A WAVE accessibility test shows that I have 16 broken ARIA references which impact ADA or WCAG compliance. Has Shopify checked that Dawn is WCAG compliant?
I have verified that my color contrast is excellent (all schemes pass WCAG), and I have proper alt text on product images. I am not a developer and do not know how to fix broken ARIA references.
Of course they did.
They actually had(have) an accessibility expert working on the theme.
Do you have test reports to share – do not expect others to re-run the test.
Also, do you have any apps installed/enabled?
You may want to run the test against the demo store at https://theme-dawn-demo.myshopify.com/ to avoid apps interference.
- I’m sharing here because the AI said to share here, and specifically what to share. If there is a better way to get help so I can prevent a lawsuit, I’m all ears. I’m just an artist; I don’t know anything about coding or I wouldn’t need Shopify.
- If there is a way to download from WAVE, I haven’t figured it out yet. As far as I can see, you just enter the URL on their checker.
- I have apps enabled.
- When I run WAVE against the demo, yes, it shows ARIA errors, contrast errors, etc.
Ok, I looked at it. It’s not that simple 
The reported errors themselves do not mean that your page is not ARIA-compliant.
For example – those “broken ARIA reference” errors.
For the demo store they are on these elements (+ there is another product card link down the page):
We’re looking at the lower row of the product cards here and affected elements are product title links, like “Helix”, “Bo Ivy”, etc.
Theme sets the aria-labelled-by property on those links to indicate that these links are described/labelled by 2 elements contents:
- Title element itself; and
- Badges on this product card
Say, for “Mini Naomi Bag” (right top), the description would be “Mini Naomi Bag, Sale” – combined from title and badge. No error reported.
For the “Studio Bag” it would be “Studio Bag, Sold out”.
But for “Helix” description would be simply “Helix”, because it has no badge.
However, there still is a reference to the possible badge element which is not output for this product, so error is reported.
So, yes, the reference is broken.
This is not a problem though, since the element is still described.
Can this be addressed in the theme code – yes. Does it need to be addressed – not really.
For info – this was reported and the verdict was that no fix is necessary:
Each product card has 2 Title link elements (one is hidden if there is a product image), so 4 product cards produce 8 errors.
If your store is https://littlehavenartstudio.com/, then you have 8 product cards on the home page without badges. Same thing as above.
I’ve asked about apps because they can add elements to the page and these elements may have their own accessibility problems.
Hope above writeup helps and brings some relief.
if my post is helpful, please like it ♡ and mark as a solution -- this will help others find it
Yes, that is my store; thank you for looking it up! I do have a few apps added, yes, like smile.io and judge.me. I’m just not sure how to identify any issues they may cause.
If I am understanding you correctly, you are saying that my 8 product cards are producing the 16 ARIA errors, but that it technically isn’t an issue since the element is still described? Is that accurate?
Not everything that fails a quote “audit” unquote is of any merit.
Your following the guidance of a nonsense generator as if it is actual law burning your own time and others.
While completely lacking any expertise to be able to tell nonsense from truth.
Most ACA “lawsuits” are just scare trolls.
Unless you have serious money to burn you’d be better of talking to an actual lawyer than spending even one more minute. READ: lawyers make you money invest your time smarter.
Your following the guidance of a nonsense generator as if it is actual law burning your own time and others.
While completely lacking any expertise to be able to tell nonsense from truth.
Well, that is what happens when you have time but not money. And the “nonsense generator” you refer to is what Shopify created under the guise of offering customer service. I use the tools I have available. I have no idea why I am being mocked for using what Shopify offers. If it sucks, it’s their fault.
Most ACA “lawsuits” are just scare trolls.
Please tell that to the thousands that have been sued each year.
Unless you have serious money to burn you’d be better of talking to an actual lawyer than spending even one more minute. READ: lawyers make you money invest your time smarter.
When my time-to-money ratio reverses, I’ll be sure to do that. Thanks for the financial advice.
Yesish – I am saying that the WAVE tool lists them as Errors when in this case they are not.
I am not a lawyer, but:
Generally, the law requires your site to be accessible, not “fully conform to WAVE tool requirements”.
Is your site accessible? I’d say yes, but I am not a certifying authority.
And this would be a paid service with a lot of caveats listed.
You may refer to Accessibility IMpact (AIM) (will they give you a guarantee – of course not).
Can someone sue you on the basis of the Wave tool report? Of course they can. Refer to the scare trolls reference above.
Would you need a lawyer in that case? Of course you will. (will they give you a guarantee – of course not).
Can you get a guarantee here in the forum for free – very much doubt it.
The theme does not need to be perfect, even a default one. And by configuring, you can easily break some rules, miss a link, colors contrast issue, then the apps you use can have issues of their own. And not all errors are equal.
And both @PaulNewton and @tim_tairli are trying to give you really good advice, however that sounds to you.
I would like to share a case from a few years back. A client went to court as a settlement; they had to maintain a score above 85 on the tool/service
Platform & Services Overview | Level Access, and initially, it was around 70, but we got it to 95. And in the following months, they had some layout/content changes, and the score would sometimes drop below 85. But most things were fixed fast, and after a time, they had a dedicated person from their company who followed suggestions from LevelAccess and made fixes. And for the score, there were different levels of issues; critical ones have some good influence on the score, but small ones can stack and do not make a big change. And that may be an expensive service to you, but it depends on a view. And yeah, you can spend your time learninga bit of coding, just to follow the suggestion. And backup/test/apply changes and follow the score.
So, as I said, it does not have to be perfect.
Shopify has stated that Dawn is built to be WCAG compliant, specifically WCAG 2.1 AA, but that does not mean automated tools like WAVE will come back clean. Those tools are very aggressive and they flag things that are technically valid in context but look broken in isolation. From an actual ADA and WCAG standpoint, that’s usually considered a false positive, as long as the element does exist when the component is active and screen readers can still understand the relationship.
Thank you, Tim. Btw, I just saw you are from S.A. My hubby is Aussie. Small world! Thank you for the response.
This is what I’m telling you though that is going at this type of problem backwards.
When your worried about accessibility lawsuits spending money on a lawyer MAKES you money.
Do the rubric:
You DIY accessibility fixes yet still miss something , result: SUED.
You hire a company to fix accessibility issues yet still miss something, result: SUED.
Or in both the above cases instead of missing something nothing is missed , result: SUED.
Lawsuit trolls do not care if you think you’ve gotten it perfect , or some tools indicators are all green.
They will come at you and cost money you don’t have if your not already well defended they are either gonna pressure you or in a rush you’ll waste even more money getting help at the last possible moment.
Especially after you’ve painted a target on yourself by way of demonstrating awareness of non-compliance being a legal issue.
Skip to the end part and get defense if there’s even the slightest whiff of possible moves against you.
Good Luck.