Shopify Accessibility: A WCAG Checklist for Online Stores

Key takeaways

• The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to many businesses selling online to EU consumers.
• WCAG level AA is the benchmark: EU standards currently reference WCAG 2.1 AA, and WCAG 2.2 is the latest version.
• Most fixes live in the theme: contrast, focus states, labels, headings and keyboard access.
• Accessibility overlay widgets don't fix problems in the underlying code.
• Test with a keyboard and a screen reader, not only automated tools.

Accessibility means people with disabilities can use your store: shoppers who use screen readers, navigate by keyboard, have low vision or colour blindness, or find complex interfaces hard. It also makes the store easier for everyone — and better for SEO.

Why it matters now

The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. It covers ecommerce services offered to consumers in the EU — including businesses based outside the EU — with an exemption for the smallest service businesses and a transition period for some existing services. The practical benchmark is WCAG level AA: the harmonised EU standard currently references WCAG 2.1, and WCAG 2.2 is the latest version. Other countries have their own rules, so check what applies to your markets.

Accessibility checklist for Shopify stores

Images and media

• Every meaningful image has alt text describing it; decorative images have empty alt text.
• Product videos have captions, and nothing important is shown only in an image.
• Nothing flashes or auto-plays with sound.

Colour and text

• Text contrast of at least 4.5:1 against its background (3:1 for large text).
• Colour is never the only way information is shown — out-of-stock states and errors need text too.
• Text can be resized to 200% without breaking the layout.

Keyboard and focus

• Every link, button, menu, filter and swatch works with the keyboard alone.
• A visible focus indicator shows where you are, and sticky headers don't hide it.
• Menus, drawers and pop-ups can be closed with Escape and return focus sensibly.
• Tap and click targets are large enough — WCAG 2.2 sets a 24 by 24 pixel minimum.

Structure and forms

• One H1 per page and a logical heading order.
• Form fields have visible labels, and errors explain how to fix them.
• Buttons and links say what they do — not just “click here”.
• Pages have a language set and a skip-to-content link.

What about accessibility apps?

Overlay widgets that add toolbars to your store don't fix the underlying code, and they can interfere with the assistive technology customers already use. Fixing the theme itself is the reliable route.

How to test

1. Run an automated checker on key templates to catch obvious issues.
2. Navigate a full purchase using only the keyboard.
3. Try the store with a screen reader such as VoiceOver or NVDA.
4. Check colour contrast and zoom to 200%.
5. Fix issues in the theme, then retest after every major change.

We build accessibility into every theme we design. Our UI and UX design and Shopify store development teams can audit and fix an existing store — see also our ecommerce UX principles. Ask for an accessibility review.