ADA website compliance for Shopify stores

Usually, yes. Many US courts treat business websites as covered by Title III of the ADA, even though the Department of Justice has no technical rule for private sites. Settlements and courts use WCAG 2.1 AA as the yardstick. Online stores are the most common target: 3,948 website suits were filed in 2025 (EcomBack).

WCAG (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the technical standard from the W3C, the body that sets web standards. “AA” is the middle of its three levels, and it is the level laws and courts ask for.

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. § 12182) bars discrimination on the basis of disability in the goods and services of any “place of public accommodation.” It was written in 1990 with physical places in mind, and it says nothing about websites.

The Justice Department has never issued a technical web rule for private businesses. Its guidance of March 18, 2022 says businesses must make what they offer online accessible, gives them flexibility in how, and calls WCAG and the federal Section 508 standards “helpful guidance.” The guidance is still online. Seyfarth Shaw, a law firm that tracks these cases, expects no new Title III rules in 2026.

Online-only stores

Federal appeals courts are split. The 1st and 7th Circuits do not require a physical place. The 9th Circuit (Robles v. Domino's Pizza, 2019) requires a link between the website and a physical location. Most federal judges in New York have treated websites as covered, though the 2nd Circuit itself has not decided. The Supreme Court has not answered the question.

What a plaintiff can win

Under federal Title III a private plaintiff can get a court order to fix the site, plus lawyer's fees. There are no money damages. That is why many suits add a state law that does pay damages, such as California's Unruh Act. The Justice Department can also seek civil penalties of up to $118,225 for a first violation and $236,451 for later ones (28 CFR 36.504, 2025 levels, not changed in 2026).

The ADA names no version, so the answer comes from practice. Settlements and consent decrees ask for WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and some now point to 2.2. In the Fashion Nova class settlement, the website changes were to reach “substantial conformance with WCAG 2.1.”

The clearest federal signal is the Justice Department's 2024 rule for state and local governments (Title II), which adopted WCAG 2.1 AA. An April 20, 2026 rule moved its deadlines to April 26, 2027 and April 26, 2028 but kept the standard. That rule does not apply to stores, but it shows what the government treats as the bar.

Yes. A customer who cannot use your store can sue under Title III, and law firms file thousands of these suits every year. Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 in federal court in 2025, up 27% on 2024 (March 25, 2026). Being small or online only does not stop a suit from being filed.

Trackers count differently, so their totals differ and should never be added together. Seyfarth counts federal court only. EcomBack uses its own method and breaks out platforms. UsableNet, which adds state courts, found that 69% of digital accessibility suits in the first half of 2025 were against e-commerce sites (August 4, 2025).

In federal court in 2025, New York had 1,021 website suits, Florida 961 and Illinois 585. California had only 4, because those claims go to state court under the Unruh Act (Seyfarth Shaw, March 25, 2026).

A few firms file most of these suits. EcomBack found the top 16 firms filed 90.35% of 2025 cases. Volume depends on finding many similar targets quickly, and Shopify stores share themes, apps and page layouts, so the same barrier often shows up on thousands of stores.

Complaints usually describe a screen reader user who tried to buy something and could not. (A screen reader is software that reads the page aloud for people who are blind.) In Jones v. Moscot (S.D.N.Y., 2026), the claims were missing alt text, hidden elements, pop-ups that were not announced, unclear labels, mouse-only functions and broken links. On Shopify stores the usual sources are:

• product images with no alt text (a short description of an image for people who cannot see it)
• variant pickers and quantity fields with no label
• icon-only buttons, such as the cart, close and carousel arrows
• newsletter and age-check pop-ups that trap keyboard focus
• text with too little contrast
• review, chat and upsell apps added on top of the theme

Seyfarth also expects more people to file without a lawyer, using AI tools, which adds suits that do not depend on plaintiff firms (March 4, 2026).

No scanner can tell you for certain, and there is no official ADA certificate. Run an automated scan to find the common problems, then test the buying path by hand with only a keyboard and with a screen reader. Compare what you find against WCAG 2.1 AA or 2.2 AA.

What makes a website not accessible

The Justice Department's 2022 guidance lists the common barriers: poor colour contrast, colour used alone to show meaning, missing alt text, missing captions on video, form fields without labels, and controls that only work with a mouse. Those are a good first list to check.

A 20-minute check you can do today

1. Run a page through our free accessibility checker to catch the common problems.
2. Open your store and put the mouse away. Press Tab to move through the home page, a product page and the cart. You should always see where you are, and you should be able to add a product to the cart and reach checkout.
3. Turn on the screen reader built into your computer or phone (VoiceOver on Mac and iPhone, Narrator on Windows, TalkBack on Android). Listen to a product page. Buttons should say what they do, and images should be described.
4. Check a few colour pairs from your theme with our contrast checker.
5. Open any pop-up and try to close it with the keyboard alone.

Fix the real barriers on the pages a shopper needs to buy, starting with product images, buttons, form fields and pop-ups. Keep a dated record of each fix. Publish an accessibility statement with a way to reach you. Test again after every theme change or new app.

Fix real barriers, starting with the purchase path

Work through the pages a shopper needs to buy: home, a collection, a product, the cart and the way into checkout. In your Shopify admin, open a product, select each image and fill in its alt text. In Online Store, Themes, Customize, check your colour settings and remove pop-ups you do not need.

Keep dated records

Save each scan, each fix and who approved it. A record like that is what helped end the Moscot case, and it is what the new Utah and Missouri laws look for.

Publish a statement with a way to reach you

An accessibility statement should say what you have done, what you know is not fixed yet, and how a customer can get help or order another way, by email or phone. Our statement generator drafts one for you.

Check again after changes

A new theme, a theme update or a new app can bring back old problems. Repeat the keyboard and screen reader check each time, and ask app vendors to fix problems in their part of the page.

It depends on your theme, your apps and how many products you have. A small store can start with free tools and its own time. Larger fixes need a developer or an app. There is no reliable public price list, so be wary of anyone quoting a fixed price before looking at your store.

Inclusely's prices are planned launch pricing in US dollars, billed through Shopify. See pricing. An overlay widget is the one option we do not suggest, for the reasons below.

State laws can add money damages, and two states now reward stores that fix problems quickly after notice.

New York shows how filings move rather than stop. Federal website suits there fell from 2,560 in 2022 to 1,021 in 2025, and Seyfarth Shaw reports plaintiffs shifting to state courts (March 25, 2026).

Many claims start with a letter from a law firm rather than a lawsuit. It usually says a person with a disability could not use your store, lists barriers, and asks you to fix the site and pay to settle. In California, since January 1, 2023, lawyers must send copies of certain website accessibility demand letters and complaints to the state's Commission on Disability Access (Civil Code § 55.32).

Do not ignore a letter, and do not pay or reply before speaking with a lawyer who handles ADA defence. A settlement binds only that one plaintiff, so a store that pays without fixing anything can receive the next letter. Our guide to ADA demand letters sets out the first steps, what to keep and how to spot a scam.

Records matter. In Jones v. Moscot, reported April 1, 2026, a federal judge in New York dismissed a website suit as moot after the store filed a declaration, a third-party audit report and a plan for ongoing testing, and the plaintiff offered nothing in reply.

An overlay is a script that adds an accessibility toolbar or tries to repair a page in the shopper's browser. It does not change the store underneath. EcomBack found that 983 of the 3,948 ADA website suits in 2025 (24.90%) were against sites that already had an accessibility widget installed.

On April 22, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission approved a final order against accessiBe, an overlay maker. The company must pay $1 million, and for 20 years it may not claim its automated products can make any website WCAG compliant, or keep one compliant as content changes, without competent and reliable evidence.

The Justice Department said much the same in April 2026: automated tools “cannot reliably remediate web content” without human review.

Shopify publishes accessibility conformance reports for its products. The checkout report, dated March 2026, was tested against WCAG 2.2 A and AA and lists 13 criteria as “partially supports” and none as “does not support.” No app can change checkout code, so checkout is mostly Shopify's part. Everything shoppers see before checkout is yours.