Norway’s regulation on universal design of ICT requires websites aimed at the public to meet WCAG level A and AA, 35 success criteria, and it draws no line at company size or country of registration. The Authority for Universal Design of ICT enforces it, and it can order fixes and back the order with a running fine.
The rule that catches people
Most countries aim their accessibility law at the public sector or at large companies. Norway aims it at almost every business whose website is an important way it reaches Norwegian customers. There is no small-business exemption and no carve-out for a shop run from abroad.
For an online shop the storefront is the business, so the scope test is met before you finish reading it. The longer explanation of the rule, free and with no service attached, is Norway’s accessibility rules. Read that first.
Who this is for
This is for you if
- You run a webshop or a booking site aimed at Norwegian consumers.
- You are about to launch into Norway and want the accessibility side checked before you do.
- You have had a complaint, or seen the regulator's name, and want to know where you stand.
- You use a template or page builder and have no idea whether what it produced is compliant.
Do not buy this if
- Your site is an internal tool for a closed group of staff. The rule is about solutions aimed at the general public.
- You sell only to businesses through account managers and contracts, with no public self-service channel.
- You want someone to certify you compliant. We produce findings against the published criteria, not an assurance.
- You are already in correspondence with uutilsynet about a decision. At that point you want a Norwegian lawyer.
What we check
The review runs against a fixed list built from the success criteria the regulation adopts, tested the way the regulator tests them rather than from an automated score alone. The main headings:
- Keyboard operation
- Every step from landing page to paid order completed with the keyboard alone, including custom dropdowns, date pickers and the payment step.
- Screen reader path
- The same journey with a screen reader running: are headings, labels, buttons and error messages announced, and in an order that makes sense.
- Contrast and colour
- Text, prices, delivery information and error states measured against the 4.5 to 1 AA threshold, and a check that nothing essential is carried by colour alone.
- Text alternatives
- Product images, size charts, icons and infographics that carry meaning, and whether a non-sighted customer receives that meaning.
- Forms and errors
- Real labels rather than placeholder text, error messages in words, and validation a screen reader can follow.
- Overlays and focus
- Cookie banners, newsletter popups and chat widgets, and whether the keyboard can get past them to the site behind.
- Structure and zoom
- Heading order, page language, reflow at 200 percent zoom, and orientation lock on mobile.
How it runs
- 01
You send the shop
The public storefront, and a note on which flows matter most: the product page, the cart, the checkout, the returns form.
- 02
We test it and screenshot everything
Automated checks first to sweep the obvious, then the keyboard walk and the screen reader walk by hand, which is where the findings that matter come from.
- 03
You get a written review
Every finding with the success criterion it fails, the regulation's own wording, a screenshot, and the specific change that resolves it. Ordered by how exposed each one leaves you.
- 04
We talk it through
A call to go over the list with whoever will do the fixes, and to separate the quick CSS-level changes from the ones that need a developer.
Turnaround is about a week from the point we have access to everything. A re-check once the fixes are in is quoted separately, and it costs less than the first review.
What it costs
Fixed before we start. A single-template storefront with one checkout sits at the low end. What moves it up is the number of distinct page templates, a multi-step or third-party checkout, a separate mobile app, and any custom interactive component that has to be tested on its own. You get the figure before you commit.
For comparison, a specialist accessibility consultancy bills a full audit at several times this. It is cheaper here because it is a compliance review against the published criteria for a storefront, not a line-by-line audit of an entire design system.
If you would rather have the fixes made than a list of them, say so when you write. We can also implement the changes ourselves, alt text, contrast, ARIA labelling, form labels and the keyboard-order fixes that come up most often, quoted as an addition to the review once we know what the findings actually are.
This is not legal advice
We are not lawyers and this review is not a legal opinion. It is a careful, evidenced comparison between what your site does and what the regulation and the regulator have published about what they require.
That is enough for most shops, because most failures are not close calls. They are a checkout that needs a mouse, or grey-on-white error text nobody can read. Where a finding really is arguable, the review says so, and that is the point at which we tell you to get a Norwegian lawyer.
The combined web compliance review
This review, the sale price and marketing review and a Norwegian data protection check overlap heavily in the shop-walking. Bought together as one Norwegian web compliance review they cost less than the sum, because a good deal of the work is the same journey through the same checkout looked at through three lenses. Ask for the combined quote if more than one applies to you.
Where the rules are
Check it yourself
uutilsynet, regelverk og krav is the regulator’s own page on the WCAG level A and AA requirement, the success criteria that apply, and the exemptions.
Forskrift om universell utforming av IKT-løsninger is the regulation itself, including the scope test and the fact that it binds private business.
uutilsynet is where the authority’s monitoring work and its enforcement decisions are published.
If the shop clears your own checks against the criteria, you have saved the fee, and we would rather that than the alternative. The free explanation walks through how to run those checks.
Send us the storefront
A link to what a Norwegian customer sees, from the landing page to the checkout. We will tell you whether there is anything worth reviewing and quote a fixed price before we start.