Is your Shopify store accessible?

Shopify handles hosting and checkout security, but it does not automatically make your store accessible. Accessibility depends on your theme, the apps you've installed, and your own product content — all of which Shopify leaves up to you.

Where Shopify stores commonly fall short

• Product images without alt text — easy to skip when bulk-uploading products, but each one needs a description for screen reader users.
• Theme color schemes with low contrast — many free and paid themes use light gray text or low-contrast buttons that look fine visually but fail readability checks.
• Apps that inject inaccessible widgets— pop-ups, countdown timers, and review widgets from third-party apps are a frequent source of keyboard traps and missing labels, and you often can't fix their code directly.
• Custom checkout or cart drawer modifications — heavily customized themes sometimes break keyboard navigation through cart and checkout flows.

Why this matters for a store specifically

E-commerce sites are a common target for accessibility demand letters because a checkout flow that fails for a screen reader or keyboard-only user is a concrete, provable barrier to completing a purchase — not just a general browsing inconvenience.

Checking your store

A scan of your storefront will catch most of the issues above automatically — contrast, alt text, and labeling problems are exactly what automated tools are good at finding. It won't catch every issue introduced by a heavily customized theme, but it's a fast way to see where you stand.

Run a free scan of your storefront to check for these issues.