Do accessibility apps from the Shopify App Store make my store compliant?

Overlay-style apps change the page surface, not the theme code that assistive technology reads. Stores running overlays continue to receive ADA lawsuits, and the FTC fined a major overlay vendor $1 million over compliance claims.

Which pages of a Shopify store should be checked first?

The purchase path: home, a collection page, a product page, cart, and checkout, plus contact. Template-level fixes on these pages repeat across every product, so they carry most of the value.

Guide

Shopify accessibility check: what to test, and what is actually yours to fix

Q: Does Shopify make my store accessible automatically?

No. Shopify maintains the platform and checkout, but your theme, apps, product content, and images are yours, and that is where most accessibility failures live. Platform terms make the merchant responsible for the store.

Shopify gives every merchant the same platform, but no two stores test the same: your theme, your apps, and your product content decide whether the store works with a screen reader or a keyboard. Here is how to check a Shopify store honestly, what tends to be broken, and which parts are Shopify's job rather than yours. WooCommerce stores have their own version of this guide; for Wix and Squarespace, most of this page applies unchanged.

What is yours and what is Shopify's

Yours: the theme (contrast, headings, focus indicators, menus), every app that injects UI (popups, reviews, chat, cookie banners), product images and their alt text, and all page content. This is where nearly every real-world finding lives, and legally the store is your responsibility, not the platform's.
Shopify's: the core checkout flow and platform chrome. Shopify has invested in checkout accessibility for years; it is rarely where a store fails, though apps that inject fields into checkout can break it back.

The failures that repeat across stores

Auditing platform storefronts is repetitive in a useful way: bulk-imported product catalogs with empty or filename alt text, discount and newsletter popups that keyboard users cannot dismiss, theme palettes below the 4.5:1 contrast threshold, "quick view" and mega-menu widgets that trap or lose focus, placeholder-only form labels in app-added forms, and decorative theme flourishes announced to screen readers. Template-level fixes repeat too: correct the product template once and every product page inherits it, which is why a scoped check of the purchase path covers most of a store.

How to run the check

One page, one minute, free: put your busiest product page through the free instant check. It runs the machine-checkable layer and says plainly what it cannot see.
The whole store, $149: the automated audit maps every page with evidence and per-finding fix instructions your theme developer can work through, in 24 hours.
When the result must convince someone else: procurement, an EU authority under the European Accessibility Act, or a lawyer: the signed audit ($490, 48-72 hours), reviewed and signed by an IAAP-certified specialist.

Already received a demand letter or lawsuit about your store? Different situation, different page: Shopify store sued under the ADA, and the 72-hour guide first.

Common questions

Does Shopify make my store accessible automatically?

No, and Shopify does not claim to. The platform gives you an accessible checkout and guidance for theme developers; what you build and install on top decides the rest. The store is contractually and legally yours.

Do accessibility apps from the App Store fix this?

Overlay-style apps do not fix theme code, and stores running them keep getting sued. Apps that help are the boring ones: alt-text managers and theme-level fixes made by a developer with a findings list.

My theme is from the official theme store. Is it accessible?

Theme store review has included accessibility criteria for newer themes, which raises the floor and guarantees nothing about your configuration: your colors, your fonts, your installed apps, and your content all modify what shipped. Check the store as configured, not the theme as sold.

We sell into the EU. Does that change the bar?

The technical bar is the same WCAG 2.1 AA; what changes is that the EAA makes it a regulatory requirement with the microenterprise exemption's two conditions, and German merchants add the BFSG Abmahnung risk.

Check your store before someone else does: free one-page check now, or the whole-store automated audit ($149, 24 hours).