Accessibility Statement
At The Perfume Shop, we believe that all our customers should be able to have an easy, enjoyable and accessible experience when they are shopping with us, whether in our physical stores, on our website or on our mobile applications. By changing how we work and by partnering with third party experts, we aim to give our customers the tools they need to enjoy a frictionless and inclusive online shopping experience. We are delighted that this will help more of our customers enjoy exploring the world of perfume and find their perfect scent in a way that best suits their needs.
This Accessibility Statement outlines the measures we have implemented to comply with applicable law and reaffirms our ongoing commitment to improving accessibility.
Our Physical Accessibility
Our physical stores are designed to accommodate all customers, featuring wide aisles, clear signage and barrier-free access.
We provide assistance to customers who require additional support, including personal guidance and the welcome use of assistance dogs.
Our Customer Service
Our customer service team is trained to assist customers with disabilities. We offer multiple communication channels, such as phone, email and live chat, which are accessible to everyone.
We have implemented a feedback mechanism that allows customers to report accessibility issues and suggest improvements.
Our Digital Accessibility
We have taken measures to make our website (theperfumeshop.com) and mobile application accessible to individuals with different types of disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor and cognitive impairments. These measures include implementing a third-party tool called AssistMe.
AssistMe can be accessed using the icon (pictured below) that appears on the right-hand side of our logo at the top of The Perfume Shop website. You can also access it by clicking on “Accessibility” in the “Help” menu of our site-wide footer.
The AssistMe tool is designed to make websites more accessible for individuals with disabilities. Its key features include (but are not limited to):
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Screen Reader: Reads text, descriptions, and navigation elements aloud, allowing users to understand content without reading.
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Contrast+: Improves readability by inverting colour schemes, applying dark mode, or using a lighter colour scheme.
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Highlight links: Visually highlights hyperlinks to help users easily identify clickable elements.
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Larger text: Increases font size to improve readability for users who require larger text.
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Pause Animations: Disables all on-screen animations, which is useful for users who are sensitive to motion or distractions.
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Text Spacing: Adjusts line spacing to enhance text clarity and readability.
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More Readable Fonts: Offers specially designed fonts to improve readability for users with dyslexia and reading difficulties.
These features enable users to personalise their online experience, ensuring optimal accessibility and ease of use of our website.
Find out more about Assist Me by visiting this page:
https://www.theperfumeshop.com/accessibility-tool
European Accessibility Act and the European Union (Accessibility Requirements of Products and Services) Regulations 2023
As part of the European Accessibility Act which has been implemented into Irish law through the European Union (Accessibility Requirements of Products and Services) Regulations 2023 and comes into effect on 28th June 2025, we have been and continue to work towards achieving WCAG 2.2 AA compliance across our UK and Republic of Ireland website and mobile applications.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA are the latest set of guidelines issued by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
For detailed information regarding WCAG 2.2 AA, visit the WAI website:
https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/
How we are working towards WCAG 2.2 AA compliance
We are working towards achieving WCAG 2.2 AA compliance and are currently partially compliant. Below are the methods we’re using to achieve compliance:
Our video content
Video content on our website and mobile app is hosted by one of two companies, YouTube and iSiteTV. YouTube already provides the necessary in-video accessibility tools to achieve WCAG 2.2 compliance, most importantly, their inclusion of automatic closed captions (commonly known as subtitles). We are working with our partners at iSiteTV to add automatic closed caption functionality to their media player and they aim to achieve this by July 2025.
Our design teams
Our online (web) and offline (store) design teams create all our store and website assets, including digital window displays, promotional banners, customer emails, short video clips and assets used in our digital marketing activities.
Our design teams have received training regarding online & offline accessibility, the impact of best practice on the customer and key guidelines that should be followed to ensure accessibility compliance is permanently integrated in our design processes.
Our Developers
Our developers are working to recode pages and components across our website and change development practices to ensure that the code meets requirements for accessibility compliance. The key areas of focus are:
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Applying Semantic HTML to clearly tag HTML elements that accurately reflect their meaning or function to help screen readers and other assistive touch technologies to understand the page content and structure.
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Correcting the heading structure across all pages to organise them in a way that makes sense, is easy to follow and easy to navigate.
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Ensuring keyboard accessibility to allow visitors to navigate the website using the tab key and ensure focus indicators are visible.
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Adding alt text for images to provide a descriptive alternative for all images that can be read aloud by screen readers.
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Ensuring forms are accessible, easy to follow, easy to understand and are clearly labelled.
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Ensuring colour contrast ratios are sufficient between text and background colours to make content clearly readable for visitors with visual impairments.
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Ensuring content is responsive and can easily adapt to different screen sizes and devices.
All developments are following up by accessibility audits by an independent third-party specialist company.
Our accessibility audit partnership
We have partnered with a third-party accessibility audit specialist company, to conduct full audits of our website and our iOS and Android apps.
These audits aim to identify all remaining elements that don't meet accessibility requirements, from which we can form an action plan to complete the outstanding issues.
Our mobile app plan
The accessibility audits for our iOS and Android apps for the UK and Republic of Ireland highlighted all areas within our apps that do not currently meet WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines.
These elements are focused on the following areas:
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Adding alt text for images to provide a descriptive alternative for all images that can be read aloud by screen readers to assist those who cannot see.
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Ensuring colour contrast ratios are sufficient between text and background colours to make content clearly readable for visitors with visual impairments. At least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
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Adding captions and transcripts to all in-app video content to make it accessible to users who have hearing difficulties.
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Using clear visual indicators to convey information, such as outlines or patterns, to help users with colour blindness.
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Ensuring keyboard accessibility including navigation, form submissions, and other actions.
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Ensuring sufficient touch target size for all interactive elements to accommodate users with motor skill limitations.
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Ensuring consistent layout and navigation to make it easier for users to understand and navigate the app.
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Supporting multiple input methods such as voice commands and switch controls, to cater to users with different physical abilities.
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Using clear labels and instructions for all interactive elements and provide helpful instructions where needed.
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Using consistent language and terminology to avoid confusion.
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Ensuring predictable behaviour across the app to minimise unexpected or confusing actions.
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Ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies Design the app to be compatible with a wide range of assistive technologies, such as screen readers (e.g. VoiceOver on iOS, TalkBack on Android).
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Using Semantic HTML and ARIA roles to provide structure and meaning to the app's content.
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Implementing proper error handling to guide users and prevent them from getting stuck in their journey.
Our website plan
The online accessibility audits for our UK and Republic of Ireland websites are still in progress. Once we receive the results, this section will be updated to show the areas where we are not meeting WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines.
Useful Tools for your device
There are tools available on your device that can assist with your accessibility needs. The My Computer My Way service, provided by Ability Net provides accessibility advice that is relevant to your area of need, condition, symptom or operating system. You can visit them here:
https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/
Our Commitment
Continuous Improvement: We regularly review and improve our accessibility measures to meet evolving customer needs and comply with regulatory requirements. Dedicated responsibilities have been assigned across various work streams.
Collaboration: We engage with accessibility experts and organisations representing individuals with disabilities to continuously improve our services.
Transparency: We publish this Accessibility Statement on our website and actively invite customers to share their experiences and feedback
Contact Us
If you or a loved one have any questions or concerns about our accessibility measures, you can contact us by calling our Customer Service Team:
Alternatively, you can email them at:
Or write to us at:
The Perfume Shop, Customer Service Team,
Cypress House,
The Gateway Centre,
Coronation Road,
Cressex Business Park,
High Wycombe, HP12 3SU
Your feedback will be received gratefully, taken seriously and any online issues raised will be added to our Roadmap and fixed at the earliest convenience.
This statement was last reviewed and updated on: 7th July 2025