Accessibility at scale
Making Finland’s leading online grocery store accessible to everyone
- Work
- Accessibility at S‑kaupat
- Work done by
- SOK
- Partners
- Accenture Song
- Adventure Club
- Columbia Road
- Eficode
- Category
- Most accessible digital service
Introduction
S‑kaupat is Finland’s leading online grocery store, serving hundreds of thousands of customers yearly. We’re on a mission to create the world's most effortless online grocery store, for everyone.
Accessibility is a cornerstone of that mission. Online grocery shopping and home delivery can significantly help various groups with permanent, temporary or situational disabilities. Plus, an easy-to-use, technically well-implemented online service improves customer experience for all users.
To meet the requirements of the European Accessibility Act, we launched a major initiative in 2024–2025 to ensure both the S‑kaupat website and mobile app comply with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Today, shopping at S‑kaupat is more effortless than ever, and accessibility is now an integral part of our design and development processes.
“Accessibility is a cornerstone of our mission to create the world's most effortless online grocery store.”
Key outcomes
High compatibility with assistive technologies
The S-kaupat website and mobile app now work seamlessly with screen readers, keyboards, and other assistive tools.
Improved visual usability
Horizontal view and scaling options are enabled for better flexibility.
Automated accessibility checks
Web accessibility scans now return zero issues, and similar tools are being implemented for the mobile app.
Positive feedback
Customers and stakeholders have recognized the improvements and shared encouraging feedback.
Where we started
In 2023, accessibility work at S‑kaupat was sporadic and lacked a systematic approach. The introduction of the S Design System in 2022 improved some aspects, such as color contrast, but major gaps remained.
In September 2023, an accessibility audit was conducted on the S‑kaupat website and mobile application by our partner, Eficode. The audit further addressed that while parts of the services were already accessible and had good solutions in place, there were major issues to be addressed. This laid the foundation for our accessibility work.
Website
Critical issues
- Interactive elements were inaccessible via keyboard or screen reader.
- Form errors and tooltips lacked accessibility.
- Tracking views provided by delivery partners also had major accessibility gaps.
Serious issues
- Modal dialogs, focus management, product search filters, headings, and text alternatives required significant improvements.
Mobile app
Critical issues
- Keyboard navigation was insufficient.
- The reading and focus order of multiple elements was illogical, making the content impossible to understand using assistive technology.
Serious issues
- Screen reader compatibility, orientation handling, link and button accessibility, as well as support for device-level accessibility settings needed attention.
Our approach
The goal was to make S‑kaupat accessible by June 2025, when the European Accessibility Act came into effect. To achieve that, we identified that work should be done simultaneously on three fronts, and that both our systems and our team’s capabilities should be strengthened.
1.Maintain the achieved level of accessibility
2.Resolve existing accessibility debt
3.Embed accessibility into new features from the start
Applying S Group's Design System across the entire service
The Design System is accessible by design, which significantly improved overall accessibility when implemented consistently.
Dedicating part of the team to work on accessibility full-time
This squad also supported others in fixing and building accessibility in their respective areas.
Building accessibility competence
We provided training for all team member and targeted training for designers and developers and organized user testing sessions focused on accessibility. During 2025, an external UX designer from Columbia Road was contracted to support the team and build competence further.
Structuring the work
To ensure impact and steady process, the work was structured along the critical shopping path and around the accessibility audit.
Critical shopping path
We prioritized accessibility for the core shopping flow, creating and editing an order, to guarantee that the most essential user journey was fully accessible.
Audit-driven issue resolution and continuous testing
We systematically addressed the issues identified in the accessibility audit, fixing them based on their severity and impact.
At the same time, we carried out continuous internal testing throughout the project to validate improvements and catch new issues early. The testing was done in close collaboration between developers, designers and accessibilty specialists, using a variety of tools to discover issues, including different browsers, physical devices, simulators, emulators, screen readers, keyboards, automatic tools. When the first issues had been resolved, the feature was tested and retested until no large barriers were found.
Group wide collaboration
Our accessibility work was part of a major S Group–wide initiative. Every digital service invested significant effort to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards, resulting in improved accessibility across all digital services. This also ensured consistency, as customers now experience accessibility in a similar way across all digital S Group services.
The initiative was supported by shared resources: a dedicated accessibility expert and an active community of advocates who exchange knowledge and best practices, ensuring alignment and continuous improvement.
“Our accessibility work was part of a major S Group-wide initiative.”
The results
The accessibility of both the S‑kaupat website and mobile app have improved dramatically. Today, our services meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards, making online grocery shopping more effortless and inclusive for everyone.
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WCAG 2.1 AA compliance
Achieved across both web and mobile platforms.
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Accessibility statement
Published and regularly updated.
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Guidelines and checklists
In place for design, development, and content creation.
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0 issues
Returned from automated accessibility scans on the website since 19.6.2025, with similar tools being implemented for mobile.
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From bottom 50% to top 25%
In the WebAIM Million ranking.
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Positive feedback
From customers and stakeholders, reflecting the impact of these improvements.
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Knowledge shared across S Group
Enabling other services to adopt best practices and benefit from our solutions.
Beyond compliance, this work has created lasting change, as accessibility is now embedded in our workflows. And the impact doesn’t stop here. Our approach has shaped accessibility across the entire S Group, amplifying benefits far beyond S‑kaupat.
As a result Finland’s most popular online grocery store is now more accessible than ever, and we’re committed to keeping it that way.
“Thank you for creating such an accessible app that makes it easy for visually impaired people to do their grocery shopping on their phone and online! Tuesday marked 10 years since I’ve been ordering my groceries from you using the app.”
Highlights from the purchase flow
Improved keyboard navigation on the website
The video shows how delivery method and time slot selection work when using only a keyboard on the website.
All interactive elements now have a visible focus indicator, and skip links have been added to make it easier to skip repeated content.
Resizing text with the mobile app
Improved VoiceOver experience in the app
The video shows how the product card and cart work with VoiceOver on iPhone.
Headings are now marked correctly, and the reading and focus order have been greatly improved, making the experience smoother and easier to follow for screen reader users.
The team
The core team working on accessibility included both SOK employees and our partners.
SOK
- Jonne Hirvi
- Peter Hägg
- Ville Kautiainen
- Timo Koro
- Tapio Kukkonen
- Tran Le
- Nadiia Lisniak
- Teemu Merikoski
- Elina Niemelä
- Jari Nousiainen
- Heikki Pesonen
- Anna Saarikoski
- Niko Salomäki
- Mika Seppälä
- Maria Aspiala
- Jaana Kiesiläinen
- Jangbae Lee
- Nayoung Lee
- Linda Luymes
- Mikko Vierikko
- Matthew Hallonbacka
- Joonas Panttila
Partners
- Ida Aalto, Columbia Road
- Eeva Kallas, Accenture Song
- Elina Purho, Adventure Club
- Paula Välilä, Columbia Road
A warm thank you to everyone else contributing to accessibility work at S‑kaupat, S group co-operatives and the wider network for the collaboration and support.