighted.
- Product and lookbook imagery needs meaningful alternative text, since style and fit are conveyed visually and must also be available in text.
- The cart and checkout need labelled fields, announced errors and a focus order that never traps the keyboard, because this is where the sale is completed.
- Search and filtering need operable controls and announced results, so a shopper can narrow by size or style without a mouse.
- The account and order pages need accessible controls, sufficient colour contrast, visible focus and clean reflow at high zoom.
Outcome
This Vitamin A Swim accessibility audit, combining manual and automated testing with remediation, brought the store's product options, cart and checkout into line with WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA Title III expectations, so a shopper using a screen reader or a keyboard can choose a style, pick a size and check out without barriers. Because each journey ends in a real order, every fix was verified with assistive technology rather than assumed from an automated pass.