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Accessibility Guide

Why Accessibility is Essential

Creating an accessible Shopify store is more than just an ethical choice—it’s a powerful way to enhance user experience, reach a broader audience, and strengthen your brand. An accessible store ensures that everyone, including people with disabilities, can navigate and interact with your website seamlessly.

  • Expand Your Customer Base – Over a billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. By making your store accessible, you open your business to a significant portion of the market that might otherwise face barriers.

  • Enhance User Experience – Simple improvements like clear navigation, readable fonts, and keyboard-friendly design make your store easier to use for all visitors, not just those with disabilities.

  • Improve SEO and Visibility – Many accessibility best practices, such as using proper heading structures and alt text for images, align with SEO guidelines, helping your site rank higher in search results.

  • Ensure Legal Compliance – Regulations like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) set standards for digital accessibility, helping businesses avoid legal risks.

  • Build a Positive Brand Reputation – A commitment to inclusivity reflects well on your brand, fostering trust, loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth among your customers.

By implementing accessibility best practices, you create a welcoming, user-friendly shopping experience that benefits everyone—leading to increased engagement, higher conversion rates, and a more inclusive online community.

How to Improve Accessibility

Ensuring your Shopify store is accessible enhances user experience and broadens your customer base. Here are concise guidelines to improve accessibility:

Text Accessibility

When you edit and select the colors for your online store, make sure that all of your text is accessible to customers who are colorblind or otherwise visually impaired.

  • Color Contrast: Ensure a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for larger text against backgrounds.
  • Text Size and Alignment: Use a minimum font size of 16 px and avoid justified text to maintain consistent spacing.

Headings

When adding headings to your theme using the rich text editor or selecting an HTML tag in section settings, it's important to maintain a sequential order (H1–H6). Headings help assistive technologies convey the structure of the page content.

The option to select an HTML tag is available in multiple sections and blocks.

Alternative Text for Images

Providing descriptive alternative (alt) text for all images improves accessibility and helps screen reader users understand visual content.

How to Add Alternative Text to an Image

Product Images
  1. Navigate to the Products section in your Shopify admin.
  2. Select a specific product.
  3. Click on the product media to find the option to add alternative text.
Images in Sections and Blocks
  1. Open the Theme Editor.
  2. Select an image in a section or block.
  3. Click Edit Image and enter descriptive alternative text.
Files in Content > Files
  1. Navigate to Content > Files in your Shopify admin.
  2. Find the image you want to update.
  3. Add or edit the alternative text.

For detailed guidance, refer to Shopify's accessibility documentation.