Make Your Content Accessible in Publitas

Contents

1. Why accessibility matters
2. How to meet these requirements in Publitas
3. Accessibility compliance checklist (WCAG 2.1 AA)
4. Accessibility is a moving target, and we’re moving with it.

Why accessibility matters

As of June 28, 2025, digital content published in the EU must meet the European Accessibility Act (EAA). Similar laws exist globally, including the German BFSG
(Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the US. These laws are based on the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines, which define what makes digital content usable for people with disabilities.

This isn’t just a best practice — it’s a legal requirement. If your catalog includes product images, links, or visual content and these are not made accessible, your business may be at risk of non-compliance.

Publitas includes built-in accessibility features across all plans to help you meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards, and additional tools in Enterprise plans to help you scale faster.

How to meet these requirements in Publitas

• Ensure keyboard navigation

• Focus order of the content 

• Add alt text to images (relevant to Silver+)
• Use clear and descriptive text for links (relevant Gold+)

• Speed it up with Generative AI Alt text (Enterprise)

• Accessibility controls for animations (relevant to Silver+)

• Page transcription

• Speed it up with Generative AI Transcriptions (Enterprise)

Ensure keyboard navigation

Keyboard navigation is a core requirement of WCAG 2.1 AA because not all users can use a mouse or touchscreen. If your content can’t be fully navigated using just a keyboard (Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, etc.), it becomes inaccessible and non-compliant — meaning some users are blocked from interacting with your content entirely.

Publitas automatically supports keyboard navigation and logical focus order. No additional action is needed — but make sure interactive elements are placed in a sequence that makes sense visually and narratively. The order Publitas follows by default is from the reading direction, but based on your design it could be slightly different.

Focus order of the content 

You can set the focus order for keyboard navigation and navigation through screen-reader technology so that end-users access interactive hotspots in Publitas Reader in a predefined order.

Focus order applies to the content within a page of a publication, meaning your hotspots added in Publitas. You can rest assured that changes in the focus order do not impact the overall navigation within your publication, as navigation through the entire application, from the menu options through the content and switching to previous or next pages is set by default. 

Add alt text to images & slideshows (relevant to Silver+)

Alt text allows screen readers to describe what an image illustrates. You must add alt text to any image that conveys information; including product images, icons, and linked banners. When navigating through a publication, you can set alternative text to be read out by the screen-reader technology for image hotspots. 

To add alt text for image hotspots in Publitas directly:

• Click on an image

• In the right sidebar select alt text

• Add a short, descriptive phrase

To add alt text for slideshow hotspots in Publitas directly:

• Next to each image uploaded in the right sidebar, select the conversation icon for alt text.

• Add a short, descriptive phrase.

• It is key that alt text is added per image.

Tip: Leave alt text empty only if the image is purely decorative. Otherwise, omitting it may cause your publication to be non-compliant.

Speed it up with Generative AI Alt text (Enterprise)

In addition to manually adding the alt text, you can also leverage GenerativeAI to generate alt text for images within seconds, saving a lot of time in the process. 

👉 Learn more about AI-generated transcription

Use clear and descriptive text for links (relevant Gold+)

If you're using product hotspots, you can improve accessibility by automatically adding the product title as the link’s hover text (title attribute). This helps screen readers describe where the link leads, giving more context to visually impaired users.

To apply this:

1. Use products from your feed

2. When creating a hotspot, enable the setting: “Apply product title as link title.”

3. You can do this individually or in bulk using Smart Hotspots

This small addition ensures all your product links are more accessible and descriptive, helping shoppers navigate your content more easily.

Tip: This also improves SEO and click-through performance by using meaningful link titles.

👉 Learn how to apply product hotspots

Accessibility controls for animations (relevant to Silver+)

Animations can enhance visual engagement but must be used responsibly to remain accessible to all users. To meet WCAG 2.1 AA requirements, any animation that starts automatically and lasts more than five seconds must include a way for users to pause, stop, or hide it. This

In Publitas, you can enable Pause/Play controls for Animated content. Use this if your content is animated for over five seconds (including if it is looped) and is on autoplay.

 Best practices for accessible animations:

• Avoid auto-playing animations unless necessary

• Keep motion subtle and non-distracting

• Always provide controls for the user to stop or pause the motion

• Use alt text only if the animation conveys meaningful information (e.g. “Animated countdown timer for a limited offer”)

• Leave alt text blank if the animation is purely decorative

Page transcription

Publitas presents each page of your publication as an image, with additional interactive elements layered on top. To ensure users who rely on screen readers can understand the content and purpose of each page, you can add a transcription — a text-based description that is read aloud as the user navigates through the publication.

For publications created from a PDF, any existing text embedded in the file is automatically pulled into the Transcription Editor. However, this text may not always provide meaningful or structured descriptions suitable for screen reader users. For example, it may miss key visual context, layout cues, or product relationships.

For publications created from scratch (without a PDF), no transcription is present by default.

In both cases, you can use the Transcription Editor to write or adjust page-level descriptions. This acts as alt text for the entire page, offering essential context and improving accessibility compliance under WCAG 2.1 AA.

Speed it up with Generative AI Transcriptions (Enterprise)

To save time, you can use Publitas' Generative AI to automatically generate transcriptions for your pages, providing a quick and scalable way to improve accessibility. You can always review and fine-tune the output before publishing.

👉 Learn more about AI-generated transcription

Accessibility compliance checklist (WCAG 2.1 AA)

Before you publish your content, review these items to ensure your publication is accessible:

- [ ] Link text clearly describes purpose (e.g. “View product details” instead of “Click here”) 

- [ ] Focus order is logical and intuitive (navigating via Tab moves through content in the expected sequence)

- [ ] Sufficient contrast between text and background 

- [ ] Alt text added to all non-decorative images  

- [ ] No time-based content or animations auto-play for over 5 seconds without Pause/Stop control

- [ ] Page-level transcription is provided to describe key content (for publications rendered as images)

- [ ] Consistent heading structure (e.g. H1 → H2 → H3, not random styling)

- [ ] Avoid placing important text inside images

Accessibility is a moving target, and we’re moving with it.

While Publitas currently meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards, we're actively working toward WCAG 2.2 AA compliance by the end of 2025. As accessibility standards evolve, so do we — continuing to improve our platform to support inclusive, compliant content for all users.