Shopify ADA compliance: the lawsuit risk, and what to fix first.

The risk, in numbers

• Shopify stores are the biggest target. EcomBack counted 3,948 ADA website lawsuits in 2025, up 24% on 2024, and 1,318 of them (33%) were against Shopify stores (EcomBack, 2025).
• Small stores get sued too. About 70% of digital accessibility lawsuits are against online stores, and 64% of 2025’s cases named a company with under $25 million in revenue (UsableNet, 2025).
• Settling once doesn’t end it. 1,427 of the 2025 lawsuits were against companies that had been sued over their website before (UsableNet, 2026).
• Where you sell matters. About a third of 2025’s federal cases (1,021) were filed in New York, where judges have been friendlier to plaintiffs suing online-only businesses; California courts have held that the ADA doesn’t cover a business that is online only (Legal 500, 2026).

What Shopify covers, and what it leaves to you

Shopify builds its own pages and checkout to WCAG 2.2 AA, and says merchants have complete control over their theme’s code (Shopify). Its help pages say the choices you make when you change your theme decide whether the store stays accessible, and that following its guidelines doesn’t guarantee it (Shopify).

A theme in the Theme Store needs an average Lighthouse accessibility score of at least 90 across its key pages (Shopify). That’s a floor, not a finish line: Lighthouse runs automated checks, and much of WCAG, such as whether a page works by keyboard alone, needs a person to test it. Every app you install and every image you upload sits on top of the theme too, and EcomBack notes that Shopify stores pick up most of their issues through theme changes and apps.

What the law asks for

• No regulation for a business’s website. The Department of Justice has no regulation setting detailed standards for a private business’s website. Its guidance says the ADA still applies, and points to WCAG as helpful guidance (ADA.gov, 2022).
• A rule for governments, not stores. The 2024 rule that names WCAG 2.1 AA covers state and local governments only, and its deadlines have moved to April 2027 and April 2028 (ADA.gov).
• The level lawsuits ask for. WCAG 2.1 AA is the standard most often requested in litigation (UsableNet). A site that meets WCAG 2.2 also meets 2.1 (W3C), so building to 2.2 AA covers both.
• Selling to the EU. The European Accessibility Act has covered ecommerce since 28 June 2025. Microenterprises are exempt for the services they provide (EUR-Lex).

The failures lawsuits cite

WebAIM tests the home pages of a million sites every year. The six most common failures, and where each one comes from on a Shopify store:

Figures from February 2026 (WebAIM Million, 2026).

Why an overlay doesn’t fix it

An overlay is an app that adds an accessibility menu and tries to repair the page as it loads. It doesn’t change the theme underneath, and the lawsuits haven’t stopped: UsableNet counted 1,416 in 2025 against sites that had one installed (UsableNet, 2026). In April 2025 the FTC ordered accessiBe, the best-known overlay, to pay $1 million and stop claiming its tool makes sites WCAG compliant without the evidence to back it (FTC, 2025).

What to fix first

1. Use the store with the Tab key alone. Go from the home page to a product, add it to the cart and open checkout. You should always see where you are, and every menu, drawer and pop-up should open, and close on Escape.
2. Run Lighthouse or axe on the home page, a collection, a product and the cart, on mobile, and fix everything they flag.
3. Write alt text for every product image that says what the photo shows. A purely decorative image gets none.
4. Check text on photos and badges. Body text needs a contrast of 4.5:1 against what’s behind it, large text 3:1.
5. Go through your apps. A review widget, a chat button or a pop-up can each fail on its own. Test each one with the keyboard, and swap the ones that don’t work for ones that do.
6. Caption your videos, including the one on the home page.

What our theme does about it

A new theme on our core is built to WCAG 2.2 AA: every text color in your brand is measured for contrast, there’s one visible focus ring on everything, dialogs close on Escape and hand focus back, tap targets are at least 48px on phones, and nothing moves for anyone who has asked their device for less motion. Automated accessibility checks run on every page, drawer and pop-up each time the theme changes, and the technical spec says how to check each of these yourself.

What it can’t do is cover what goes on top of it: your images’ alt text, your copy, and your apps. We go through the apps with you before the build, and the theme’s own documentation tells your team, and any AI tool they use, the rules an edit has to keep.

Related: New Shopify theme, Our theme’s accessibility, and how to check it, Shopify speed.