Here’s Why You Should Use Shopify Web Accessibility in Your Shopify Store

What if I told you that you are passing up a $13 trillion market opportunity for online shoppers? You most likely are, though. We’ll go into how, why, and what you can do about it in this article.

Less than 30% of people who browse your store will spend their hard-earned money on your store. Even after they’ve expressed interest in your products and services.

You’ll be surprised to learn that by preventing a small audience, you’re losing out on even more revenue.

Most websites, particularly those that sell goods and services online, are inaccessible to people with impairments.

Handicapped people make up 15% of the population and spend $13+ trillion in yearly purchases.

That’s money that they could be spending on your products.

You can fix this problem by using web accessibility apps to make your Shopify store accessible for people with disabilities.

Your Shopify Store Isn’t Fully Accessible – Here’s What to do

A website must follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or 𝐖𝐂𝐀𝐆, as it is usually known, to be made accessible to users with impairments. The most used web accessibility guidelines in the world were developed by the World Wide Web Consortium and is called 𝐖𝐂𝐀𝐆. It’s essential to the functioning of web accessibility rules, including the European Accessibility Act (𝐄𝐀𝐀), the Americans with Disabilities Act (𝐀𝐃𝐀), and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (𝐀𝐎𝐃𝐀).

Your Shopify website must satisfy a lengthy list of technical and design requirements to fully comply with WCAG.

Among the most crucial factors are, but are by no means exclusive to:

•Make sure all of your website’s navigation is done with a keyboard

•Confirming that assistive devices, such as screen readers (e.g., JAWs for Microsoft applications), are completely functional with your website.

•With every image that conveys important information, alt text is supplied.

•All significant video content now has complete and accurate captions. This ensures that your website has enough color contrasts overall, not simply between the text and its background.

•Ensuring complete responsiveness of your website.

•The website is designed with proper header structures used throughout.

The requirements of WCAG are met by less than 4% of websites worldwide.

As eCommerce stores are often complex to edit – the percentage of fully accessible Shopify stores gets even lower.

Here’s Why You Should Not Rely on Shopify’s built-in Accessibility Features

What services does Shopify provide its users to deal with these accessibility problems, then?

Not really, though.

Shopify focuses on its accessibility statement that it will continue to work to make sure that users can utilize its platform to establish accessible online stores. However, a lot of Shopify themes have serious accessibility problems, most notably missing ARIA labels. The latter are HTML roles and characteristics that are essential for screen readers and assist in addressing the accessibility shortcomings of standard HTML code.

Shopify provides developers with several tools to assess the store’s accessibility. Nevertheless, there aren’t any integrated, all-inclusive solutions that deal with accessibility concerns practically and successfully.

What’s the Solution? Use a professional Shopify Accessibility App

Shopify’s abundance of apps is its real strength.

Moreover, you ought to depend on a specific app to guarantee that your Shopify store is completely optimized for search engines, just like you would concerning accessibility.

The app store has a lot of excellent accessibility apps. However, very few are as complete and reliable as accessiBe’s Web Accessibility. AccessWidget, developed by accessiBe, a global leader in web accessibility technology, easily works with any Shopify store.

Then, two things take place:

1. AccessWidget will automatically scan the code of your Shopify store to find accessibility problems. When the problematic code is located, accessWidget automatically makes the required modifications. This addresses the “heavier” aspects of web accessibility, like compatibility with screen readers and keyboard-only navigation.

Your Shopify store is now completely accessible and fully compliant with WCAG standards.

2. Visitors to your website will see an awesome user experience that they may interact with simply clicking on an icon located at the bottom of the screen:

Customers can thereby modify the design and user interface components to suit their requirements. For example, those with vision problems can change color contrasts, choose more readable fonts, and enlarge text.

The accessibility statement is hosted by the user interface, often known as the widget, which is another awesome feature:

The right Shopify accessibility app to help you cop with legal compliance

It’s crucial to remember that making sure your Shopify store is accessible to individuals with disabilities is probably required by law. WCAG is cited by numerous US courts when interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as it relates to websites.

Other legislation that require web accessibility include the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The latter applies to organizations receiving government funding as well as to service providers to these organizations.

The European Union will formally require web accessibility starting in 2025 thanks to the European Accessibility Act (EAA). When this regulation is enforced, WCAG conformance will almost guarantee that your store complies with it.

When you use a web accessibility app such as accessWidget, you can rest assured that your site complies with all these laws.

Final Verdict

The basic Shopify accessibility features shouldn’t deter you from making your store appealing. Shopify lets you browse its app store to locate the ideal accessibility solution. Just the way you would tweak aspects of your store (such as SEO, user-generated content, quizzing, and management).

Use an accessibility app like Web Accessibility by accessiBle that does all the work. From a comprehensive angle to accessibility features, it guarantees your store is accessible. Your clients may be required by law to make sure their businesses are completely inclusive. That’s why you should use the app that abides by the regulations and saves you money in legal matters.