An accessible website is one that people with disabilities can use, whether they navigate with a screen reader, keyboard, or voice commands. For an ecommerce brand, it’s both a legal requirement in a growing number of markets and a way to reach customers you may be currently alienating.
Creating an accessible website can make your store work better for everyone. The same labelled buttons and logical structure that a screen reader needs also make a page easier to search and faster to navigate on a phone.
That’s the curb-cut effect: a change made for disabled people that ends up serving everyone. This guide covers what web accessibility involves, the standards and laws that apply to ecommerce, and how to audit your store for problems.
Table of contents
- What is website accessibility?
- Why is digital accessibility important for your online store?
- Who needs to ensure website accessibility?
- 4 principles of website accessibility
- Website accessibility checklist
- How to audit your website for accessibility
- How to fix accessibility issues (remediation)
- Accessibility widgets and overlays
- How to write a website accessibility statement
- Examples of accessible websites
- Website accessibility tools
- Website accessibility FAQ
What is website accessibility?
The concept of website accessibility refers to the creation of websites and online tools that people with disabilities can use. According to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative, a truly accessible website makes sure that all users can perceive, understand, navigate, interact with, and contribute to the web.
The W3C, a body that sets accessibility standards for the web, sorts online accessibility barriers into five broad groups: visual, auditory, physical, speech, and cognitive and learning.
The organization’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), now in version 2.2, define what an accessible website does. The guidelines run across three conformance levels: A, AA, AAA.
Level AA is the one that carries legal weight. Presently, it’s the level the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the European Accessibility Act (EAA) both target, based on WCAG 2.1 standards.
Why is digital accessibility important for your online store?
Digital accessibility is important for a number of reasons including:
Inclusivity
An estimated 1.3 billion people, about 16% of the world, live with a significant disability, according to the United Nations.
The principle of universal design is a way through—one storefront built for the full range of how people shop. Industrial designer Patricia Ann Moore, who helped shape the OXO Good Grips line of products that take less dexterity, makes the case for it as a way to sell more products to more people. When you run an online storefront where a screen reader can parse or includes easy-to-read captions, you’re opening the door for customers.
Moore aimed to give people what she called “the dignity of life by design”—products that meet a customer’s needs as they are, she says in a Drexel University podcast. In Level Access’s 2025–26 survey, 91% said digital accessibility improves the user experience.
Legal compliance and lawsuit risk
The ADA predates the web, but courts have heard cases alleging violations of Title III—the section covering “public accommodations”—regarding online stores alongside physical ones. There’s no technical standard codified for private businesses, however, WCAG 2.1 Level AA has been referenced as a benchmark.
In 2025, plaintiffs filed 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits in US federal court, up 27% from the previous year, according to legal firm Seyfarth Shaw. And that’s just federal filings, which are separate from demand letters and state-court cases.
In November 2025, a legally blind shopper filed a class action against HP in New York federal court. According to Top Class Actions, he alleged the company’s site had missing alt text, broken ARIA references, and unlabeled buttons when he tried to navigate product configuration pages using a screen reader. The complaint notes HP had already been sued over similar barriers in 2020.
If you’re selling into Europe, the EAA applies to any business serving EU consumers regardless of where it’s based.
The laws that apply to you can depend on where your customers are, and also on where you sell.
| Law | Where does it apply? | Who does it apply to? | Technical bar |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADA (Title III) | United States | Public facing businesses and nonprofits | WCAG 2.1 AA, though not codified |
| Section 508 | United States | Federal agencies | WCAG 2.0 AA |
| Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) | Ontario, Canada | Public sector bodies, and businesses with more than 50 employees | WCAG 2.0 AA |
| EAA | European Union | Businesses selling to or servicing EU customers online | EN 301 549, mapping to WCAG 2.1 AA. |
| Equality Act 2010 | United Kingdom | UK businesses selling to or serving customers online | WCAG 2.2 AA as best practice. |
SEO
An accessible website can also help your search rankings. A 2025 study of 10,000 sites by AccessibilityChecker.org, drawing on Semrush data, found that websites with higher accessibility scores averaged 23% more organic traffic, while accessible websites ranked for 27% more organic keywords.
But note these are simply correlations. More accessibility doesn’t guarantee an increase in traffic.
The bar is also low. More than 70% of those 10,000 sites failed to meet accessibility guidelines.
Who needs to focus on making websites accessible?
Any business that sells or serves the public online should keep accessibility in mind. For legal exposure, for user experience, and for the customers an inaccessible site may turn away.
US courts have seen cases alleging ADA Title III violations involving the websites of private businesses, even though no technical standard is yet written into the law for them. Section 508 and the 2024 Title II supplement do name specific web requirements, but those bind government agencies rather than businesses.
In the first half of 2025, about 64% of digital accessibility lawsuits, including websites, mobile apps, and video content, targeted companies with less than $25 million in revenue, according to UsableNet. But that share is shrinking: 36% of sued companies cleared $25 million, up from 33% in 2024, as plaintiffs increasingly chase larger firms.
Sara Mote, creative director at Studio Mote, says accessibility is a legal issue that clients should consult their legal counsel about, but it’s also just good design.
“Certain designs are best practices not just for accessibility, but for the overall user experience, because there’s a lot of crossover,” she says.
4 principles of website accessibility
WCAG is built on four principles. To be considered accessible, your content has to be: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
1. Perceivable
Your website visitors should be able to take the information in regardless of which sense they’re using. At least 2.2 billion people worldwide live with a vision impairment, according to the World Health Organization. Many navigate the web through a screen reader like NVDA or JAWS on Windows, or VoiceOver on Apple devices, which can describe aloud what’s on a screen.
So, for instance, if a product photo has no alt text, a screen reader cannot provide its context to the user.
2. Operable
Some shoppers don’t and can’t use a mouse at all. People with physical disabilities may navigate by keyboard alone, by speech input, or with switch and sip-and-puff devices, and the W3C notes they “rely on keyboard support to activate functionality” on a page.
3. Understandable
There are two parts to this: predictability and reliability. For predictability, navigation should sit in the same place across pages, and buttons keep the same labels.
For readability, the W3C advises using the clearest, simplest language possible and spelling out unusual terms, idioms, or abbreviations.
4. Robust
The content should be compatible with different browsers, assistive technology, and other user agents. This includes non-standard buttons and input fields.
If any markup code is broken, the translation breaks with it. The W3C frames this as keeping markup reliable enough to be interpreted by current and future user tools. Close your tags, drop duplicate attributes inside a single element, and give every custom control a proper name and role so assistive tech can announce what it is.
Website accessibility checklist
The four principles above define what accessible means, while the practices below show you how to get there:
- Text alternatives. Give non-text content a text equivalent. That means alt text on images and icons, and labels on controls so they can be read aloud, enlarged, or sent to a braille device.
- Time-based media alternatives. Caption dialog and add audio description to videos. Transcribe audio-only media, clearly noting speaker changes.
- Adaptable content. Mark up structure properly, including headings, lists, and tables, with header cells distinguished from data cells, so content survives being reordered, resized, or read aloud.
- Distinguishable content. Use sufficient color contrast, resizable text, and audio controls. Pick a color-blind-safe palette so text prompts are readable for shoppers with color vision deficiency.
- Keyboard accessibility. Every function works from the keyboard.
- Avoidance of seizure triggers. Nothing flashes more than three times a second, and motion can be switched off.
- Navigable design. Include more than one way to find a page, such as a search function, sitemap, and breadcrumbs. Plus, a visible keyboard focus indicator and landmarks a screen reader can jump between.
- Multiple input modalities. Support touch, trackpad, mouse, and voice navigation, and size tap targets so they’re easy to hit.
- Readability. Write product descriptions and policy copy in plain language. Use short sentences, everyday words, and define any jargon or abbreviation on first use.
- Predictability. The controls and navigation should behave the same on every page, and no major changes without the shopper triggering it.
- Input assistance. Have clear labels, specific error messages, and a chance to review or undo before a form submits.
- Compatibility. Include a valid markup, plus a proper name, role, and value on custom controls, so current and future assistive technologies can interpret the page.
- Accessible downloadable files. PDFs, spreadsheets, and other downloads have to clear the same bar, including tagged structure, real selectable text rather than scanned images, and alt text on any visuals.
In the case of dynamic components included in a website, such as modals, live regions, and custom widgets, developers can use WAI-ARIA, the W3C specification designed to make scripted interfaces more accessible.
Tip: Read Shopify’s guide on how to create an ADA-compliant website.
How to audit your website for accessibility
1. Run an automated scan
Start with Google Lighthouse, which is built into Chrome’s DevTools. Use WAVE or Axe DevTools for a second pass. Run them on your highest-traffic templates, including home, collection, product, and cart pages.
But understand these scans may not be comprehensive. According to its Github description, the Axe engine catches only about 57% of WCAG issues automatically on average.
2. Do a keyboard-only test
Move through the store using only a keyboard. Use Tab to highlight elements going forward, Shift + Tab to go back, Enter to activate, and arrow keys inside menus.
Walk the full purchase path from home, collection, product, add to cart to checkout. The website test is whether you can complete a purchase without ever touching the mouse.
Watch for three failures:
- You can’t see where you are, because there’s no visible focus outline.
- You reach something you can’t operate like a dropdown that only opens on hover, or a slider with no key support.
- Your focus gets trapped in a popup with no keyboard way out.
Anything you can’t reach or finish by keyboard is a barrier for shoppers using their keyboard only.
3. Spot-check with a screen reader
You don’t need to install anything. Every major device ships with one: VoiceOver on Mac and iPhone, Narrator on Windows, TalkBack on Android. Turn it on, then close your eyes or look away from the screen.
Listen through a product page and the cart. Does the page still make sense when you can only hear it? Listen also for what it announces. For example, a product image should be described, not read out as an image or filename.
4. Check the color contrast
Paste your foreground and background colors into the WebAIM Contrast Checker to see whether it passes or fails.
Below are the Level AA thresholds you’re aiming for, per WebAIM:
- Normal text needs a ratio of at least 4.5:1.
- Large text needs a ratio of at least 3:1.
- Graphics or interface components like form input borders need at least a ratio of 3:1.
- Large text means roughly 24 pixels, or 18.66 pixels if it’s bold.
5. Decide when to bring in a professional
Escalate to a paid audit or consultant when any of these is true:
- You’re getting close to a deadline to comply with laws like the EAA
- You’ve received a demand letter or complaint
- You’re replatforming or redesigning
- Your own testing keeps surfacing issues you don’t know how to fix
WebAIM’s 2026 analysis of one million top home pages found an average of 56 accessibility errors per page, and more than 96% of them fell into six types:
| Failure type | Share of home pages |
|---|---|
| Low-contrast text | 83.9% |
| Missing image alt text | 53.1% |
| Missing form input labels | 51% |
| Empty links | 46.3% |
| Empty buttons | 30.6% |
| Missing document language | 13.5% |
Addressing these few issues could significantly increase accessibility across the web. Some of this you can handle inside Shopify without a developer. The admin lets you add alt text to product images directly, while the theme editor handles color and typography choices. Starting from an accessibility-minded theme like Dawn can lower the amount of issues before you begin.
“There’s a whole built-in toolkit with Shopify for some of the accessibility best practices,” says Studio Mote’s Sara.
How to fix accessibility issues (remediation)
Work audit findings in order of impact:
- Triage by severity. Sort findings by how badly they block a purchase, and put everything on the path to buying at the top of the list.
- Clear the six common failures first. Low contrast, missing alt text, unlabeled form fields, empty links, empty buttons, and missing page language. Fixes can be quick: adjust theme colors, write alt text, label inputs, set the website’s language.
- Fix what only a human found. Keyboard traps, broken focus order, and silent dynamic updates won’t show up on a scanner.
- Re-do every test. Re-run any scans, then re-walk the fixed flows by keyboard and screen reader.
- Add testing to your workflow. Every time you add an app, swap a theme, or launch a campaign, accessibility can regress. Test apps on a staging store before publishing, and audit regularly.
For steps 3 and 5, Shopify’s theme accessibility guide is a useful starting point:
- Cart drawers and modals should move focus to the drawer when it opens, keep keyboard focus trapped inside it, and close on Escape.
- Variant changes like price and availability have to be announced to screen readers. Use aria-live so selecting a sold-out size tells a blind shopper it’s sold out.
- Dropdown navigation needs aria-expanded to broadcast open/closed state, plus Enter to open and Escape to close.
- Sale prices should be marked up so a screen reader can tell the struck-through original from the current price.
- Touch targets on primary controls should be at least 44x44 pixels.
Accessibility widgets and overlays
Widgets and overlays are tools designed to make adjustments on top of a site’s existing code, like a toolbar shoppers can use to re-size text or switch on a high-contrast mode.
It’s best to take a cautious approach to such products. In April 2025, the FTC ordered overlay vendor accessiBe to pay $1 million over claims one of its widgets could make any website WCAG-compliant.
If you’re looking at any widgets or overlays, make sure:
- It can help as a supplement. Add extra user-facing controls like text sizing on top of a site that’s already been remediated, where you’re not relying on it for compliance.
- It should not replace remediation. Don’t rely on it as part of your compliance strategy or treat it as a substitute for fixing code. It may not shield you from legal action.
Check the current WCAG version and relevant regulations as you go, since they continue to change over time. And when compliance is on the line, it’s better to consult a lawyer.
How to write a website accessibility statement
An accessibility statement is a short page on your store that says where you stand on accessibility, which standard you’re working toward, what you’ve done, what you know still falls short, and how someone can reach you if they hit a barrier.
This statement is worthwhile for two reasons:
- A disabled shopper can tell you if they hit a barrier, especially if they know where to reach you.
- A dated statement showing a real, ongoing effort is evidence of good faith if a complaint ever lands.
Shopify, for example, has a public-facing accessibility statement that names WCAG 2.2 AA as its target, lists what it tests with, and offers the statement itself in alternative formats on request.
Work through the questions to draft your own statement:
- What’s your commitment? For starters, a plain line that you want the store usable by everyone, including people who rely on assistive technology.
- What’s the standard you’re targeting? Name it specifically. WCAG 2.2 Level AA is a good benchmark.
- What have you accomplished and what’s pending? Note the work completed and any known issues you’re still fixing, rather than claiming you’re fully compliant.
- How can customers reach you? Publish an email address, phone number, or form dedicated to accessibility feedback, so a barrier report reaches someone.
Once you’ve written your statement, publish it as a page on Shopify. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Pages and click Add page. Give it a clear title, paste in your content, and click Save.
Examples of accessible websites
ArmedAngels
When ArmedAngels replatformed on Shopify, accessibility was treated as a non-negotiable requirement. It’s one of their core principles, and improved accessibility shipped alongside the new checkout and navigation.
The brand makes a show of it, too. Their accessibility statement names the standards they work to: WCAG 2.1 AA, the European Accessibility Act, and EN 301 549 accessibility requirements, so shoppers and regulators can see the target.
Brooklinen
Bedding shop Brooklinen’s Shop Now button is white text on a navy background. If you sample those two colors, #FFFFFF on #293455, the WebAIM Contrast Checker calculates a contrast ratio of 12.23:1.
These colors comfortably past the 4.5:1 ratio that WCAG AA asks for and the 7:1 of Level AAA.
Website accessibility tools
At a glance, here’s how popular accessibility tools stack up:
| Tool | Type | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibly | Storefront widget (Shopify app) | $5 per month |
| Accessibility Spark | AI-powered widget (Shopify app) | $99.99 per month |
| SortSite | Standalone site scanner | $149 one-time purchase |
| WAVE | Evaluation suite | $500 one-time scan up to 20,000 pages |
| Axe DevTools | Developer browser extension | $60 per user per month |
| EqualWeb | AI widget | $39 per month, or $390 per year |
| DYNO Mapper | Sitemap and content audit platform | $49 per month |
Accessibly
Accessibly is an accessibility widget that installs through your Shopify admin and adds user-facing adjustment controls to your storefront, plus some background fixes. You get:
- Storefront controls shoppers can apply themselves, including text size, contrast, a reading line, and tooltips
- Background features like AI-generated image alt text
- In-depth analytics that track engagement and point to where to improve
- An accessibility-statement template
Price: Starts at $5 per month and includes a seven-day free trial.
Accessibility Spark
Accessibility Spark is an AI-driven accessibility widget that leans on automation and monitoring to cover areas including:
- AI-powered screen-reader and keyboard-navigation adjustments, applied automatically using image recognition
- Daily scanning for site changes, with monthly audit reports
- An accessibility certification and statement of compliance
- A customizable interface for color, display, and orientation
Price: Plans start at $99.99 per month with a five-day free trial.
SortSite
SortSite is a standalone website scanner from PowerMapper that crawls your site and reports issues. The tool runs around 1,300 rules per page and checks for:
- Accessibility against WCAG and Section 508
- Broken links and server errors
- Browser compatibility issues
- SEO problems, flagged against Google and Bing guidelines
- HTML and CSS validation
Price: There are three perpetual-license editions, priced per user, starting at $149. There’s a free 10-page online demo, and every purchase carries a 30-day money-back guarantee.
WAVE
WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools), from WebAIM, is a suite of evaluation tools that includes:
- A free online checker; enter a URL and see accessibility issues flagged directly on the page
- Free browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, handy for testing password-protected or dynamic pages
- A standalone API and testing engine you can build into your own infrastructure for bulk or continuous testing
- The Accessibility IMpact (AIM) Report, which pairs a site-wide automated AIM score with expert human testing
Price: The AIM Report costs $500 for a one-time scan of up to 20,000 pages, plus $100 for each additional 20,000.
Axe DevTools
Axe DevTools is a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge from Deque. The tool flags accessibility issues in real time with guidance on how to fix them. Across its tiers it has:
- Free automated, page-by-page testing in the browser
- AI-enhanced testing and intelligent guided tests
- Component-level testing so you can focus on specific parts of a page
- Export, save, and share reports with your team
Price: The base browser extension is free. The Pro tier runs $60 per user per month after a 14-day free trial.
EqualWeb
EqualWeb’s products are built around its Auto AI technology, which can apply automatic adjustments to your site. Across its products it has:
- An AI widget that has an interface comprised of 32 functions
- A Web Accessibility Monitor that scans your website and provides guidance on addressing any issues
- A crawler-based scanning tool and browser extension
- An ADA Managed Compliance plan that combines the use of AI and in-house expert remediation
Price: The Auto AI widget runs from $39 per month for sites up to 100 pages, or $390 per year, scaling up by site size, plus a seven-day free trial. Expert-managed remediation plans are quote-based.
DYNO Mapper
DYNO Mapper is a visual sitemap and content-audit platform with accessibility testing built in as one of its features. On the accessibility side it:
- Tests your website against published WCAG guidelines and shows results in real time
- Classifies findings as “known,” “likely,” or “potential” issues, so you can pinpoint what needs attention
- Runs accessibility testing within the same tool you’d use for sitemaps and content inventory
Price: Plans start at $49 per month, or $39 per month if billed annually. There’s also a 14-day free trial.
Website accessibility FAQ
What is accessibility on a website?
Web accessibility means designing a website that can be navigated by people with disabilities. It allows them to perceive content, understand, and interact with the website. An accessible website provides equal access for all.
Is website accessibility a legal requirement?
In many places, yes, though specific laws may depend on where your customers are located. In the US, courts have heard cases of alleged Americans with Disabilities Act violations covering ecommerce websites. Meanwhile, the EU’s European Accessibility Act and the UK’s Equality Act 2010 carry their own compliance requirements.
How can a website be accessible?
An accessible website is one where a customer can perceive content regardless of which sense they’re using, includes an interface that is operable to anyone, must be understandable, and it needs to be robust enough to be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
What is the difference between WCAG and ADA?
The ADA is a US law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities; it doesn’t name a technical standard for websites. WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, are a set of accessibility standards published by the World Wide Web Consortium. These standards are referenced by a number of laws internationally.
What are the ADA requirements for a website?
There are no official requirements, as the ADA doesn’t spell out web rules, but WCAG 2.1 Level AA has been referenced as a benchmark in court cases. Retailers with an online presence would be wise to comply with these guidelines and make their websites more accessible.
