From Package to Pixel: Why Beauty Brands Need Accessible Design Across Every Touchpoint

Great accessible packaging means nothing if your customers can't buy it.

A beauty brand can invest in legible typography, high-contrast labels, and intuitive bottle designs—all the hallmarks of thoughtful accessible packaging—only to lose the sale because their website's checkout form doesn't work with a keyboard. The disconnect between physical and digital accessible design isn't just a missed opportunity. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Selfnamed recently published an excellent piece on why accessible packaging and digital design should align. They're right. Design consistency across physical and digital experiences builds trust and expands market reach. But the article, like much content written from a design-first perspective, stops short of the technical reality that makes or breaks accessibility in practice.

This article picks up where that conversation leaves off. If you're a beauty founder who's invested in accessible packaging, here's what you need to know about making your digital presence match that commitment, and why the stakes are higher than brand consistency alone.

The Legal Reality Design Articles Don't Mention

In 2023, over 4,605 federal ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed in the United States. E-commerce sites—particularly beauty, fashion, and retail—made up the majority of those cases. As we've covered in our analysis of why online retailers are prime targets for accessibility lawsuits, beauty brands face a perfect storm of legal vulnerability: high transaction volumes, constantly changing product catalogs, and a customer base that skews toward visually-driven content.

The European Accessibility Act takes full effect on June 28, 2025, extending accessibility requirements to private-sector e-commerce for the first time. Unlike previous EU directives that targeted only public sector websites, the EAA applies to any business selling to EU consumers—regardless of where that business is headquartered. If you're shipping skincare to Berlin or lipstick to Paris, you're covered.

Most ADA website accessibility cases settle between $5,000 and $20,000, though complex cases involving large e-commerce platforms can reach six figures. But the settlement is just the beginning. As our guide to preventing e-commerce ADA compliance lawsuits explains, emergency remediation work costs two to three times the price of proactive fixes. Development teams drop planned features to address legal demands. Public lawsuit filings damage brand reputation, particularly among disability communities and socially conscious consumers who research company accessibility practices before purchasing.

The irony? Brands that invest in accessible packaging often do so because they genuinely care about inclusion. They understand that design is more powerful when it welcomes everyone. Yet that same commitment rarely extends to the digital experience—not because founders don't care, but because they don't know what "accessible website" actually means in technical terms.

What "Accessible Digital Design" Actually Requires

When designers talk about accessible design, they often mean visual principles: contrast, hierarchy, typography, whitespace. These matter. But digital accessibility lives in the code. Your website can be visually stunning and still completely inaccessible if the underlying HTML structure doesn't support assistive technologies.

WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the standard referenced by most accessibility laws globally, including U.S. DOJ guidance and the European Accessibility Act. It includes 86 success criteria organized around four principles—Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust—that define specific, testable accessibility requirements.

Let's translate that into what it means for a beauty e-commerce site.

Images Need Real Alt Text

Missing or generic alt text on product images is the single most common accessibility failure in e-commerce. According to WebAIM's analysis of the top million home pages, missing alternative text appears on over 50% of sites. For beauty brands, where product photography is everything, this is a critical gap.

As we explain in our complete guide to alt text best practices, effective alt text describes the meaningful content of an image in context. For a product photo, that means more than "product image" or the filename. It means "Blue cotton crew neck t-shirt" or "Rose gold eyeshadow palette with 12 matte and shimmer shades."

The same image might need different alt text depending on where it appears. On a product page, describe what the customer needs to know to make a purchase decision. In a tutorial, describe what's being demonstrated. On social content, describe the visual impact that makes the image compelling.

This directly parallels the accessible packaging principle of clear labeling—just in a different medium. A bottle that says "moisturizer" tells you less than one that says "daily hydrating face cream with hyaluronic acid." Alt text works the same way.

Color Contrast Is Non-Negotiable

Beauty brands love minimal aesthetics. Light gray text on white backgrounds, soft pastels, delicate typography—these choices can look elegant but often fail accessibility requirements.

WCAG requires specific contrast ratios: 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text at Level AA. Low contrast is the most common accessibility error, appearing on 81% of home pages according to the WebAIM Million study.

The fix isn't abandoning your brand aesthetic. It's being intentional about where and how you use low-contrast combinations. A decorative swirl can be light gray. Your "Add to Cart" button cannot.

This is where accessible packaging and digital accessible design align most naturally. The same contrast principles that make a product label readable on a crowded shelf make a website usable for someone with low vision. Brands like Fenty Beauty and Rhode—cited in Selfnamed's piece as examples of beautiful accessible design—succeed because their minimalist aesthetics are built on strong visual hierarchy, not despite it.

Forms Must Be Labeled and Keyboard-Accessible

Newsletter signups, search boxes, checkout forms, account creation—beauty e-commerce sites are full of form fields. Each one needs a proper <label> element that's programmatically associated with its input.

But labeling is just the start. Keyboard accessibility means every form field, button, and interactive element can be accessed and operated without a mouse. Tab should move forward through focusable elements. Enter should submit forms. Users should never get "trapped" in a modal they can't escape.

Why does this matter? Screen reader users navigate primarily by keyboard—they can't see where to click. Users with motor disabilities may use keyboards, switch devices, or other assistive technology that emulates keyboard input. Power users prefer keyboard shortcuts for efficiency. Anyone with a broken trackpad or RSI flare-up needs keyboard alternatives.

One TestParty client saw a 12% reduction in cart abandonment within two weeks just by making their payment form keyboard navigable. That's not a compliance metric. That's revenue.

Semantic HTML Structure Matters More Than Visual Design

Here's where digital accessible design diverges most sharply from packaging design. A product label's accessibility is inherent in its physical properties—the typography, the contrast, the texture. A website's accessibility depends on invisible code structure that may have nothing to do with how the page looks.

Screen readers don't "see" your website. They read the HTML structure. If your heading hierarchy is broken—jumping from H1 to H4, or using styled <div> elements instead of actual heading tags—screen reader users can't navigate your content efficiently. If your buttons are built with <div onclick> instead of <button> elements, they may not work with assistive technology at all.

As our guide to WCAG conformance levels explains, Level A criteria represent the minimum accessibility threshold. Failure at this level creates fundamental barriers that completely block access for some users. Semantic HTML structure is foundational—you can't achieve accessibility without it, no matter how beautiful your visual design.

The Business Case Beyond Compliance

Compliance is the floor, not the ceiling. The business case for accessible design extends far beyond avoiding lawsuits.

People with disabilities represent one of the largest untapped markets in today's economy: $8 trillion in annual disposable income globally, expanding to $13 trillion when including families and friends. In the U.S., the purchasing power of working-age adults with disabilities is approximately $490 billion per year—similar to other significant market segments like African Americans ($501 billion) and Hispanics ($582 billion).

Yet 97% of websites remain inaccessible, pushing these customers away. As we detail in the business case for digital accessibility, the ROI is compelling:

• Tesco invested £35,000 in accessibility improvements and saw online sales jump to £13 million annually
• Companies with strong accessibility programs see 28% higher revenue growth than competitors
• CNET added video transcripts and saw a 30% increase in Google search traffic
• Legal & General's SEO traffic surged by 50% after improving website accessibility

Accessible sites convert better because accessibility removes friction. Clear form labels reduce errors. Proper heading structure helps everyone scan content faster. Good alt text improves SEO. These aren't accommodations for a minority of users—they're better design for everyone.

Our analysis of accessibility ROI shows that most organizations see payback within 6-12 months through combined risk reduction and revenue improvement. E-commerce sites often see faster payback due to direct conversion impact.

Why Overlays Don't Work

If you've researched accessibility solutions, you've probably encountered overlay widgets—JavaScript tools that add an accessibility menu to your site, promising compliance with a single line of code.

They don't work. As we've covered extensively, overlay widgets cannot achieve WCAG conformance because they don't fix the underlying code problems. A screen reader doesn't care about a toolbar that offers to increase font size. It needs properly structured HTML, accurate alt text, and labeled form fields.

Worse, overlay providers have become lawsuit targets themselves. Plaintiffs specifically cite overlay widgets as evidence of cosmetic fixes rather than genuine accessibility. The National Federation of the Blind has issued statements condemning overlay products as harmful to users with disabilities.

Real accessibility requires source code remediation—fixing the actual HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that structure your site. This is the equivalent of what Selfnamed advocates in packaging design: addressing accessibility at the foundational level rather than applying quick fixes.

How to Align Your Packaging and Digital Accessible Design

If you've invested in accessible packaging, extending that commitment to digital is both easier and harder than you might think. Easier because you already understand the principles—clarity, hierarchy, consistency, intentionality. Harder because the technical implementation requires specialized knowledge.

Here's a practical framework:

1. Audit Your Current State

Before you can fix accessibility issues, you need to know where they are. Automated scanning tools can identify the majority of technical violations—missing alt text, contrast failures, unlabeled form fields—across your entire site. Manual testing with screen readers and keyboard-only navigation reveals issues automation misses.

Our guide to e-commerce accessibility frequently asked questions covers what to expect from a comprehensive audit, including typical costs and timelines for sites of different sizes.

2. Prioritize by Revenue Impact

Not all accessibility fixes are equal. Start with your checkout flow—even if product pages have more violations—because that's where accessibility directly blocks revenue. Then work outward: navigation, search, product filtering, account management.

As we explain in the $18 trillion question, your first 30 days should focus on conversion-critical fixes that demonstrate immediate ROI. Show the value, then expand the program.

3. Build Accessibility into Your Workflow

Point-in-time audits become outdated the moment you publish new content. Beauty e-commerce sites change constantly—new products, seasonal promotions, influencer collaborations, sale events. Each change can introduce accessibility violations.

Modern automated accessibility testing integrates directly into development workflows, catching violations before they reach production. Content editors get immediate feedback when they upload images without alt text. Developers see accessibility issues flagged in pull requests alongside other code quality metrics.

4. Document Your Commitment

An accessibility statement communicates your organization's accessibility commitment, current conformance status, and how users can get help. Required by some regulations and expected by users with disabilities, a good accessibility statement demonstrates transparency and provides essential information for those who need accommodations.

This is the digital equivalent of including accessibility information on your packaging—showing customers that you've thought about their needs and providing a path to assistance when needed.

The Connection Point

Selfnamed makes a crucial point: accessible design isn't a constraint—it's a design language of its own. The minimalist aesthetics of brands like Byredo, Fenty Beauty, and Rhode owe much of their success to principles that overlap with accessibility: hierarchy, contrast, spacing, simplicity.

What's true for packaging is equally true for digital. The constraints of accessibility—requiring that text be readable, navigation be logical, interactive elements be operable—produce cleaner, more intentional design. Accessibility forces you to strip away complexity and focus on what matters.

But digital accessible design requires something packaging design doesn't: technical implementation in code. The gap between accessible packaging and accessible digital isn't a gap in design philosophy. It's a gap in technical capability that many beauty brands haven't yet bridged.

That's where the work begins.

Ready to Align Your Digital Accessibility with Your Brand Values?

If you've invested in accessible packaging, your digital presence should reflect the same commitment. TestParty provides AI-powered accessibility scanning and remediation specifically designed for e-commerce brands—identifying violations across your entire product catalog and providing source code fixes rather than cosmetic overlays.

Book a demo to see how TestParty can help you achieve WCAG 2.2 AA compliance while building a better experience for every customer.