I've been working as a contractor for various e-commerce websites and noticed a troubling trend: many store owners are facing lawsuits over accessibility issues, even though they've invested in premium themes that claim to be WCAG compliant. To investigate, I decided to test the top 50 Shopify themes marketed for accessibility and found that 47 of them failed basic checks, such as ensuring proper alt text and keyboard navigation. It's frustrating because these themes cost between $200 and $300 each, and they seem to be misleading customers.
Currently, I'm manually checking themes for my clients before they launch, which is incredibly time-consuming, but it allows me to identify obvious violations. The reality is disheartening because store owners rely on these premium themes and then unexpectedly deal with legal issues. I've had three clients already receive demand letters despite using themes they thought were compliant.
I'm hoping to find an effective way to automate this testing process since the manual checks are exhausting!
2 Answers
Are you testing on Shopify or WordPress? Knowing the platform can help tailor specific tools or solutions for accessibility testing.
I found a tool that can help make your website automatically ADA compliant. You can check it out at [Tony's Trophy Room](https://www.tonystrophyroom.com/) — there's a link at the bottom. The tool is free and might save you some headaches by ensuring alt tags and form descriptions are filled out properly. I tested it even on invisible text, and it worked well! Also, consider using the WAVE Evaluation Tool for Chrome to check accessibility. You can find it on the [Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/wave-evaluation-tool/jbbplnpkjmmeebjpijfedlgcdilocofh). Good luck!
Just a heads up, be cautious with any overlays or toolbars claiming to make your site accessible. They often don't solve the underlying problems and can even make things worse. Check out this resource: https://overlayfactsheet.com/en/ for more info.