Did you guys use Accessibee? It is the only one that I know that works
most of the time. As far as Shopify or any other big service not being
ADA compliant… It is really not that hard folks if you have
programmers that are competent. Therein lies the rub… We use Woo
Commerce to get our clients stores compliant right out of the gate. That
is pretty much why we will not build on Shopify. As you know, getting
sued is overrated. Best of luck going forward.
Topic summary
Store owners are grappling with ADA and WCAG compliance requirements, with many facing lawsuits and demand letters for non-compliant Shopify sites. The legal exposure is significant—one commenter mentions Denver saw 50 lawsuits in one week with average payouts of $38,000, and estimates suggest up to $15 billion in penalties industry-wide.
Key Challenges:
- Shopify 2.0 themes claim WCAG 2.1 compliance, but the current standard is WCAG 2.3
- Compliance extends beyond themes to all custom content added by store owners
- Automated scans typically catch only 30% of issues and produce inconsistent results
- Professional remediation costs range from $4,000 to $25,000
Solutions Discussed:
- Accessibility overlay apps/widgets (like Accessibe) provide surface-level compliance but don’t guarantee full protection—one user was sued three times despite using such apps
- Proper theme coding with alt tags, aria labels, and semantic HTML is essential
- Continuous automated testing tools (like Squidler.io at €49/month) can monitor compliance
- Some recommend switching to WooCommerce for better out-of-box compliance
Consensus: Store owners bear legal responsibility regardless of platform. Shopify provides minimal guidance or warnings about compliance requirements, leaving merchants vulnerable to lawsuits that specifically target the platform’s users.