For an ecommerce business, accessibility is more than a technical checklist. If customers cannot navigate your store, understand product information, use forms, or complete checkout because of accessibility barriers, you may be losing both customers and revenue.
That is why ADA compliance for ecommerce has become an important consideration for online retailers.
Whether your store runs on Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, or another ecommerce platform, accessibility depends on more than the platform itself. Your theme, content, images, third-party apps, custom code, navigation, and checkout experience all play a role.
In this guide, we’ll explain what ecommerce accessibility means, how WCAG fits into ADA compliance, common accessibility issues, and practical steps businesses can take to create a more accessible online store.
What Is ADA Compliance for Ecommerce?
ADA compliance for ecommerce generally refers to making an online store accessible to people with disabilities.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a U.S. civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. While the original law predates modern websites, accessibility has become increasingly relevant to businesses that provide goods and services online.
For ecommerce businesses, accessibility means customers should be able to:
- Navigate the website using a keyboard
- Understand product information
- Read text and identify important visual elements
- Use forms and interactive components
- Access videos and multimedia
- Complete purchases without unnecessary barriers
- Use assistive technologies such as screen readers
There is no single website feature that makes an ecommerce store accessible. Accessibility is an ongoing combination of design, content, development, testing, and maintenance.
ADA Compliance vs. WCAG: What’s the Difference?
One common question is:
Is WCAG the same as ADA compliance?
No.
The ADA is a U.S. law, while the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are technical accessibility guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
WCAG provides practical criteria that developers, designers, and content teams can use to evaluate website accessibility.
WCAG is built around four core principles, commonly known as POUR:
1. Perceivable
Website content should be available in ways users can perceive.
Examples include:
- Meaningful alt text for images
- Captions for videos
- Sufficient color contrast
- Text alternatives for important visual content
2. Operable
Users should be able to interact with website functionality.
For example:
- Keyboard navigation should work
- Menus should be accessible
- Buttons should be usable without a mouse
- Interactive elements should have visible focus states
3. Understandable
The website should be predictable and easy to understand.
This includes:
- Clear instructions
- Descriptive error messages
- Consistent navigation
- Understandable form fields
- Plain, readable content
4. Robust
Website code should work reliably with different browsers and assistive technologies.
This is particularly important for ecommerce because stores often combine themes, apps, custom JavaScript, third-party integrations, and dynamic components.
Why Ecommerce Accessibility Matters
Accessibility is not only about reducing legal risk.
It can directly affect the customer experience.
Imagine a shopper using a screen reader who cannot understand product options because the buttons have no accessible names. Or a customer navigating by keyboard who gets trapped inside a product popup.
The result is the same: the customer cannot complete the journey.
An accessible ecommerce website can help businesses:
- Reach a broader customer base
- Improve usability
- Create a better mobile experience
- Reduce barriers in the purchase journey
- Improve content clarity
- Strengthen overall website quality
- Reduce accessibility-related risk
Accessibility improvements can also benefit customers who do not identify as having a disability. Clear navigation, readable content, descriptive links, captions, and predictable forms generally create a better shopping experience for everyone.
Common Accessibility Problems on Ecommerce Websites
Many accessibility problems are relatively small from a development perspective but can create significant barriers for customers.
Here are some of the most common issues to check.
Missing or Poor Alt Text
Product images are essential to ecommerce.
If an image communicates important information, its alternative text should explain that information.
For example, instead of:
image123.jpg
use something meaningful such as:
Black leather men’s running shoes with white sole
Decorative images should not be unnecessarily announced by screen readers.
Poor Color Contrast
Text needs sufficient contrast against its background.
This becomes particularly important for:
- Product information
- Pricing
- Buttons
- Error messages
- Navigation
- Promotional banners
Don’t rely on color alone to communicate meaning.
For example, an ecommerce store should not communicate product availability only through a green or red indicator.
Inaccessible Navigation
Mega menus, dropdowns, filters, and mobile menus can create problems when they are designed only for mouse users.
An accessible navigation system should support keyboard interaction and provide clear focus states.
Missing Form Labels
Forms are everywhere in ecommerce:
- Newsletter signup
- Login
- Registration
- Contact forms
- Search
- Address forms
- Checkout
- B2B applications
A placeholder should not be treated as a replacement for a proper form label.
Poor Heading Structure
Headings provide structure for both users and assistive technologies.
A typical page should follow a logical hierarchy:
H1 → H2 → H3
For example:
- H1: Men’s Running Shoes
- H2: Featured Running Shoes
- H2: Choose Your Size
- H2: Frequently Asked Questions
- H3: Shipping Information
Using headings purely for visual styling can create an unnecessarily confusing page structure.
Keyboard Accessibility Problems
Try navigating the entire ecommerce journey without touching a mouse.
Can you:
- Open the menu?
- Search for a product?
- Select product variants?
- Open image galleries?
- Apply filters?
- Add an item to the cart?
- Open the cart?
- Complete checkout?
If not, the site likely has keyboard accessibility issues.
Shopify and ADA Compliance: What Merchants Need to Know
Shopify provides many accessibility features at the platform and theme level, but using Shopify does not automatically make every storefront accessible.
The merchant remains responsible for many elements that affect accessibility, including theme customization, product content, images, colors, navigation, third-party applications, and custom code.
This is especially important for stores with heavily customized themes.
Before launching or redesigning a Shopify store, review:
- Theme accessibility
- Product image alt text
- Heading hierarchy
- Navigation
- Keyboard interaction
- Forms
- Color contrast
- Custom JavaScript
- Third-party apps
- Dynamic components
If your Shopify store requires significant customization, working with an experienced Shopify Plus development agency can help ensure accessibility requirements are considered during the development process rather than treated as an afterthought.
BigCommerce Accessibility Considerations
BigCommerce also provides accessibility capabilities through its platform and themes, but merchants still need to review their own storefront implementation.
Custom theme development, content, Page Builder components, third-party applications, forms, and JavaScript can all introduce accessibility problems.
For a BigCommerce store, pay particular attention to:
- Theme customization
- Product content
- Image descriptions
- Navigation
- Forms
- Filters
- Interactive components
- Third-party applications
- Custom JavaScript
The key point is simple:
An ecommerce platform can provide accessible foundations, but your implementation determines the final customer experience.
Should You Use an Accessibility Overlay?
Accessibility overlays are often marketed as a quick solution for ecommerce accessibility.
They typically add a JavaScript widget to a website and claim to automatically detect or address accessibility problems.
However, an overlay should not be considered a replacement for proper accessibility work.
An overlay cannot reliably solve underlying issues such as:
- Incorrect HTML structure
- Poorly implemented navigation
- Incorrect form relationships
- Inaccessible custom components
- Poor content structure
- Incorrect alt text
- Keyboard interaction problems
A better approach is to identify accessibility problems in the actual website and fix them within the design, content, and code.
How to Make an Ecommerce Website More Accessible
A practical ecommerce accessibility process can be broken into four stages.
Step 1: Audit the Website
Start with an accessibility audit.
Automated tools can help identify issues such as:
- Missing alt attributes
- Contrast problems
- Missing form labels
- Some ARIA issues
- Basic HTML problems
But automated testing cannot identify every accessibility barrier.
Manual testing is also important, particularly for:
- Keyboard navigation
- Screen-reader behavior
- Product selection
- Filters
- Cart interactions
- Checkout
- Error handling
- Mobile experiences
The reference guide similarly recommends combining automated scanning with manual keyboard and screen-reader testing because automated tools only identify a portion of accessibility problems.
Step 2: Fix Issues in the Website
Accessibility remediation should happen where the problem actually exists.
Depending on the ecommerce platform, this may involve:
- Theme templates
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- Product data
- Form components
- Navigation
- Images
- Third-party applications
For Shopify, this can include Liquid templates, theme sections, JSON templates, and custom JavaScript.
For BigCommerce, remediation may involve Stencil templates, theme styling, and custom JavaScript.
Step 3: Improve Content Accessibility
Developers aren’t the only people responsible for accessibility.
Content teams should also follow accessible content practices.
For example:
- Write descriptive link text
- Add meaningful alt text
- Use logical headings
- Avoid unnecessary jargon
- Provide captions for videos
- Write clear error messages
- Avoid using color as the only information cue
This is especially important for stores that regularly add products and publish new landing pages.
Step 4: Keep Accessibility Part of Maintenance
Accessibility should not stop after the initial audit.
A new theme update, application, product template, landing page, or custom feature can introduce new accessibility issues.
Consider adding accessibility checks to your:
- Website development process
- QA process
- Content publishing workflow
- Theme update process
- Website redesign process
Regular testing makes accessibility part of normal ecommerce operations rather than a one-time project.
Ecommerce Accessibility Checklist
Use this quick checklist as a starting point:
- Images have meaningful alt text where needed
- Decorative images are appropriately handled
- Text has sufficient color contrast
- Headings follow a logical hierarchy
- Links describe their destination
- Forms have proper labels
- Error messages clearly explain the problem
- Website navigation works with a keyboard
- Focus indicators are visible
- Dropdowns and menus are keyboard accessible
- Product filters are accessible
- Product variants can be selected accessibly
- Videos include captions
- Moving content can be paused
- No content creates unnecessary flashing
- Mobile interactions are accessible
- Third-party apps have been reviewed
- Checkout can be completed using assistive technologies
This checklist is a starting point, not a substitute for a complete accessibility audit.
How CommerceBolt Can Help With Ecommerce Accessibility
Accessibility works best when it is considered during ecommerce development rather than added after launch.
CommerceBolt can help ecommerce businesses review and improve accessibility across their storefront experience, including theme customization, navigation, product pages, responsive experiences, forms, and custom ecommerce functionality.
For businesses operating on Shopify Plus, accessibility can also be incorporated into broader platform development and optimization projects through a dedicated Shopify Plus development agency.
Whether you’re launching a new store, redesigning an existing ecommerce website, migrating platforms, or improving an established storefront, accessibility should be considered alongside performance, usability, SEO, and conversion optimization.
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