How to check your Shopify store for accessibility — and what a checker cannot see

An accessibility checker opens your store, reads the page the way assistive technology does, and lists what will block someone: a button with no name, text too faint to read, a product photo with no description. It is a fast first pass, not a verdict.

What an automated check finds well

• Images with no text description (alt text)
• Text and background colours with too little contrast
• Buttons and links that a screen reader announces as just “button” or “link”
• Form fields with no label — search, newsletter, quantity
• Broken structure: lists with nothing in them, headings out of order, a page with no title

What it misses

Automated checks find roughly half of real accessibility problems — that is true of every tool, free or expensive. A checker can see that an image has a description; it cannot tell whether “IMG_4031” describes a red wool scarf. It cannot tell whether your size picker makes sense when read aloud, or whether a customer using only a keyboard can finish checkout.

Ten minutes by hand

• Unplug the mouse. Use Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter and the arrow keys to find a product, pick a size and reach checkout. Can you always see where you are?
• Zoom to 200%. Does the menu still work? Does any text get cut off?
• Listen once. Turn on VoiceOver (Mac, iPhone) or TalkBack (Android) and open a product page. Does what you hear match what you see?

Why once is not enough on Shopify

A theme update, a new app or a new section can bring back a problem you fixed months ago. A single check tells you about today. A record of weekly checks tells you when something broke and when it was fixed — which is what you need when someone asks what you have been doing about accessibility — and what your accessibility statement should be built on.

Barrier Watch checks your store every week and keeps that record, with dates. How it works.